Does Your CRM System Put Customers First? (Part II)

Picking up from yesterday's post...

Back at the sales counter, the clerk has already had to create a new customer record for me, simply to make sure that my new refrigerator does not end up delivered to an address I have not lived at in seven years. Next, she must keystroke a set of byzantine codes to reference my order, and to coax the system into delivering on a Thursday. After a lot of data entry, we have a deal. She tells me to expect a call the night before delivery to confirm my drop-off window.

All is well, until about five days before delivery, when the clerk calls to ask how I like my new fridge. I remind her that my delivery isn't until Thursday. She tells me she knows that's what the original delivery date was set for, but she sees that I picked the item up from the loading dock over the weekend.

Uh, no.

As she runs off to investigate, I start to wonder if I'm going to become one of those statistics -- folks who don't receive their appliances without stalking a company CEO like Michael Moore. When the clerk returns to the phone, she tells me that she assumed that I had picked up the item, since there's no way her system tells her who picked up or signed for delivery. (That sounds like a pretty important piece of information lacking from a CRM system to me.)

Fortunately, all is well. The delivery drivers loaded my item onto their truck a day early to avoid potential damage. A large snowstorm threatened the area, and they wanted to make sure they were ready to roll. They just had no way of contacting me, or even contacting my clerk. They arrived during the drop-off window and had my new fridge up and running within ten minutes.

Not bad, overall. But certainly not the story their marketing folks want me to be telling. I would imagine that they would prefer I focus my energy describing the great price I got on a high quality appliance. Instead, I'm wondering what could have gone better about the way the CRM system amplified confusion about my order. Thankfully, many successful companies are looking at the customer experience and reviewing how new CRM systems can improve relationships instead of get in the way.

Next week, I'll follow up with some stories about companies that saw similar things happen to their customers, and what they decided to do about it.