I may be betraying my age, but when it comes to clothes shopping, there’s one retailer that sits right at the top of the tree: Marks and Spencer.
(Or at least it did…)
I bought a load of clothes from a store recently and brought them home to try them on in comfort and privacy.
They were all lovely, but most of them were a bit too big.
No problem, I thought, I can just scan the barcode of the item and order the next size down.
Which is what I tried to do, only for the app to make me reset my password, just before payment.
I was deep into the task and assumed it was just because I hadn’t been on for a few months – I hadn’t started joining the dots.
I dutifully reset the password, logged in again and the app had emptied my basket of the seven items I was ready to buy.
Which was a touch annoying.
Undeterred, I added them again, this time with scarcity attached – the ‘only 3 left online’ message was visible.
I hurried along – quicker clicking, less browsing, hurrying my way to the checkout.
And when I got there, my years of love and goodwill for Marks and Spencer and their lovely, shiny app evaporated, almost entirely:
“Because of the recent cyber breach, we are not accepting any orders online. You’ll need to go into the store to buy any products”
The dots were now thoroughly joined, but knowing why I couldn’t check out didn’t make me feel any better about my wasted 45 minutes.
I fully understand that they can’t take online orders right now, but my suggestion?
Keep your customer informed at every stage.
Options include:
• Disable the functionality of the basket
• Message on the home screen saying, “You can only browse, not buy”
• Pop up when you add something to the basket – “purchasing disabled due to cyber incident”
Any of the above would have managed my expectations, but instead, I lost the best part of an hour trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
Goodwill is hard to build but extremely easy to lose, and this story goes to show that you don’t need to get everything right.
But you do need to think through your customers’ journeys when they purchase and ensure you eliminate as much friction or frustration as possible.
Failure to do so can cost you goodwill, and probably customers, too.
