Thursday, May 21, 2009

Kelloggs customer service???

I recently sent an email to Kelloggs customer service notifying them that a box of Corn Flakes I recently bought had zero taste and that I wanted a refund. Their response could have taken two approaches:

What they did:

Their response basically informed me that they disagree with my assessment because their QA department has determined that Kelloggs quality is consistently the best among corn flakes. This does two things. It discourages me from trying Kelloggs again because their claim is that my box tasted the way Kelloggs ALWAYS does. And they also insulted my sense of taste.

What they COULD have done:

Instead, they could have said that their QA department has determined that Kelloggs is meets is quality benchmark 99.9% of the time and when it does, it is the best tasting. Then they could have thanked me for identifying the bad batch and that they would look into it. This would have done two different things. It would have encouraged me to try Kelloggs again because what are the chances that I would get a bad batch twice. It would also have complimented me on my discerning taste to notice the difference and my initiative to notify them.

I'm no expert in marketing, but this seems like a no brainer. Unless they don't WANT me as a customer. You think????