For as long as I can remember my mother has not been afraid to speak up. She is careful with her money and when she does spend it, she expects to get what she paid for. Whether it’s a meal at a restaurant, an expensive sweater or a $5 pair of slippers from Wal-Mart, if the product does not live up to the quality my mother fairly expected, she will kindly ask for a return, exchange, replacement or whatever may be adequate for the situation. To her credit my mother is never really demanding or rude about her requests but growing up I can’t say that I found this to be one of her most endearing traits. Okay, honestly it drove. me. crazy.
I know moms are meant to be slightly embarrassing – it’s somehow hardwired right in there with their baby producing organs, I think – and I am well on my way to becoming that delightfully embarrassing mother in my own right, but in recent years I have come to better understand, and even respect, my mother’s motives for speaking up. There are two primary reasons for this. 1) I am spending my own money (well, since I don’t have a job I technically spend Ross’s money, but he is very generous). There is definitely a change in thought process, a clearer understanding of value when you are no longer spending mom and dad’s money, but your own money. The realization of its limited supply has caused me to be a more judicious shopper and place greater importance on getting what I paid for. 2) A realization that if I were offering the product or service and it was not meeting customer expectations, I would want to know about it. This is where a history of business classes serves me well. Quality control can definitely be strengthened through customer feedback and a company never has a chance to rectify the situation and improve their product if assertive customers will not communicate with them.
And so gradually I have followed in my mother’s footsteps and chosen, in certain situations, to kindly let the company know when their product has not met my expectations and in the process of doing such I have experience some wonderful generocities from companies – particularly in highly competitive markets – seeking to keep happy customers.
My first example occurred when Ross and I purchased a new HE washer and dryer set about a year and a half ago. I have been a loyal Tide customer from the time I started buying my own laundry soap and when I needed to switch to the high efficiency variety for my new front-loader I picked up a vat of liquid Tide HE from Costco. Since I was a powder detergent girl in the past this liquid form was a new frontier for me, but it was the tricky new dispenser that really threw me off.
The liquid for this baby dispenses into the provided cup and the cup fits right back onto the bottle. While this is a nice concept, whenever I am returning that cup to the bottle it is filled with the remains of the detergent I just threw in with the load, requiring me to clean the cup out after each use so I can place it back on the bottle in a tidy manner (yes, I am a type A personality). Now I don’t know if any of you have tried to rinse out a cup lined with HE detergent but that soap is highly concentrated making it a bit of a cumbersome task. Upon becoming frustrated with this process I began asking my HE Tide loving friends how they handle their Tide dispensers and I learned a few throw the cup back on and are not bothered with the drips that run down the dispenser and others just forget about the cup and eyeball the necessary amount of the detergent as they pour it right into the machine.
Unfortunately neither of those options work for me, because a) I would be endlessly frustrated knowing my Tide container had drips running down it and b) I would be endlessly frustrated if I thought I was potentially wasting excess detergent and/or not using enough to properly cleanse my babies’ clothes due to inadequate detergent measurements. Oh, the horror. So it occurred to me that Tide really needs to work on improving the engineering and design of their dispenser so as not to put me, their loyal customer, in such a quandary. And so I decided to tell them just that. I politely shot them an e-mail to voice my concerns and encourage them to improve their product for ease of use. Wouldn’t you know that the executives at Tide (or some under paid techie at their response center in India) took the time to write me back, thank me for taking the time to comment, inform me that the measuring cup was actually designed to be easily tossed in the wash (which I love the idea of and now do regularly) and included a coupon for $15 off my next Tide purchase in appreciation of my loyalty. Score, two points for Tide!
I know moms are meant to be slightly embarrassing – it’s somehow hardwired right in there with their baby producing organs, I think – and I am well on my way to becoming that delightfully embarrassing mother in my own right, but in recent years I have come to better understand, and even respect, my mother’s motives for speaking up. There are two primary reasons for this. 1) I am spending my own money (well, since I don’t have a job I technically spend Ross’s money, but he is very generous). There is definitely a change in thought process, a clearer understanding of value when you are no longer spending mom and dad’s money, but your own money. The realization of its limited supply has caused me to be a more judicious shopper and place greater importance on getting what I paid for. 2) A realization that if I were offering the product or service and it was not meeting customer expectations, I would want to know about it. This is where a history of business classes serves me well. Quality control can definitely be strengthened through customer feedback and a company never has a chance to rectify the situation and improve their product if assertive customers will not communicate with them.
And so gradually I have followed in my mother’s footsteps and chosen, in certain situations, to kindly let the company know when their product has not met my expectations and in the process of doing such I have experience some wonderful generocities from companies – particularly in highly competitive markets – seeking to keep happy customers.
My first example occurred when Ross and I purchased a new HE washer and dryer set about a year and a half ago. I have been a loyal Tide customer from the time I started buying my own laundry soap and when I needed to switch to the high efficiency variety for my new front-loader I picked up a vat of liquid Tide HE from Costco. Since I was a powder detergent girl in the past this liquid form was a new frontier for me, but it was the tricky new dispenser that really threw me off.
