WebPeel - Customer Loyalty and Online User Experience

Free Shipping without Free Handling Doesn't Make Customers Feel Good

My wife wanted a hard-to-find item for her SUV this winter and so I found a company called ShurTrax.com that offered what she was looking for. There on the main site in big letters it said Free Shipping - great, because I am spoiled and buy almost nothing that requires a shipping fee especially 1-3 weeks before Christmas. Then during the checkout process  I get hit with the "bait and switch" - free shipping under $99 in the 48 states, but there is a handling fee. I have not seen this term in a very long time.

While technically there is a difference between a shipping fee and a handling fee, the average customer doesn't care. What the customer does care about is if additional money is coming out of their pocket above and beyond the list price. Most customers are accepting the fact of having to pay taxes online now and if you have to pay for shipping, then fine, but just call it that. Saying free shipping then having to pay for handling is just an insult. Notice how on the confirmation email, the $12.99 fee is listed as a shipping fee, not "handling" or even "shipping and handling."

 

Furthermore, now that my order has apparently shipped, they give no UPS tracking number on the email confirmation which is almost standard for many ecommerce sites. My hunch is that the product will be as good as advertised when it gets here. Unfortunately, this company is probably like many traditional retailers who have great products that deserve a better online sales, marketing and fulfillment strategy.

 

Jeep is Off to a Good Start with Online Survey

So I have been getting a ton of surveys and requests for feedback from Chrysler on my new Jeep. Honestly, I love it. Whether they do something with the feedback or not is another story, but the fact that they are being so proactive shows how much things have changed from 11 years ago, when I bought my last car. Maybe I got one survey and that was it. From the dealership alone, I have received several thank you letters and a coupon. And now Chrysler has sent a very comprehensive online survey that asks you to provide feedback on all aspects of the car from the seating, to the engine and transmission, etc.

I think one area that was especially effective in the online survey was that it offered links to various support articles based on how you rated certain features. This is a great way to be proactive early on - instead of waiting for the customer to get the issue addressed at their first service appointment they offer possible solutions right when you are describing the problem and it's fresh in your mind. Now I will give them negative points for some of the content on the solutions site - it just wasn't well built out, but since the car is so new, hopefully that will change. One thing I mentioned in my survey was that the owner's manual was terrible, so I was expecting a lot better online. For example, the procedure for using QUADRA-TRAC involved using a combination of SELEC-TERRAIN, and neutral and keeping your speed below 3mph to make it easier for the gears to mesh. This is my first 4WD vehicle so after reading that section a few times, I gave up. Now posting an online video showing someone doing these procedures would solve my problem and start to bring customers like me back to the Jeep site.

 

2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee Review First 30 Days

While this blog entry is not necessarily about web design and customer service it speaks to product quality which is why I post it here. At the end of the day, no matter how good your site or customer service reps are, if your product sucks, then you might as well just hang it up and send the customer reps home. 

After months of test driving everything from sedans to sport wagons to crossovers, I finally landed on a 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee. To set some context around my review, it is important to mention a few things. My "regular" job entails quality testing for a large software company; my background is in engineering, so I am very, very big (read "anal") on details. I am fairly short and traded in an American sports car (11 years old) for the new Grand Cherokee Laredo 4x4 with the Off-Road Adventure I Package. 

I never thought I would buy another American car again and it's not because I had much problems with my Mustang. In all honesty the Mustang did right by me and I never had any major problems with her up until the 11th year (125K miles). Thank you Ford, for building such a reliable car contrary to many people's opinions. Nonetheless, after 10+ years of climbing the corporate ladder I wanted something that spoke to the hard work I have put in over the years. So BMW, Audi, and Volvo were my first stops. Since this is a review about the GC I won't bore you with the blow by blow synopsis of all the other vehicles. However, the easiest way to sum it up was this - those cars cost way too much money for the amount of space you were getting behind the driver's seat. I loved the performance of the A4 Avant, but it was just too small to really carry anything from Home Depot. The Volvo XC60 was beautifully fast, but my 5 year old son's knees almost touched the back of the front passenger seat. 

If you're saying, why was I comparing all these types of vehicles which are really apples and oranges, the answer is simple - remember I was coming from a Mustang. I like SUVs for their hauling and snow capabilities, but I wanted something fast. As soon as you add the fast criteria this leaves you with only a few choices like the Infiniti FX, the Porsche Cayenne, etc. Still out of my range I expanded my search into the sport wagons which would give me AWD but with some speed. At the end of the day I realized that my car did not exist: something with the towing power of a Dodge Ram, the seating capacity of a Chevy Suburban, the safety of a Volvo, the handling and speed of a BMW M3, oh and by the way, the ability to park in the numerous compact parking spaces in Seattle. 

