AAWE Score: SharkNinja
Our hardest score to give yet. Read our review of the customer support journey from SharkNinja.
What is the AAWE Score?
The AAWE Score is calculated by rating initial customer expectations as well as the reality of their experience, both out of 10. We then work out the difference between the two scores to give the final result.
Customer Support from SharkNinja
The Expectation
The reason why we needed support was our vacuum cleaner had lost suction. It was bought less than a year ago in the Black Friday sales and so we were surprised to be having issues. It was also bought directly from SharkNinja.
Our make and model was the Shark Stratos Anti Hair Wrap Plus Cordless Vacuum.
Our perception of SharkNinja is that they are a customer-first and innovative brand. So we the expectation that we would be able to easily resolve the issue, and receive a positive experience doing so.
Expectation Score: 7/10
The Reality
The changing face of support
We started by tracking down our order confirmation email to get the name of the specific vacuum cleaner we purchased. With so many makes and models we thought there might be different common issues for different vacuum cleaners, and we had no idea what the one we had was called.
A simple search of our inbox pulled it up and we copied and pasted the make and model of the vacuum cleaner into Google Search along with the phrase ‘lost suction’. We also searched our product name plus ‘support’.
Now, this is where support as we know it is changing. Google provided an AI snippet with all the information which was needed to resolve our issue.
We were unaware of a set of filters in the vacuum which needed to be regularly cleaned. The fact that this had never been done had led to a build up of dust and created a barrier between the motor and the floorhead.
We inspected the sources used to provide us with the answer. There was an article on SharkNinja’s website, and a YouTubers video. We watched the video and it gave us a helpful walkthrough of what to do. 5 minutes later and everything was working as it should once again.
An issue long in the making
From our perspective, the main reason this issue occurred is that we weren’t aware the filter on the vacuum cleaner needed to be cleaned. You might say this was our own fault, but we were also never expressly told.
Furthermore, on all previous vacuum cleaners we have owned, there wasn’t a need to clean any filters.
The fact we purchased the SharkNinja vacuum cleaner directly from them meant our product had been automatically registered for their warranty. Which is great! But a simple maintenance guide could have been emailed to us once our order had been delivered.
If we had received some information on how to properly take care of our vacuum cleaner, we wouldn’t have experienced this issue.
The vacuum cleaner filters.
Brand touchpoints could be improved
Of course, we felt like we needed to delve a little deeper into the touchpoints offered by SharkNinja. We were unfortunately left a little disappointed.
Firstly, we found ourselves on the FAQs page for our make and model. It was helpful to have an FAQs page for the specific vacuum cleaner we had, but the page itself was not engaging.
The FAQs page was simply a list of questions with the answers behind dropdowns. But there was no visual element in the design to show these questions were clickable. We believe most customers would miss this information. Furthermore, when clicked each dropdown simply revealed nothing but more text.
The second page we navigated to was relevant to our issue. It was a page dedicated to all the reasons why we may have lost suction. This was helpful but again, not engaging. The copy was formulaic and the visuals offered to assist with explaining the issue were schematics instead of photos of the actual vacuum cleaner.
Finally, the advice offered by SharkNinja on these pages contradicted the advice offered in the YouTubers video. SharkNinja said the filters should be washed with water only, whereas the YouTuber advised to use washing up liquid. We had already followed the advice in the YouTubers video so were left wondering if we had caused lasting damage to our filters.
Why this is so difficult to score
How do you score a brand’s customer support journey when you don’t interact with the brand?
That’s the question we faced when assessing this journey.
In lots of ways it was a success. We resolved our issue with minimal fuss. Even though we didn’t have to directly engage with SharkNinja to do so, they should be credited with creating relevant content in such a structured way that Google were able to crawl it successfully and use it to provide us with the AI generated answer we needed.
In that sense, we could have given SharkNinja a reality score as high as 9.
Nonetheless, this whole issue could have been avoided if we were made aware of how to care for our vacuum cleaner.
Also, the SharkNinja content we did engage with could be improved. All the necessary information was there but presenting it in a more customer friendly and engaging way would most likely encourage customers to rely on it.
Videos are a hugely engaging option for customer support content. We understand that not every brand wants to invest in them, but when your customers are left watching a YouTubers video which contradicts your own brand advice, then you may well cause issues.
Finally, when issues do occur, positive sentiment can be created if the resolution of the issue can be attributed to your brand. In this instance, all the positive sentiment was felt towards Google and the YouTuber, instead of SharkNinja.
Reality Score: 6/10
The AAWE Score
Reality Score (7/10) - Expectation Score (6/10) = -1
Reality Score (6/10) - 1 = AAWE Score (5/10)
Opportunities for growth
As we said, this was our most difficult score to give yet. But with every AAWE Score review, there are always opportunities for growth. Here’s what we think could be done to improve the customer journey.
1. Stop it happening in the first place
The quickest and easiest improvement which could be made is for all direct orders, send an email shortly after the order is received detailing how to maintain the product. This would be a simple intervention and be positively received, even if the content within it is never needed.
2. Improve the online customer support content
The content we did find on the SharkNinja website was concise but did not encourage engagement. The way in which customers could interact with it was not clear, and diagrams way well be misinterpreted. This may well fill the customer with doubt, rather than giving them confidence to resolve the issue for themselves. We believe a simple revamp of this content would create an improvement.
3. Complete a GEO review
This customer journey was a fascinating one for us. It brought into focus the changing face of customer support we are seeing. Google’s AI results will be an ever increasing source for how people resolve their customer support issues. To react to this, SharkNinja should become clear on how content is being presented, and the sources which Google is using.
They may well already be doing this. As stated, their content was being sourced. But opportunities may exist such as leveraging their brand authority to ensure their preferred YouTube videos are sourced, if they don’t want to create their own.
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