April 25, 2006
how to make a customer happy
you folks know by now that i'm a pretty positive guy, usually taking opportunities to build people up, rather than rant or be critical. i'm usually all about writing letters to managers and corporate offices when i feel that someone has gone out of their way to make my shopping experience better.
so, it was pretty uncharacteristic of me when i sent off an email to gatorade, blasting them for their marketing of the gatorade endurance formula for the boston marathon. see, i'm a cytomax guy, but when i saw in runner's world that gatorade endurance was going to be on the course, i got excited and wanted to train with the race fluid for a change, and not have to take my own fluids. problem is, i like powdered drinks. i like to mix my own fluids at different consistencies so that i can cut them with water over the course of a long run and make six bottles on a fuel belt turn into 10 or more.
so, imagine my dismay when i found out that none of the local specialty shops i frequent didn't offer the mix, nor any of the online outlets and all i could get my hands on was the bottled drink at the local supermarket. so, i hit the gatorade website one night in frustration, trying to find where i could get the powder, or at least the fluid. the only thing i could track down was that the bottles were available at the local supermarket, but hey, click here and get a coupon! so, still frustrated, i clicked and went through a 'coupon service' sign up. at one point, the service wanted to walk me through all sorts of q&a, and if i remember correctly wanted to put an active x control on the pc. i immediately thought 'adware', cancled the sign-up, and in my frustrated state, got really ticked off and fired off the following nasty email to gatorade:
I want to let you know how disappointed I am with your product offerings. As a sports drink company, you should be in tune with your users, athletes. When marketing to the Boston Marathon crowd, you're marketing to the top marathon runners in the nation. First off, to only offer the liquid version of your product and to have the powder version unavailable via your website or any other online or retail venue is inexcusable. Second, forcing users to sign up with a 'coupon' service to get your coupon for the liquid version and be subjected to their adware and other marketing junk shows your lack of concern for the user. Give us a normal pdf printable version of the coupon already.Cytomax, Endurox, Amino Vital, Power Bar and every other endurance sports drink offer their product in powder form at retail and online outlets. So, you advertise in Runners World Magazine that the drink will be on the course, but how do you expect us to train like we normally do with our other drinks when we can't get our hands on the powder?
Bad marketing, bad product selection and bad commitment to your users, I say.
much to my surprise, i received an email the following day, not a form email either, stating that the powder was temporarily unavailable and that they'd be sending me some coupons. i had calmed down by that point, and this helped ease the frustration. meanwhile, smsmh, the ever loving wife, had headed off to vons to pick up a bunch of the fluid for me so that i could train with it. it just meant planning drop points and refuel points differently.
over the next few weeks, i trained exclusively with the gatorade endurance formula and really came to like the flavor. not being as sweet as the regular gatorade, i found that i could stomach it late in a long run and was quite happy that it was going to be on the course at boston.
you have all read the boston results, and i'd have to say that part of my performance went to being very well hydrated throughout the race, and knowing that the sports drink was something i was used to made me much more receptive to using what was on the course. i actually took a two bottle fuel belt on the race with cytomax mixed to double strength, and figured i'd take a swig and a sip of water to get me through the race, but ended up finishing with both bottles almost full.
the nasty email a distant thought, i was surprised to see a large box sitting on the doorstep when i got home from my ride last night. it was from gatorade, and the box was not light. i opened it up and was surprised, pleased and humbled by the following letter, HAND SIGNED by tom prochaska
Dear Mr. SmithYour note regarding Gatorade Endurance Formula was recently forwarded to me. I handle all endurance sport related marketing for Gatorade throughout the country. First let me apologize for our out-of-stock situation on Endrance Formula powder. We recently converted to a new canister and encountered a series of productions issue during a two-week window where we had no inventory to fulfill customer request. Unfortunately, it was just three weeks prior to Boston and many consumers were effected. I'm also concerned that you can not find our powder product at retail. We purposely don't sell it to grocery and mass merchants so that specialty stores (running, cycling, etc) have an exclusive item to offer. I need to investigate our distribution in the Los Angeles/San Diego market.