My runner up vehicles were the Toyota Highlander which had a good mix of all the criteria above and the Mazda CX-9. In the end I really wanted 3rd row seating, but the Grand Cherokee's looks and just awesome manliness won out. Besides, I just have to be different, I didn't want to have the 8th Toyota Highlander in the lot at work. And yes, those Jeep commercials kick ass; marketing actually does work. So here's the feedback for better and worse. 

Overall Impression 

I love this car. It has no nonsense looks and the V8 helps back that up. The V6 engine I drove several times and is more than adequate, but I am only 5' 6'' and I needed to over compensate somehow so I went with the bigger engine. Space is very comfortable for the family; it's wider girth than past models gives plenty of room for 3 passengers in the second row. The doors also swing wide allowing easy entry into the vehicle - my wife is short too so she is not as impressed with the wide doors since she practically has to hang out the car to grab the door if she lets it open too wide. The all important ride is very sturdy and confidence inspiring, my wife was surprised how luxurious the drive felt - firm where it needed to be and soft enough to still drink her hot latte without spilling it.  And most important, but yet to be tested is the sick off-road handling abilities which will allow me to quickly forget the past 2 winters where I was left stranded on the road in my rear-wheel drive Mustang. So let's get to the details: 

Detailed Highlights 

The looks are gorgeous and the back does favor a BMW X5 whether people want to admit it or not. I am most amazed about the steering ability, you can tell this is a heavy vehicle, it feels solid and is necessary if you're going to tow the maximum 7,000 lbs. but the turning radius feels very tight which is great for backing out of spaces at my son's daycare when a hundred kids are running around in the parking lot at 3pm (that rearview camera helps too). The acceleration is quick with the V8, but you have to be deliberate in asking for it. I am pretty sensitive to speed changes and in a matter of days you can tell when the MDS is kicking in to save fuel versus when all 8 cylinders are going full bore. Going uphill you will feel the slightest grunt of all cylinders kicking in; likewise, going downhill, you will get the slightest hint of the cylinders shutting off as the extra power is not needed. Also, I am a little bias to the gear changes, because prior to buying this vehicle I was driving my wife's Nissan Murano SL with the CVT. That thing just books from 0 to 60 with no jerk whatsoever between gears.  The cup holders in the GC's door and in the center console are all well placed and very usable.  I don't have the navigation in my ride, but the touch screen display for managing the radio and hard drive is awesome. The screen is responsive and easy to read; I was very pleased with this option. Likewise the sunroof is nice to have, but not super critical - 2 days after I picked up my vehicle a crow decided to do "the businesses" right on the sunroof, so I got to look at white poop through the glass for a few days.  The remote start is now my favorite feature considering I live in a colder climate. It has worked reliably so far, but it's only October. Visibility out the back is good for an SUV that has fairly big pillars.  The back seats sit fairly deep; my son could barely be seen from outside the car even when he is in his car seat - I guess HOV "heros" will be calling my plates in soon for violating the HOV lane. 

Detailed Lowlights 

With a vehicle this robust, there is bound to be some negatives with the fuel economy. I work less than 8 miles to work, so life is not that bad; but if I was still in Texas driving 20+ miles one way, then gas would be a killer in this vehicle. My intent is to keep this car until the wheels fall off and hopefully by the time that happens, we will all be riding on fuel cells (smile). My second gripe is that while the vehicle is very sturdy, the back flip-glass rattles ever so slightly on certain bumps. This annoys the hell out of me, because it reminds me of an old Kia Sportage we had that did the same thing. Here is where my fanaticism comes out - the tolerances on the flip glass just doesn't seem up to par on many SUVs including this one. Personally, I wish the glass was just set into the frame without the flip capability, I just already know I'll be going to the dealer at some point for them to adjust the glass so that it doesn't rattle. The dashboard is nice, but the gauges are completely useless for me - this could be because I am 5' 6". The turn signal indicators cannot be seen and the arc of the steering wheel is right over the speedometer at the 50-70 mph markings so I have no idea how fast I am going. Luckily there is a digital vehicle information panel right in the middle (between the tach and the speedo) that you can set to show MPH, so I just use that to know how fast I am going.  Speaking on height (this is the last time I mention it, I promise), getting out and in of this thing is a little bit of a chore for the vertically challenged, but still manageable and worth it to have the added ground clearance. I scrapped the bottom my wife's AWD Kia last winter on some rock solid ice because our roads in Redmond, WA were not plowed for weeks. This is a non issue in the GC. The seats are comfortable but the leather is not going to be to the same standard as the Volvo and Audis that we test drove. 

