Trust Lesson #2: Building Trust Is Not Enough

I choose the vendor I trust and have a "habit" for:  I saw the movie Julie and Julia and now am reading the book. I got inspired, therefore, to try making a souffle and a quiche. Except I don't own a souffle dish or a quiche dish. So, time to do my part for the economy, and actually purchase some kitchen wares. I happened to be in a Williams Sonoma store and even looked at and picked up both a quiche and a souffle dish. But I didn't purchase them. I was thinking about a news story I had read recently that Amazon is positioning itself to be the major retailer of everything. I'm an Amazon fan (I actually bought their stock when they first went public and then stupidly sold it about 3 months later!), so I decided I'd buy my souffle and quiche dishes online at Amazon.

Uh, oh, something goes wrong: I quickly found what I wanted and ordered with "one click". Two days later they arrive -- each broken into little pieces.  Next I go online to let them know and get a refund. You can't talk to anyone when you have a problem at Amazon, and the refund process is NOT easy. I have to find the right form online (took several tries). I have to fill out the form correctly (several more tries). I have to print labels (they want the broken dishes back). I have to send the dishes back separately. One has to go back via UPS and the other through the US mail (why is this?!?).

Trust is gone: I am a loyal Amazon fan. I buy hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise from Amazon each year. But I can tell you I will not buy anything breakable from them again, and I will think twice about buying anything that may have to be returned. This experience has eroded my trust, and not because the dishes arrived broken, but because it is so hard to get things rectified if there is a problem. Not being able to talk to a person makes me feel like Amazon doesn't care about my experience as a customer.

Building trust isn't enough: It's one thing to miss out on an opportunity to build trust with a new customer. But it's even worse to erode trust with someone who was loyal. Pay attention to the customers you have now. Make sure you evaluate your website, not only in terms of building trust, but in terms of keeping trust.