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The other day I wrote about my friend and her Eddie Bauer Credit Card.

Today I heard how it went when she called the World Financial Network National Bank (WFNNB), the company that owns the Eddie Bauer Credit Card.

To recap my earlier story:

• My friend was told she could pay her Eddie Bauer Credit Card online. When trying to register she discovered she needed a US social insurance number - and a zip code - and thus, being a Canadian living in Canada, was unable to register and pay online.
• The clerk at the Eddie Bauer store had told her she would be able to pay online. When my friend pointed out that she was Canadian she was told she could still pay online.
• I commented on the customer experience going from good to bad because of this episode

Today WFNNB confirmed what my friend already had figured out - she would not be able to register online. This also meant that she will not be able to pay her bill by credit card but would have to send a money order in US funds to them.

WFNNB apologised and said the store had made a mistake. They promised to attach a note to the account so she would not be charged any fees for any delay of the current payment (due to mailing of money order). They also suggested she take this up with Eddie Bauer.

The “mistake” continues to degrade the customer experience for my friend. Let us look at the process (from purchase onward):

• finding items she wanted to purchase (+)
• promise of discount when signing up for credit card(+)
• time needed to sign up (-)
• uncertainty about how to pay bill from Canada (-)
• promised that she could pay online by credit card (+)
• taking time to register online (-)
• discover not being able to register online (-)
• having to call WFNNB (-)
• discover not being able to pay over the phone (-)
• promise of no “late fees” (+)
• have to call Eddie Bauer to complain - WFNNB cannot help (-)
• next step???

As I suggested, a pretty negative customer experience - all due to a “mistake”.

When I write “mistake” it is because I’m not so sure this is a mistake. Rather, I think it is a lack of good business rules and proper requirements planning.

A mistake is when someone inadvertently do something they shouldn’t have done - for example by inadvertently breaking a rule. I think the clerk at Eddie Bauer was trained to follow the business rule of “up-sell to use of credit card”. “Mention that online payment option is available” is just a subset of that rule. Thus, in my humble opinion, the clerk did not make a mistake, but the business rules were poorly designed AND/OR the staff poorly trained. If a mistake took place anywhere it was during the design and training of rules/issues related to the credit card.

It’s easy to make such mistakes - especially when you do not think through the processes the customers will have to go through. I’ve seen it many times before - for example when a travel insurance company listed a single contact phone number, a number that could not be dialed from Europe even though the insurance policy required travelers in Europe to call the company if they had any problems that might require an insurance payout.

So now my friend has to spend extra time and money to be able to pay her bill. Will she ever use her Eddie Bauer Credit Card again? Probably not!

Another problem here is that WFNNB could not take ownership of the situation. This is a typical problem when dealing with sub-suppliers. “It’s not our fault. You have to talk to them!” (Note: WFNNB did not use those words, but politely suggested my friend take the issue up with Eddie Bauer).

In this case, if the WFNNB web site had allowed for Canadians to register this would have been a non-issue. Instead, the “Eddie Bauer Customer Experience” is impacted because of WFNNB is not allowing Canadians to do register.

What can Eddie Bauer do about this issue? Here are some ideas:

• Stop offering credit cards to Canadians (Business Rule Change)
• Alternatively make it clear that the invoices cannot be paid online though the WFNNB site (Training Issue (?))
• Work with WFNNB to allow Canadians to register and pay online (Process Change)
• Apologise to my friend. Compensate her for her trouble! (Customer Relations Management)

Have your company thought through the impact on the customer of the business rules and processes you follow? (Which reminds me about the mall that chose to close bathrooms for cleaning at lunchtime!)

Comments welcome!

roar at roarweb dot com

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