At Kuliza, a company focused on building products for enterprises, one of the first things we’re asked to take seriously are personas and the consideration funnel, it is integral that a brand takes into consideration every cluster of group users and their motivations and provide them a great user experience. Just as recent as last week, our CEO blogged explaining the consideration funnel. Keeping this in mind, I faced a challenge which exactly negated this and I thought I’d share this experience with you.

It was a month since my roommate decided to move out and I still hadn't found her replacement. I looked everywhere. Facebook, word-of-mouth everything… almost everything. I was losing it. That’s when my colleague suggested Housing.com. I logged in. Provided my details. In my head, I thought the job was half done.

‘Hello Madam, I’m calling from housing.com…’. Professional and polite, he informed me of his colleague visiting my flat to take photographs of it and collect some details…This god forsaken hunt is soon going to end. Well, little did I even know what was in store for me.

The representative was on the dot. A high-end phone camera captured a good perspective of my 2 BHK house. What about your room Ma’am? Well, I’m looking for a flatmate, females only and I will be living in this room. So, this room is not for rent. I’d like you to mention it’s only available for females, I added. He promptly noted this under ‘comments’. Anything else? Nope. That’s it!

The link was up. But with no mention ‘females only’. And to my surprise, the house was listed as 1 BHK available to bachelors! Immediately I started receiving calls for enquiries…from men. When I called the customer care, he said there was nothing he could do. I explained my distress of constantly being bombarded by guys as a result of wrong information provided on the site. I was not even allowed to edit my information. I demanded my call to be passed on to a senior executive. Once again, explaining my anguish, here was my response. ‘Madam, there is nothing that can be done. It’s a back-end issue where we have to change the information for other clients as well. You can list it under family’. I refused. Why would I want a family living with me? ‘Then, you can list in under the PG section’. What? No this is a flat, not a PG. Unfortunately there is no other way madam. Our representative will come tomorrow to take new pictures. I refused again.

Working for a company with expertise in crafting products, this incident makes me question the importance brands give to smooth customer experience. Honestly, it doesn't matter if you’re spending a treasure on billboards or getting infamous as a result of your social media page. I would much rather appreciate if Housing.com focused on bare minimum customer experience that didn't cause despair answering queries, that to as a result of a wrong information on their site, even after informing their customer care.

Here’s what I would recommend:

Have a clear distinct category for flatmates. A flatmate hunt does not come under the PG section or renting a house. If you do not want to have a flat mates categories, please make it clear during the first call

If a girl is looking for a female flat mate in a 2 BHK flat and not a 1 BHK, she should just be allowed to list it as that. Please do not compromise on asking her to post under families or bachelors. It is just not the same

Furthermore, it would be great to have a comments section where owners can add specific requirements. This just simplifies the process to a whole new level

It would also be nice to have customers edit their post further. Sometimes, we’d like to add more based on experience with potential occupants.

These customer experience tweaks aren't significant, but it will definitely make a mammoth of a difference to us in terms of usability, value and privacy. Your ads say ‘Look up’ in every corner of my city, but maybe we’d ‘look up’ to Housing.com if they focused less on getting infamous and a lot more on their user experience by considering every ideal group of customers in mind.