Well, all in all, I am happy with my new ride and look forward to some longer trips. I'll post how the car holds up over the miles. I would be remiss in not including the commercial, so here it is...

 

Personalized Emails Should Be Personal

So today’s lovely gem comes courtesy of my local Ford dealership. Let me say that first off, I typically don’t expect much from car dealerships, especially since I’ve never owned a foreign luxury car, where they wash it for free with every service and give you a courtesy vehicle if it’s going to be in the shop awhile. The most courtesy I have ever received is a finger pointed in the direction of the nearest Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

So with that being said, I have to give some kudos to my local Ford dealership for attempting to reach out to me over the Net to ask if I was satisfied with my service. Email alerts and reminders are a great way to stay connected to your customers in between regular visits and emergencies. When you have a few customers it is rather easy to actually custom tailor the message to the individual, but any substantial database of contacts often requires using a software package to do a mail merge of names/addresses to the semi-custom message. There are a lot of opinions on how far one should go to make it appear that an email or letter was hand-written. I even read one bad article where it was suggested to add spelling mistakes on purpose so that the recipient would assume it was not done by a computer. While I certainly don’t advocate that method, if you’re going to use a semi-automated system to insert my name, you should also use that same system to insert the name of the writer, to at least make it appear that it came from a human. Well, apparently, this Ford dealership has a telephone that can also send emails. If I had the time, I would call the number and ask the person on the other end, “Can I speak to XXX-XXX-XXXX”

These guys get an A for “effort,” but a B- on the execution. In the end, the work they did on my car was good, so I can’t complain too much. At the end of the day, if you’re brick-and-mortar, “I’d rather have great service offline and a crappy website, than a high gloss web presence with no real substance when you engage with the company in person.” But, we are in 2009, it is not THAT hard to have both.

I Got My Brochure from Nissan, But Guess What

Okay, folks. You just can't make this stuff up - In my original post, where I talked about going on Nissan's site to request a brochure on one of their SUVs, I was either expecting to not get the brochure at all or at least get it eventually when the USPS figured out the apartment number.

So today, I went to the mailbox and to my great surprise there was my shiny new brochure for their 2009 Pathfinder. The address was indeed wrong, but not due to a missing apartment number. No ladies and gentlemen, an apartment number was listed that did not even match my number. Instead of Unit P1114, the unit number listed was M1096. Go figure. Note, I did request a brochure for the Nissan Xterra as well. Who wants to bet that the person in M1096 has my other brochure? 

Multiple Address Fields on Web Based Forms

Okay, so if you want to know one of my biggest pet peeves I see on the Web it’s got to be web forms that provide for multiple address lines that don’t actually capture all the information entered by the user. This week the culprit is Nissan USA (http://www.nissanusa.com). I think their cars are a great value for the money and their web site is very nice too, but I my joy turned to disappointment as I perused their web site between Christmas and New Year’s.

I, like most guys, like to visit numerous car sites every few months to look at cars I can’t afford. This masochistic ritual has special meaning during the holidays as you can sometimes try to convince yourself that auto dealers really are “giving away” cars between Christmas and New Years.

While I didn’t find the savings I was looking for, I decided to order a brochure online (free of charge). A nice touch that Nissan has added was the ability to download an e-brochure immediately, request one by mail, or get both (electronic and hardcopy) - kudos to them for offering such flexibility.

My appreciation of their site was further heightened when it came time to complete my registration – they not only offered two address fields, but also a separate field for an apartment number. One could argue that only a second address field or apartment field was needed, but not both; however, I was glad they took the time to realize not everyone lives in a house. We live in a town home that does have a unit number (a letter with 4-digit number), so I opted for completing “address field 1” and the apartment number text field.

My glee quickly turned to dismay when I received a confirmation page that brochures would be sent to an address that left off the apartment number.

So here is the problem from a user standpoint: 1) I can assume their database guys got it right and captured the apartment field and this will be available to their fulfillment personnel. That’s ideal, but still leaves the user wondering if they’ll get their brochures; or 2) Their database didn’t capture my apartment number and my brochures will sit in the US Postal Service abyss where I must hope the mailman matches up my name with the rest of the mail coming to my unit (I am about 50:50 when this happens, he’s a nice guy, but I can’t expect him to always take the time to do this). There is actually a worst case, my confirmation page shows the full correct address, but fulfillment gets a partial address.

Either way the point here is that fulfillment, the web designers, and the database guys need to do thorough testing on workflows such as this; otherwise, the user is left wondering, “Did they get it right.”

I’ll let you know if I get my brochures ;-)