Whether it's snacks, makeup, razors or pet food, it seems you can now get a subscription box of just about anything. I recently saw an advertisement for a craft beer subscription service offering a box of 8 craft beers for free. All I needed to pay for was the postage and packaging. This was a promotion I couldn't refuse! 

During the sign-up process, it was stated that you were signing up for a monthly subscription, but you could 'cancel or pause' at any time. I went ahead and ordered my free box. The box arrived promptly, and I was very impressed with the quality of the beers inside.

I decided, however, that I wouldn't want my subscription to continue straight away but would consider ordering a box in the future. I went to pause my subscription but found you could only 'skip' the next month's box. I decided it would be better to cancel the subscription for now. I could always start it again the future. However, there was no option to cancel, you had to contact them directly. I tried calling but ended up on hold for long enough for me to give up and settle for sending an email. This is an experience I'm sure we've all had at some point! By this stage, I was annoyed, so instead of just cancelling my subscription, I requested that my account was deleted entirely. 

The Customer 'Moment of Truth'

The point when I felt the need to cancel is known as a 'moment of truth'. 'Moments of truth' are those moments that leave a lasting impression on customers, either good or bad, and are a key part of the customer experience. Perhaps if they had made the process easy, I would have resumed my subscription at some point in the future, but instead, I now have a negative impression of the company. 

Customer Satisfaction Counts at Every Touchpoint

Customer experience goals should focus on aligning the customer's overall experience with the business strategy while keeping customers' satisfaction in mind. In the case of this company, the business strategy was to keep customers subscribed to their service. However, rather than focus on how to retain customers through a positive customer experience, this organisation had chosen to try and retain customers through making it cumbersome for them to leave. Such a shame given that the product was so good.

Transforming customer experience analysis involves considering all of the touchpoints between a customer and organisation and, therefore, is holistic in nature. This company has clearly considered how to persuade customers to join their subscription service, but it hasn't thought about the touchpoints after this stage. If they had understood their customers' needs, perhaps through employing a business analyst to analyse the customer journey, they may have been able to keep this customer! 

Why not transform your customers' experience? Click here to find out how. 

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