All too true

From DogHouse Diaries. Click on the image or the link for a closer look.

THIS is how to respond to a customer complaint!

As part of my on-going quest for weight loss (and maintaining same) I regularly drink a 6 oz carton of OJ with my meals. It is provides a serving of fruit and is delicious to boot. Tropicana is my favorite of the various brands. Their current packaging is as pictured - a small carton with a telescoping straw that punctures the top like a drink box. Recently, I had noticed the straws becoming unusable. Some fell apart. Others couldn't pierce the box. So, after a few months, I decided I should write them to let them know - not looking for anything, just to get onto their Quality Control radar. Instead, I got the response below which is a GREAT example of how to do customer service. They have truly made me from a customer into a fan.

Wow!! Congratulations on your weight loss! What a great achievement and accomplishment; keep up the great work in 2010.

That said, I'm sorry the straws on your little cartons of Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice haven't worked properly for you. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. I've mailed you a full value replacement coupon for the juice along with some new straws to try. Everything should arrive in about a week.

We do our best to provide you with quality products, and the information you provided is valuable to us. Therefore, I've shared your comments and experience with our quality assurance and packaging teams for review and we appreciate you bringing this to our attention.

With regards to the straws, they're designed to extend so they'll reach to the bottom of our little cartons. Once the straw is extended, you should feel a slight "click", indicating it has locked into place, locking air out. We're sorry yours did not work they was we intended it to.

Thank you, Mark, for your business and for being a loyal Tropicana fan. We hope you'll continue to select and enjoy our juice for many more years to come. After all, we know you have a choice of brands and always appreciate you choosing ours.

Happy New Year!

Margie
Tropicana Consumer Relations

Suddenly, United Airline is very concerned...

...about the broken guitar in the video posted earlier. They have contacted the songwriter and are setting up a call "to resolve the matter." Apparently, customer service is CENTRAL to Unite Airlines... if and and only if you embarrass them on YouTube and Twitter.

Lesson learned - don't underestimate the power of song and the blogsphere.

Never tick off a songwriter

Because when all is said and done, they might just produce a music video that is published all around the Blogsphere. And you probably deserve the bad publicity.

Sprint Divorces from Customers Who Call Them

In the age of the internet, companies more and more hate dealing with people on the phone. It is inefficient, expensive, and requires staffing to be available 24/7. But, I find it highly ironic that a cell phone company whose whole business is selling the technology to make voice calls is cutting off customers who actually call customer service.

On June 29, 2007, Sprint sent letters notifying some customers that their service would be canceled by the end of July due to excessive calls to customer service.

"Our records indicate that over the past year, we have received frequent calls from you regarding your billing or other general account information," the letter reads. "While we have worked to resolve your issues and questions to the best of our ability, the number of inquiries you have made to us during this time has led us to determine that we are unable to meet your current wireless needs."

"Therefore after careful consideration, the decision has been made to terminate your wireless service agreement effective July 30, 2007."

The one upside to this letter is anyone who got it has no early termination fee, and their account balance is set to $0 by Sprint. I can't help wondering how many customers will use this opportunity to jump to AT&T for the iPhone. Still, it seems like shortsighted bad business, rather than being a company that puts the customer first.

What are our reader's experiences with Sprint and their customer service?

Prediction: XM Loses Major Value Next Week

This past week, XM radio suspended Opie and Anthony - their online shock jocks - for comments made on their program about Condoleeza Rice. After this move, fans of Opie & Anthony (of which I am not one) decided to make a statement and began cancelling their accounts in droves. The idea was to send a message to XM Radio that the whole reason they bought into satellite radio, which is independent of most FCC regulation, was to have a radio show with more creative freedom. OK, fine. Statement made and move on, right? Well, maybe not. XM protesters are finding, upon reviewing their account statuses, that in fact XM is either suspending the account (i.e. leaving radios active but holding up billing) or giving them credit for the accounts to cover the months that Opie and Anthony will be off the air, but leaving the accounts entirely active.

From listening to the second link above, it appears to me that this may not be sinister but merely an incompetent off-shore call center staff. However, the last time a company did things like this - AOL - it lead to a huge media firestorm and a major red face for the company. To present, XM executives appear oblivious to the issue, and since it is now the weekend it is unlikely any action will be taken until Monday. But by Monday, you can be assured some major media outlet will have picked this up and will run it as a major story. This will lead to an XM Radio stock selloff, and likely a major loss in value.

Be watching. I doubt XM is done shooting themselves in the foot quite yet.