What Customers Actually Want
Most companies aren’t failing because of bad tech. They’re failing because they forgot the basics.
Welcome to issue #016 of The Wrong Way First, your guide to skipping avoidable mistakes and building better. To get these lessons from the front lines directly to your inbox each week, be sure to subscribe.
Every few months, someone writes a think piece about the future of CX.
AI will change everything.
The contact center is dead.
Gen Z expects personalization at scale.
Sure. All those things may be true.
But sometimes, I think we forget the obvious:
Most customer experiences fall short not because companies are unprepared for the future, but because they can’t get the basics right today.
We confuse complexity for strategy. We fall in love with tech instead of solving real problems.
And we miss the fact that 90% of a great customer experience comes down to 5 simple things.
No acronyms. No frameworks.
Just the stuff people actually care about when they buy from you, call you, or recommend you.
Let’s break it down.
1. Make it easy
Customers don’t want to become experts in your product. They just want it to work.
No one enjoys digging through six layers of help content or navigating a maze of buttons just to get support. And repeating the same issue multiple times? That’s a fast track to frustration.
Convenience isn’t a feature, it’s the experience.
Every second of friction is a chance for someone to give up and walk away.
Want to know how easy your product really is?
Try being your own customer. Start from scratch. See where you stumble.
2. Make it work
This one should go without saying. But too often, it still needs to be said.
An empathetic support team and sleek interface won’t make up for a product that constantly breaks, lags, or delivers inconsistent results.
What people remember most are the moments when the product fails them. The second or third time they’ve had to reach out. The feeling that they didn’t get what they paid for.
“Delight” is nice, but reliability is what builds trust.
3. Make it worth it
Value is a moving target. Especially right now.
Prices are rising. Competition is everywhere. And customers are asking a simple question:
Why should I keep paying for this?
You don’t have to be the cheapest option. But you do need to feel worth it.
That means setting the right expectations. Delivering on your promise. And making sure your customer walks away feeling like they made a smart decision.
If they don’t feel that, no amount of brand loyalty will save you.
4. Make it right
Things go wrong. That’s not the problem.
The problem is when your customer gets stuck, and your team says, “Sorry, there’s nothing we can do.”
That’s not a policy issue. It’s a trust issue.
Great CX isn’t about perfection. It’s about owning the issue, fixing it quickly, and doing right by the customer without making them ask for it.
The best brands don’t wait for a supervisor to approve a fix. They empower their teams to make it right on the spot.
5. Make it human
The best experiences feel personal, not because they use your name in the subject line, but because they treat you like a person, not a problem.
Customers can tell when you’re being evasive. Or overly scripted. Or hiding behind a process.
They notice when your policies are designed to trap them. Or when your tone feels fake.
On the flip side, they also remember when someone goes above and beyond.
When a real person listens, understands, and helps, without the usual runaround.
In other words, humanity scales better than most CX software (including AI).
The Bottom Line
You don’t need to be an expert in customer experience to build something customers love.
You just need to care about what they care about, and build from there.
CX isn’t a department. It’s a mindset, one that prioritizes ease, trust, value, and humanity in every interaction.
Do that consistently, and you won’t need to chase loyalty.
Your customers will give it to you freely.
Whenever you are ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:
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