We use CoolSavings as our online couponing service. We deliberately choose them for their high integrity and commitment to not use adware or your email for spam. For security and financial pruposes, we ask you to identify yourself as a control. This allows us to provide a coupon to each consumer without opening ourselves to potential online fraud. I'm disappointed that you think we're unconcerned about our consumers. We donate a significant amount of product to distance races, cycling events and triathlons each year to provide race participants with fluid and electrolyte replacement. We are very concerned about the safety of our consumers and I'm proud of our commitment to endurance sports.
Last, I like to congratulate you on completing your first Boston Marathon in a great debut effort of 3:19. Very impressive race and strong showing through the Newton hills! I've enclosed a ~150 1qt product samples and a few FREE coupons (no name necessary) to help with your training this summer.
Safe Training,
Tom
Tom Prochaska
Gatorade Sports Marketing
inside was about 144+ individual 16oz powder packets of Gatorade Endurance formula.
okay...i think i've had a full serving of crow. as i read through that i really thought about how infantile my comments were. yes, perception is everything, but i'm a thinking, rational adult and i shouldn't have lashed out like that. tom and the folks at gatorade, i take back my vitriol and commend you on your effort to make good, and for everything you guys do for the sport. thanks. you've won back a customer.
Technorati Tags: running, gatorade, hydration, eating crow
Posted by jeff at April 25, 2006 8:30 AMComments
Now that's good customer service. You had a legitimate gripe, and it's good to see a major sport drink maker take it seriously and try to make amends. I must just pick losers to take on because I never get the kind of response you do. More like 'Go ahead and take your business elsewhere" (which I do!) Go, Gatorade.
Posted by: Anne at April 25, 2006 10:30 AMWow - I've complained to various and sundry businesses over the years, and while I have only gotten the "Take your business elsewhere, then" once or twice, I don't recall ever getting anything more substantial than a phone call or a (non-form) email. That's pretty danged impressive - especially with as much as they sent you.
Posted by: Nugai at April 25, 2006 10:45 AMThere's nothing finer than a personal touch. Tom makes the difference here - he could have shook you off but choose to offer care. Clearly, he has earned his place at Gatorade Sports Marketing!
Some people still choose to make a difference. He's a bit like you.
Posted by: Robb Runner at April 25, 2006 11:45 AMwow, a hand signed letter! you don't see those very often. good customer service.
Posted by: deene at April 25, 2006 12:04 PMWhat more can be said than "excellent"? Wow!
Posted by: mark at April 25, 2006 12:07 PMWow. Very cool that you got such a great response from Gatorade. I personally really like the Endurance product and am glad to hear that the powder is available...I'll be looking for it.
Kudos to you for speaking your mind and to Tom at Gatorade for listening and responding with a sincere and thoughtful note.
That type of customer service is such a wonderful thing to experience and it seems I find it more in endurance sports-related companies than anywhere else (or maybe that's where I spend all my free $$). Emilio De Soto from De Soto Sport is another great guy who comes to mind.
Great job at Boston, btw.
PS. I've been lurking at your site for a while and finally posted a comment. And I'm using your btt log script on my own blog. Thanks!
Posted by: jp at April 25, 2006 1:34 PMWow! Their response is so very impressive. So impressive that I may have to try some powdered gatorade. That is... if I can find any... Hopefully that shortage has been fixed and I can give it a shot. I have used Gu powder for that same mixing reason and I've found gatorade to be way too sweet. But if you can make your own mix.
Oh and I hope you enjoyed the crow ;)
Posted by: Jessica at April 25, 2006 6:23 PMExcellence in customer service ... it's an art, really. Great story.
Posted by: beverly at April 25, 2006 7:47 PMGot any ideas on the letter I could write to get my small T-shirt from the Boston Marathon? I'm still not happy about that!
Posted by: Meredith at April 26, 2006 3:44 AMI have to say, I am impressed by Gatorade. Personal touch is always a good sign. I don't think you have to be ashamed of anything though. I think your email was justified, seeing as you had a genuine gripe. Your last sentence was over the top, but I'm sure they got over that.
