Two Customer Experiences Gone Wrong – LinkedIn, Arby’s

Two national companies have created lessons for all of us.

First, from LinkedIn

#1:  I received the email on the right from LinkedIn today. I don’t actually know anything about the LinkedIn Contacts feature yet.  It’s probably really good.  But can’t they be more selective in choosing a contact to display? Since it’s unlikely I’ll use LinkedIn as “an opportunity to say hello” to my wife!

They probably did not deliberately select somebody with my same last name, but they should definitely weed out contacts who do.

The lesson:  It’s impossible to think through every possible result of your campaigns, but do you test them thoroughly before launching?  Had LinkedIn sent this email to all employees first, they would have found this problem before going live to customers.  Do you test before launch?

Next, from Arby’s

#2: Have you bought something at the Arby’s drive-through recently?  A polite woman’s voice comes on asking if you want to order whatever product they’re promoting.  You say “No thanks,” and the conversation continues in a very different voice.  Apparently, Arby’s uses an actress to pre-record the offer to start the conversation, then uses an employee from there on.

My local McDonald’s also tested this idea, but abandoned it quickly.  Who could think this is a good idea?  If the lift gained from the actress’s invitation so great that it makes up for the jarring experience that follows? My favorite is when the accent-neutral actress’s invitation is followed by a Hispanic man asking if I want curly fries with my order.

The lesson: While most of us don’t have a drive-through, do you create a similar jarring customer experience when we conduct the inevitable hand-offs?  More importantly, do you take the time to personally walk through your customer experience?  Because one walk-through should be all it takes to realize this is a mistake.