The liquid for this baby dispenses into the provided cup and the cup fits right back onto the bottle. While this is a nice concept, whenever I am returning that cup to the bottle it is filled with the remains of the detergent I just threw in with the load, requiring me to clean the cup out after each use so I can place it back on the bottle in a tidy manner (yes, I am a type A personality). Now I don’t know if any of you have tried to rinse out a cup lined with HE detergent but that soap is highly concentrated making it a bit of a cumbersome task. Upon becoming frustrated with this process I began asking my HE Tide loving friends how they handle their Tide dispensers and I learned a few throw the cup back on and are not bothered with the drips that run down the dispenser and others just forget about the cup and eyeball the necessary amount of the detergent as they pour it right into the machine.
Unfortunately neither of those options work for me, because a) I would be endlessly frustrated knowing my Tide container had drips running down it and b) I would be endlessly frustrated if I thought I was potentially wasting excess detergent and/or not using enough to properly cleanse my babies’ clothes due to inadequate detergent measurements. Oh, the horror. So it occurred to me that Tide really needs to work on improving the engineering and design of their dispenser so as not to put me, their loyal customer, in such a quandary. And so I decided to tell them just that. I politely shot them an e-mail to voice my concerns and encourage them to improve their product for ease of use. Wouldn’t you know that the executives at Tide (or some under paid techie at their response center in India) took the time to write me back, thank me for taking the time to comment, inform me that the measuring cup was actually designed to be easily tossed in the wash (which I love the idea of and now do regularly) and included a coupon for $15 off my next Tide purchase in appreciation of my loyalty. Score, two points for Tide!
Round 2:
A couple of months ago Ross came home to find our littlest darling in her Exersaucer with bits of neon green druel excreting from her mouth. After further inspection, we found that she was actually chewing the paint off one of the toys on her sacuer, which was purchased only a month or two earlier. While I didn’t find the fact that our child may have ingested a little paint to be all that alarming I was a little disappointed in the saucer as it is a product specifically designed for those gnawing, drueling little people. So when I had a minute a few days later I shot an e-mail off to Evenflo – the maker of the Exersaucer – with a picture of the damaged toy and I kindly let them know that they might consider using non-painted pieces in the future. In no time I was rewarded with a swift response regarding the safety of their water-soluble paints as well as assurance that replacement toys would be over-nighted to my home as soon as I could provide them with my mailing address. Two points for Evenflo!
Finally, last fall Ross purchased a new pair of Danner work boots. While they don’t come cheap good boots are an essential part of Ross’s work wardrobe and in the past he has found Danner’s to be his favorite. This pair performed no differently except for the fact that he kept breaking the laces. First it was every month or two and then it was once a month and soon it became every other week. In an effort to remedy this problem I tried buying laces at Wal-Mart and Danner brand laces from Big R. I bought nylon laces and leather ones, short one and longer ones – all to no avail. I tried quizzing Ross about the issue – is his muscular frame just pulling the laces too tight? No. Are they too loose and getting caught on equipment or tools when he is working? No. Upon closely examining the boots we noticed the lower eyelets appeared to have a rough edge that gradually – or not so gradually – wore the laces.
You can probably guess by now that I considered this to be a design flaw that Danner needed to know about. So this time I sent an e-mail to Danner Boots letting them know how much my husband enjoyed their product. I acknowledged that I didn’t keep my receipt (which I didn’t in any of these cases actually) and that the boots were clearly outside the 6 month warranty period, basically admitting that I didn’t have a complaining leg to stand on, but even so I wanted to let them know how constantly broken boot laces are a bit of hassle and I encouraged them to find a better solution for their eyelets. This time I got nice response from Danner assuring me of their product quality standards and offering to take a look at the boots if I sent them in. The e-mail stated that upon receipt of the boots they would inspect them and may be willing to offer a partial refund (according to usage and wear) if they were found to be defective. Now while this is a nice offer, in reality it is not a feasible option since Ross wears his boots every working day and sending the old ones off would mean having to buy new ones for the interim. So I responded to Danner with a “thanks, but that is not really helpful” e-mail.
To my surprise the folks at Danner didn’t give up on their efforts to appease me. They responded by asking if I would be willing to e-mail them pictures of the boots – the problem area, the tread, the wear – noting that understanding customer expectations and the performance of their product is of utmost importance to them. Eager to use my new camera, I didn’t want to turn down this photography engagement so I snapped a few shots and e-mail them off to Danner land. This time days – maybe even a week – went by and I heard nothing back. I nearly forgot about Danner all together when another message from them showed up in my inbox. In summary, the folks at Danner wished to physically inspect what appeared to be weakening eyelets on this product. If I would be willing to give them the size and model number of the boots they would overnight us a brand new pair with the condition that upon receipt of the new boots I would return the used ones (now 8 months old) to them. Deal! Ten points for Danner.
My point here is not to brag, to encourage complaining or advocate freely expressing disgruntled behavior with the hopes of getting something in return. But when we become frustrated with a product we seem more likely to wallow in our frustration or tell a friend how much we hate that product rather than give the company constructive criticism in order to help them improve their product. It’s easy to think –I don’t have any pull with these companies – but the truth is you do. Our disposable incomes pay their bills as well as anyone else’s does and if we are not willing to communicate our concerns and give those companies an opportunity to improve, to rectify the problem and earn our business then we miss out on exercising the buying power that we really do have. Not only have Tide, Evenflo, and Danner, remedied my frustrations with their products, they have made me a more loyal customer in the process. What’s more? I am now a loyal customer who is willing to tell my friends about the equitable actions of these companies. So, next time you are frustrated with a product and you really believe it is not meeting your needs like it should, send the company an e-mail and kindly let them know your thoughts. You may very well be surprised by their response.
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