We help you get
closer to your customers.

No, our new system does not allow for pickles.

Recently the delivery menu folder came out to save us from another night of ramen noodles. Our favorite sub & pizza place was top of the list and I called to place our order.

I knew right away that I was in for an irregular experience. This person sounded frustrated and kept putting me on hold mid yell across the restaurant. Each request I made was met with more frustration. Adding pickles to a deli sandwich was apparently not possible anymore, and macaroni and cheese suddenly came in three sizes, not the two I was used to. Being an experienced user of this restaurant’s delivery service, I felt compelled to ask the person helping me what had changed since my last order…

“Ugh, we just got this new computer thing and I don’t understand it at all…it doesn’t work right and things are just a mess”

By the end of the transaction, I had to repeat my credit card number 3 times because she entered it into the wrong place twice, I had to provide a zip code and then it couldn’t verify that my zip code was valid, she wanted to repeat my order but couldn’t figure out how to. The list goes on and on.

Finally, off the phone and REALLY hungry, I started to think about the confidence I had in my food arriving in full, on time or at all. With the constant influx of technological solutions, I think business owners will have an increased need to get back to the basics, and constantly assess whether technology will truly help or harm their overall customer relationships.

After all, what really makes a good customer relationship? Is it providing the customer with confidence in receiving a predictable outcome to their repeated transaction? Or is it having a fancy system that can track what size macaroni and cheese I like and remember my address and credit card number?

Given the outcome of this situation, it seems that the pain that is now being put on devoted customers and busy employees is more harmful than helpful to the overall customer relationship. So sadly, even though the food hasn’t changed, my appetite for their experience has definitely wavered.