The first of the stories will be about one of my experiences abroad, at the luxurious destination of Abu Dhabi, UAE. I will begin with this story as it shows how I started regarding the evaluation of customer experience.

Created completely out of necessity, as the airline company has lost my luggage during the incoming flight (more on that in another story). I was visiting Abu Dhabi for business, as I had to visit some clients there and at Dubai. My flight arrived during the night and with terror I had found out that my luggage (as well as the luggage of some other fellow travelers), had stayed back at Istanbul. Unfortunately, all I had with me was my laptop, my mobile, my wallet, and the clothes I travelled with. Rookie mistake, I hadn’t packed any other clothes with me. My clients at the time were not of the most well-dressed type of guys, however decent business attire was appreciated. And there I was, with my sneakers, jeans, and a t shirt, as if I was working as a software developer (no hard feelings, of course I am jealous a little bit).  I still had no feedback about the whereabouts of my luggage; thus the short-term solution was evident; I had to buy some new clothes and shoes.

By the way, at the time I was not paid enough to get a new good suit every year, and taking into account that UAE prices are not…competitive, I was a little bit anxious about the amount I had to pay. Anyway, I was lucky enough to stay in a hotel near one of the city center’s malls, so I went directly there. Additionally, I found a branch of a known shirt brand from UK that had all that I needed: 1 good suit, 3 non-iron shirts, a belt, and a tie. The rest of the stuff (underwear and shoes, I bought them from shops nearby). Problem solved. I did my job and returned home. Additionally, the airline company had found my luggage, but I received only during the last day of the trip. However back home I realized that…the shirts were not so good. 2 out of the 3 had visible imperfections that could not be corrected. I have several shirts, casual, dress shirts, non-iron, linen, you name it. Needless to say, I have some experience to understand that those 2 shirts either were B grade products, or bad quality yarn was used in the process.

I took some pictures of the imperfections, and I send them to the mother company along with the receipt. They said that they are not responsible for return polices and they redirected me to the Abu Dhabi branch, with belonged to a franchisee. After many emails back and forth, the representative concluded that the defects were not a manufacturing defect, but rather something that happened later. Therefore…case closed for him and good riddance dear customer.

Back then I had several other more important issues to take care, therefore I stopped trying to figure out a solution for this. I have 100s of shirts trough the years and I know what works and what not, how to take care of shirts, to iron, to dry, to modify. However this was the first time that I used the garment without inspecting it. I know that I do not work in the jungle or in curating gardens, so no thorns or branches pulling out the threads.

Conclusions:

Since then, I have spent several thousand euros and dollars for new shirts and I will continue doing that. And not a single one of them was and will be spent for this brand. To be honest, I have a favourite brand, a German one. Through the years its shirts proved that they worth the money and in return I tell all my friends (early-30s to early 40s, with plenty of money to spend) which brands worth it and which DO NOT worth it. The last one is obviously the brand I bought in Abu Dhabi. And I will continue telling this story as long as I remember it.

This means that the brand, by letting the franchisee doing whatever they like, without taking care of the quality defects or the way they put the blame on the customer, they lost a customer with long lifetime value (I plan to keep buying quality shirts for the next 40 years or so) but they led to the creation of bad but justified word of mouth.

By the way, after a couple of years, some issues appeared also on the suit. I knew what the issue was (low quality production) because I had experienced something similar in the past with a suit from a different brand. More on this another time.

In the end, If I evaluate the brand from the performance of their products, I would consider myself rather dissatisfied, as I know that it is of below average quality. However, they had the chance to save the day and get another chance by saving it with better service. And they blew it. Even if I was wrong (I could be just crazy, trying to destroy my expensive clothes, just to argue over the internet afterwards), they could have said that when you come again…let us see the shirts…or here it is 10% discount if you come next week (which I wouldn’t because I visit no often than once per year). They chose instead to sell defective products to a frustrated tourist and get rid of him. Bravo.

Funny story…through those years, the company that had the franchise… lost it! However, it seems that they were so good at it that they got a competitor’s brand (which eventually went bankrupt!).