Your Customers 🍩 Care!

CX Lessons from a Doughnut Disaster

My youngest daughter, Briana, recently turned 8 and is a true doughnut enthusiast. To ensure her special day was perfect, I ordered her favourite treats well in advance. Little did I know, what should have been a simple pick-up turned into a memorable lesson in customer experience.

Arriving at the store filled with anticipation and a birthday girl eager for her treats, I encountered delays and confusion. The order was incomplete, and attempts to resolve the issue were met with misunderstanding and defensiveness from the staff.

3 Lessons we can take from this disaster:

🍩 Blame: The staff member quickly told me that she was not responsible for the mishap, nor did she know what my order was, so it was not her doing.

🍩 Play defence: I must have had my resting grumpy face on that day because the staff member launched a defence without me saying a word, assuming I came to fight. Quite the opposite was true.

🍩 Be Inconsistent: I placed the order online. The staff member in store had no idea of how or what happens online and attempted to educate me, when that was neither appropriate nor necessary.

3 Things to do instead:

🍭 Take responsibility: The truth is your customer doesn’t care who did what when. They want the issue resolved. So, instead of blaming someone else, apologise and take responsibility for fixing the issue. Not only will you look competent, but you are assuring your customer through your actions that you care, and they are in good hands - remember, at the core, customer experience is a feeling.

🍭 Lead with empathy: We never know what other people are going through. When we lead with the heart, we connect with our customers on a human level. This is what is known as “human brilliance”. AI is cold and mechanical, logical and clever. Humans understand emotion, empathy and irrational reasoning based on how we feel. Assume your customers have the best intentions and do your best to be the shining star in what might actually be a bleak moment for them. When you enter a situation with empathy, guard down and open to connect, the other person will respond with equal softness, and since the defensive walls are down, we can find solutions that leave everyone feeling taken care of.

🍭 Know your customer’s journey: This is where CX gurus get excited and where most people check out. I am not referring to the document you created 20 years ago that lists your customer's process. I’m referring to the actual steps customers take to buy from you, the steps that got them to this point where something has gone wrong and, now needs a fix. This is not an opportunity for you to try to educate your customer; instead, it’s an opportunity to display your “human brilliance". Understanding how customers interact with your business helps anticipate and prevent issues. It’s not about educating the customer but about proactively meeting their needs.

In my experience, the best way to defuse a potentially explosive situation is to meet it head-on with empathy and responsibility. I’m not suggesting you let it go internally; quite the contrary, you should find out how it went wrong internally and do what is necessary to address it and prevent it from happening again. This might mean training your team, introducing a quality check before the order goes out, soft skills training, or even just an open conversation about the company values and how we handle tricky situations.

Remember, every interaction—whether it’s for a dozen doughnuts or a million-dollar sale—influences your customer’s experience. Make it sweet, seamless, and memorable!

Have a CX Story to Share? I’d love to hear about a negative experience that turned positive for you. Share your story in the comments below!