When the washer breaks….

📸 About the photo: Captured by my husband, Michael Blachly, this architectural image—shot in the “Bar Code” area of Oslo, Norway mirrors the illusion of order in complex systems. At first glance, it’s sleek and structured. But look closer, and you’ll see the friction in the angles—just like the customer journey when clarity gets lost. More at michaelblachly.com.

Our washing machine died - such a not fun experience. It's one of those moments when you just don't want to "adult" and let someone else deal with it...but I digress...

After realizing it was cheaper to order a new one vs repair it. We ordered a new one from the same brand. That’s when the real friction started.

𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘆, 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘆-𝘁𝗼-𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸𝗼𝘂𝘁? 𝗜 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁.

It delayed our delivery by 6 days.

From there, it was a swirl of:
❌ Conflicting delivery messages
❌ A chatbot that couldn’t help
❌ No clear way to reach a human
❌ An email after delivery with the wrong date

𝗔𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗮𝗻𝘀, 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻: 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆.

Your customers aren’t navigating your system, they’re just trying to solve their problem.

My advice to this brand is to go walk this journey as a real customer and learn where their technology goes from efficient to inefficient for their customer experience.

That’s the role of a Client Whisperer, to make sure brands stay fluent in the customer’s language.