Many of you know that I am passionate about how important customer-facing interactions are to an organization’s success.

It’s important to remember that customer-facing interactions are not just with front-line employees–sometimes they are with “things” such as websites, email systems or IVR phone systems. And sometimes some of the most negative customer experiences are with company-issued policies and procedures.

Here’s an example of a non-customer friendly customer-facing process. Last week I got a letter from Arrowhead, my home delivery bottled water company, informing me that they “take great pride in providing you with superior products and services and strive to continually improve our customers (sic) experience.”

The letter notes they are about to change my water delivery from every 3 weeks to once a month, which means that the number of bottles they deliver may increase (what a coincidence) “to ensure that you have enough water to accomodate your new delivery schedule.” Furthermore, if my account is set up for automatic recurring charges to a bank account or credit card, the monthly recurring payment date may need to be moved as well (why, I’m not sure–if they’re already billing once a month, what’s the difference?).

Wait a minute–I thought they were looking to improve my experience? I didn’t ask for my schedule to be changed. I don’t particularly like the fact that I now have to keep more of those big unwieldy 5 gallon water bottles around the house so that I don’t run out of water. Why is this change good for me, the customer?

Ah…when I read closer, I find  the real reason for this rigamarole: “The change is being made specifically to improve our operational efficiency.” So this isn’t really to improve my customer experience. In fact, if they asked me, I’d probably tell them that the best way to improve my experience is not to make me pay in advance and store their inventory long before it’s needed, but to have deliveries occur more often so that this is one less thing I have to worry or think about. In fact, I used to get deliveries every 2 weeks, then every 3, now once a month. You can see where this is going–in a couple of years I expect I will get one annual delivery of bottled water (whether I need it or not). 

Why is it that companies push all kinds of changes, policies and procedures through to us, the customer, under the premise that they are doing us a favor? What were they thinking? Did anybody out here ever ask what the customer really wants?

And, if it’s really, really necessary to make a change for the company’s sake, not mine, please, please, please DON’T pretend that this is a customer-centered change. Tell me what’s going on and be upfront about it. Customers will work with you if they know where you’re coming from, but work with us,

Glass of water anyone? I’ve got a few extra bottles floating around….