Since attending Forrester's CX SF conference, I’ve been reflecting lately upon the relationship between software quality and the customer experience for brands that are seeking to innovate and stand out in a sea of growing competition.
One recent experience of mine really highlighted this for me; I recently moved to Berkeley, so I’m still buying some furniture and other items for my home. I was about to complete an online order from a very famous store that included more than 20 items in my cart. All went well until I hit the “place order” button. After I had already finished the transaction, I was notified that some things were out of stock, others were discontinued, etc. This seems like an operational problem, but from my perspective, it’s also a software problem; the site didn’t alert me about these different issues, which caused this part of the process to ruin my experience. Then, I had to call customer service, spend an hour on the phone, follow a lengthy process to get my refund, and so on. In the end, I had undergone stress, frustration, and disappointment.