Bloghound

Here’s an example of how good brands taint their reputations by not thinking through the customer buying experience.

For a post-Christmas gift I treated myself to a new Miele vacuum cleaner, which I LOVE — and this from someone who hates housework. But the process of buying this beautiful piece of German engineering was a truly frustrating experience.

After reading many reviews I went onto the Miele site and placed my order. The site was slow in loading, but I tried to overlook that. Real frustration set in after I filled out all the shipping, billing and credit card info and the Miele site kept giving me an error message. So I kept going back to the payment part of the process to try again. I then called the Miele customer service number but after waiting 45 minutes, hung up. Then I got an email message confirming my order and panicked, thinking maybe it had processed four or five orders. I called customer service again. No response. Now I’m hating Miele despite the glowing product reviews and decide to call it a day and try to resolve the issue the next morning.

The next morning before 10 a.m. UPS delivers my new vacuum cleaner. I was stunned (and thrilled) that the delivery came in less than 24 hours. And that I only received one vacuum.

Would I recommend a Miele? Yes and no. The product is amazing, but buying it was a challenge.

James Carville coined a mantra for Bill Clinton’s during his fist presidential campaign, “It’s the economy, stupid.” For marketers, let’s remember, “It’s the customer experience.”

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