One Sunday afternoon a few months ago, I bit down on the PB &J sandwich I’d just made and it went *crunch*. I looked more closely, and found there was glass in it! (it’s OK, I wasn’t hurt).
I emailed Polaner (the jam company) and told them what happened. Less than 2 hours later (on a weekend), I got an email from Marge. She apologized profusely, told me she’d reported it to their Quality Assurance Manager at the plant, and asked for the UPC information for the product so they could track it through their system.
Why does this matter? I got an email from a real person. She apologized for the problem. She told me she’d taken steps to inform the appropriate people about it. She asked me for more details so they could track down the problem and correct it. Her actions let me know I was an important customer and that my problem mattered to the company.
This is not only good service, it’s also the best way to retain your customers. In fact, Internet Retailer just published a survey (4/3/09) which found that excellent customer service beat all other methods for keeping customers happy and loyal.
Finding glass in my jam was unpleasant, but I will buy that brand again, because they treated me well.
Jodi,
I read some where that customers think more favorably of a company whose produce fails and is immediately fixed than they do of a company whose products never fail.
Greg, I hadn’t read that, but it’s true that I would never have blogged about the jam otherwise!