COVID-19

A few thoughts on what is happening now..  it has probably nothing to do with CX topic.

The beginning of the new decade does not seems to be good.

The spread of Covid-19 virus from China to the world has been changing the lives of more and more people on earth.. precisely, on earth, where multi-billion people are bore, make a living, being happy or being sad….  This challenge is not just for a specific country, specific race but the human being as a whole.

What I do not understand is

  1. why some persons could put their own personal gain, interest ahead of surviving , being healthy, the chance of living of other people..
  2. why countries are figure pointing each other when the virus is still spreading and more and more people are suffered
  3. why someone try to claim the superiority of his/her system when it is just a beginning…

we, everyone on this planet,  have only one home, earth! nobody could run away from this beautiful planet..   We need to really sit back and think how we should work together, not against each other… after we overcome current challenge,  I strongly believe we will, but at a cost..   there are still many many long term challenges ahead of us..

Take care!

Where is my parcel? (part 2)

it was usually quite busy in December,  to rush to close tasks before year end, to celebrate holiday with family….

anyway, first, let us continue my story…

finally, the shop sent my order, the delivery went well, at least according the tracking info available from Taobao app.  it reached the forwarder service provider’s warehouse in China. Usually, it would take about one or two days for the service provider to collect, sort the delivery and update the status via  their web site..  I waited, but, after a few days wait, the only thing I could get from the service provider web site was none… I started to wonder where was my parcel?

I decided to reach them and find out what was going on.  First,  it was quite standard process, I should provide tracking information from China and they would check whether they have received the delivery.

here was what happened:

  1. the first answer was that they could not find it….
  2. I insisted that they should received it based on the tracking information
  3. the next request was – could you try to contact the seller or local courier to find out more details
  4. OK, I decided to give it try, but there is a problem:
    1. the order was not sent to me directly, it was sent to the service provider’s warehouse in China, with their address and contact number
    2. when I tried to reach them, they could not provide much details as I was not receipt of the goods
  5. so, I went back to service provider and tried to explained the situation and requested them to contact local courier.
  6. at first, it seemed that they understood situation, but, a few days later, they still told me that they could not locate the delivery..
  7. I tried again to explain what they should do.. and provide them the tracking info (in Chinese ) to them and suggested them reaching to their local (in China) team who should understand delivery info.
  8. again.. a manager called me and still mentioned that they could not find it……
  9. I have to explained the same again…

so, at this point of time, in my mind, I was almost sure that the chance to find it was very very slim….

but a notification email reached me suddenly, informing me that there was an item pending for delivery in service provider’s warehouse in China…   what was that?

funny enough, I received another email – stating that they could not find my delivery…. 😉

What I was happy about:

  1. for sure, finally, I received my order
  2. efforts to keep me updated ..

what I was not happy about:

  1. no outcome / progress during the process even the
  2. confusing update..

 

so, what could be improved? how?

 

Where is my parcel? (part 1)

As the year end is approaching, discount, sales, shopping are everywhere..

Like Black Friday in America, double 11 or 11.11 (11th / Nov) is arguably the larget online sales event, and it is from China. many things on sales with great discount.. looks very attractive!
But, I am not in China, and many sellers do not deliver the purchases to my places directly from China. luckily , there is so called forwarder service provider who, provides you a domestic address in China so that your order could be processed and delivered to forwarder service provider’s warehouse in China and then they will send goods to you, of course with a fee. As long as the total sum is still cheaper than buying directly from your own country or something you could not get.. it is quite good option.

So, I signed up the service, got my unique domestic address in China, set up account in Taobao (under Alibaba) and found a way to setup payment via Alipay (that is another long story ;-). All set, I started to browse the website, compare, check….. and finally put two items in the cart.. and wait for the right time the 12:00am of 11/11
when the time came…. I quickly checked out the items in the cart in order to secure the discounts .. and now, it was waiting time…
Luckily, Taobao does offer quite good delivery tracking via its app. I could easily find out the status of my orders and where they are. As there would be huge surge in delivery demands, I assumed that it would much longer time…

Yes, indeed, even one item I ordered was on the road almost the next day, there has been no news for another one for a few days… what is happening?

more to come in my next post..

CX (Customer Experience) and UX (User Experience)

CX and UX are commonly used terms when we describe experience.   are they the same?

they are not.

typically, UX describes the users’ perception, gain, emotional feeling when they interact with certain products (either digital or not, most of the time, it refers to digital products, such as Web site, Apps on the phone….)

but, the scope of CX is much wider, it is not just about the interaction with a specific product but the journey with a specific corporation, company or another individual person who offers certain products.  it starts with advertisement, sales, service/goods consumption, billing, support/customer care….  and along the way, there could be many many touch points where UX is critical.

however, to achieve Good CX, a Good UX is not enough..  as mentioned, CX is about journey, about relationship.  A good UX, for example, a fantastic user feedback interface will not improve customer satisfaction if there is no follow up after user’s complaints…

this is a good reference : https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-vs-cx/, I like their idea of different level of interaction – Single-interaction, journey and relationship.   but, I believe we should still draw a line between user experience and customer experience.  A user of a product may not be necessarily the customer of the company.  User experience design and Customer experience should focus on different topics.

 

what is about this site?

I have been wondering what I should post here…

there are a few topics in my mind:

  1. my experience when I interact with a provider, it could be a shop,  mobile company, airline, ……
  2. my observation on how user experience is being delivered
  3. my thoughts on how user experience could be improved
  4. specifically on design thinking and service design idea  – why? as the idea of design thinking is to look at issue from user perspective..  I am still learning …

let me give it a try….

Experiences

Why Experience?

in Modern days, the success is usually the result of super experience the end user received. it could be something big or small, but the experience itself must address the needs of an user, It does not matter whether it is the basic needs or not.. as they are one pay… or not? 

the success of many products are the result of super experience  and fulfillment of user needs, which , users themselves are not aware  – like the success of iPhone from Apple.. 

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