It's weird that these days, caring about your customers is considered a superpower. It just shows the awful level of service and support that passes as "customer care" these days.
I recently bought a hat from Boston Scally Company. It wasn't a super cheap made-in-China $10 hat like you can easily find on Amazon or eBay, I paid $50 for it. When I got the hat, it was covered in threads. Some needed to be cut off. When I emailed the company, their reply was "we're sorry you aren't happy with the quality of the hat, you can just remove the threads and it won't affect the integrity of the hat."
That's the wrong response. The correct response is "We're embarrassed the hat shipped to you like that. Would you like us to send you a replacement or do you want to send it back for a refund?" I am certainly not going to buy anything from this company again when they can't acknowledge their screw up.
Own your mistakes. In almost all cases it's the right move and you earn the respect of the customer.
I bought a fold up bed from a company in the UK and one of the wooden slats broke so I emailed them to find out where I could buy a replacement. They replied with 'What was the model number?' and 'What is your address?'
They sent me a free replacement and a spare in case it happens again (which several years later it hasn't).
Such a simple gesture, with no fuss whatsoever, and here I am praising them https://www.jaybe.com/ whenever I get the opportunity.
I bought it from a third party retailer so they would have been within their rights to give me the runaround instead.
I have a similar memorable story from O’Brien water sports. We had a set of kids’ water skis where we’d lost one of the thumbscrew bolts to keep them connected while young kids are learning (100% our fault, 0% theirs).
I wrote the company to ask where I could buy a replacement. The agent sent me a mail with a picture asking me to confirm that was the part I was talking about, mailed a replacement strap and two thumbscrews for free, and emailed a few days later to check that it arrived in time for our lake vacation.
It made such an impression that O’Brien is my default/check-them-first brand.
Reminds me of the reaction of the company we bought our greenhouse tunnel from.
Two years after buying it I wanted to install a windows in the rounded roof section of the tunnel.
I made a mistake and cut the wrong section of the roof destroying this section of the transparent plastic cover.
A new cover section would have cost me about 140 Euros if I bought it here. I asked the company what they would charge me for a new sheet (4 by 6 meters btw).
They just asked for my address and told me they would send one free of charge. And they did.
I was positively blown away.
Since then I have recommended about 2.5 to 4k of revenue to them from family and friends.
I bought a display bin/trash can (!) from a department store. When I got home I realised that one of the rails was broken on one of the drawers, and contacted the retailer. They took my details and about 6 weeks later (I had totally forgotten/given up at this point) I received a hand written letter from the manufacturer apologising with the replacement part. I was in absolute shock.
To an MBA the ideal situation is one in which your customers are exploited just enough not to hate you so much they go through the trouble of switching to someone else. Ideally they have nobody else they can switch to so you can make them hate you as much as possible without them showing up to your building with a gun, aka the ISP and telephone provider model.
The sad part is that it works. My favorite companies are not the ones I've given the most money, because my favorites have provided tremendous value for my dollar. I might adore Leatherman and use their products multiple times a day but the fact is I spent $150 fifteen years ago and never had to again.
We design all products locally here in the US. Final assembly is done in PRC to maintain high level of quality at an affordable price."
PRC is the "People's Republic of China"
I think if you read between the lines their response is them basically telling you this. The hat was made-in-China that you ordered of a website from your house for 50 dollars and your expecting it to be tailor made quality. I don't know if you order many clothes online but this is how it is. I've ordered jackets, dress shirts, socks, pants everything and they come this way about a quarter to 50% of the time. If you have ever worked at retail clothing stores this is what the employee's sift through before it goes out on the floor.
Responses from companies and customers are all subjective. I've had BHER send me replacement paint, does it mean I only buy from them, no, so what difference does it make to them or me. Its quite a bit easier to just embrace returning stuff and not having high expectations with stuff that from your vantage point is a blackbox.
For $50, I wasn't expecting tailor made bespoke hat or anything like that. I was expecting them to take some modicum of care shipping and packing it though.
Kangol hats are made in China and sell at similar price point. They're nice hats for the price. By contrast, the finish on this hat was less than I'd expect when buying a hat from the $10 rack at the gas station.
I've ordered lots of garments online over the years and this was by far the poorest presentation I've ever seen.
Well my dude, fair enough. Maybe I misunderstood your first comment as I thought maybe you didn't know the hats were made in China but for the price point I hate to tell you this but $50 is the new $20. I really don't expect quality clothing for under $100 - $150.
My personal opinion, is that it would be worth *your time* to go bespoke. There is no reason to not treat yourself to quality clothing in your lifetime. Complaining takes no real effort and you are worth putting the time into.
Theft is the easiest way. Good customer service is hard but pays off in business success. You just need to choose where on the spectrum you want to land. If you choose poorly your customers will sense your disdain for them and go be customers elsewhere.
I recently bought a hat from Boston Scally Company. It wasn't a super cheap made-in-China $10 hat like you can easily find on Amazon or eBay, I paid $50 for it. When I got the hat, it was covered in threads. Some needed to be cut off. When I emailed the company, their reply was "we're sorry you aren't happy with the quality of the hat, you can just remove the threads and it won't affect the integrity of the hat."
That's the wrong response. The correct response is "We're embarrassed the hat shipped to you like that. Would you like us to send you a replacement or do you want to send it back for a refund?" I am certainly not going to buy anything from this company again when they can't acknowledge their screw up.
Own your mistakes. In almost all cases it's the right move and you earn the respect of the customer.