Knowing your business / customer

Knowing your visitor, your customer must be key to any business. And with internet businesses this is even easier than in the physical world.

My last post boldly claimed that i would read and comment on this book “Programming JavaScript Applications” by Eric Elliot.

I went on an ordered the book online, a very slick experience from start to finish. But that is where my good experience end.

The book was stated to be in stock and expected delivery was 3–5 days. Some days later i received an email that the book had been backordered and the store is awaiting shipments from the suppliers.

My first question is: How can you claim a set delivery time without confirmation that the book is in stock either at your own storage facility or the suppliers?

Secondly: Some more days later I received a feedback email asking me to rate my purchase and the item itself. A very generic email sent out to all customers asking for reviews on various price-comparison sites etc. Why was I sent that email when I clearly hadn't received my product?

For me as a customer it is simply confusing and frustrating. For me as a developer it is clear that the store has multiple systems to support their site, and they are not synced or atleast not working together.

The result is that I will hesitate a lot about ordering there again, since I cannot count on receiving the items within a set timeframe.