I recently spoke at a large credit union conference in upstate Michigan. It was held at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa—a large complex with many different buildings and a beautiful location on the shore of Lake Michigan. I had spoken that morning in Orlando, and then taken two flights to get to the venue. It was late, almost midnight, and I had an 8:00 keynote first thing in the morning, so I was really looking forward to finding to my room and getting some sleep.
After checking in, the receptionist tried to give me directions on how to get to my room. I was not staying in the main building, so she instructed me to go outside, walk down a path, turn this way, and then the other. But it was lightly raining, so I asked her if there was a way to get there under cover. She told me to go downstairs, then follow a corridor, go through some other doors, etc.
So I followed her instruction, and, after some missed turns, found myself in the building where I was supposed to be. My room number was 5041, and yet, as I searched, there was no Room 5041 where she said it would be. I kept going over and over the rooms to make sure I hadn’t missed it. I even checked the elevator and, sure enough, verified that the room was on Floor G—which was where I was searching.
After several minutes of very frustrated searching, I attempted to call the font desk. But, since I was essentially in the basement of the building, I had no cell signal. So I walked about halfway back to the hotel to find a place where I had a signal. Finally connected with the front desk, I talked to the same clerk with whom I had checked in.
I said that the room she had assigned me was not on that floor. She assured me it was. I told her that I had checked every door on Floor G and it was not there. I insisted that she ask her manager, and while she was a bit frustrated with me, she did.
Returning to the call, she told me that I was on the wrong floor; I needed to go up to the first floor. I assured her that I was on the first floor of this building.
“You’re on the ground floor of that building,” she said. “The first floor is the floor above that.”
OK, setting aside the ridiculousness of having a ground floor and a first floor that is actually the second floor, as well as the fact that the room number meant nothing in telling you what floor the room was on, it was her attitude that put me off a bit. She was not unprofessional, but her tone was less than helpful—no apology, just matter-of-fact. Essentially, it was my fault; I had screwed up and gone to the wrong place.
So I trudged with my computer bag and suitcase back to where I had started. Entering the elevator, I reexamined the sign where I had verified my room number and now saw that my room was listed on both the ground floor and the first floor. A very helpful sign, don’t you think?
So, thirty minutes after I should have, I arrived to my room. It was actually a very nice suite. I am sure that the meeting planner had asked them to give me a nice room since I was a speaker for their conference, and had I been there earlier, I am also sure I would have enjoyed the room a lot. But, as it was, it would have been much easier for me to have just had a regular room in the main hotel area.
This whole story reminds me of the need to examine your customer experience. If there are aspects of your business, your website, or your sales and marketing messages that would leave reasonable customers or prospects confused, then you need to fix them. And you may not even see these situations: you are involved in your company every day, so it is possible that these types of issues go unnoticed. I suggest you get additional, experienced eyes that are unfamiliar with your business on a day-to-day basis and let them take a hard look at your operation to identify any areas where usability may be turning prospects away without you even realizing it. It may prevent some or all of these abandoned prospects from walking away.
If you need experienced eyes to look at your business and propose innovative solutions to areas where customers are confused about your products and services, contact me at david@davidpeterson.com.