Posted by: Thomas at April 26, 2006 5:23 AMwow. well done you for voicing your concern, and well done them for stepping up to the plate and correcting a wrong!
Posted by: a.maria at April 26, 2006 5:23 AMYeah, that does sound uncharacteristic of you to get so worked up. It would have perterbed me aswell. I'm glad they responded so well to you.
Do they know you have a blog? That you're an Internet celebrity? That you can influence the decisions of hundreds of people based on what you write here? That you have POWER? OK, that's overstated a bit, but the cynic in me says maybe they factored in those things.
More likely is that there's just a really stand-up guy who works for Gatorade. If he doesn't know about your blog, you should forward him this post.
Posted by: Donald at April 26, 2006 2:15 PMGreat story, Jeff, and I ditto Donald's suggestion that you forward the URL of your blog to Tom at Gatorade. Serious marketers need to be aware of bloggers...a major niche and will tell them volumes. If they listen.
Hope your recovery is going well!!
Posted by: Joe at April 26, 2006 5:57 PMi was like so stoked to read this for some reason. sometimes you wonder if anyone up on top really listens.
i'm glad to hear they care about your concerns.
and i'm glad you sent a note. maybe if more honchos know how disappointing they are, things would change
enjoy the juice!
I'd have expressed the same frustration if i were you - and their reply was STELLAR. Very cool of them to respond like that. Great post!
Posted by: tracy at April 27, 2006 7:13 AMwow
glad you spoke up, glad they listened!
(glad i read this post, because i've been wanting endurance formula in powdered form and couldn't find it!)
Posted by: Angie at April 27, 2006 11:54 AMYou did have a legitimate complaint, even if you may have fired off the e-mail in anger. Don't worry too much about it. I'm glad to see they took the time to respond to you and address your specific concerns.
Posted by: Dawn at April 27, 2006 4:06 PMI'm always glad to see the large corporations listen to their customers. It doesn't happen often now. Hmmm, I wonder if Garmin would listen to me? Maybe I would get a new Forerunner????? Anyway, glad it worked out for you and good of you to post your efforts (and theirs) here.
Posted by: susie at April 27, 2006 4:22 PMNow, THAT is the essence of excellent customer service. To be able to take a disgruntled, unhappy customer, and make them into loyal supporters! Plus, good customer service peeps know that one unhappy customer can do a lot more damage than one happy customer can do well for them. (I hope the typos in his letter weren't his, though, gah!)
Good job all round. Don't feel bad. You were right to let Gatorade know the situation. Wouldn't you want to know how your product was perceived? You did them a FAVOR, jeff! Plus now we're all evangelists for gatorade too! win-win-win!
Posted by: Jeanne at April 27, 2006 6:07 PMI just got 20 coupons from them "for my athletes". Teehee. I have no clue why they think I have athletes. Looks like I will be making 20 stops at the store for free Gatorade! Score!
What a great system they must have, they could have totally ignored your email or written it off.
Kudos to Gatorade. I have always prefered their stuff :)
Posted by: Elizabeth at April 28, 2006 5:16 AMI wish that I had thought of training with the stuff because it turned my stomach on race day, being used to the regular gatorade. As a result I may have become dehydrated and had many issues with crampy quads. Smart plan and lesson learned for next time.
Posted by: Mike Power at April 28, 2006 2:48 PMWow that's awesome and at least you have gatorade to wash down the crow. See it does pay to complain.
Posted by: Dawn (aka Pink Lady) at April 29, 2006 12:42 PMFrom one who tends to lash out from time to time as well I think you had a justified complaint and sometimes I think we just need to say what we mean and deal with the consequences afterwards. You said your peace and they heard what you had to say and made a peace offering. Looks like you'll have plenty of product to test out for awhile.
Posted by: Rob at April 29, 2006 8:22 PMI commend you for giving the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say. A lot of people would just bitch and let it go. You're a class act.
Posted by: Dori at May 9, 2006 6:36 PMHi,
If you're still looking for Gatorade EF formual it's actually sold exclusively through FuelBelt and FB stores. Call their 800 number or check the website... I know this for a fact because I worked there! Great company and product... to bad I had to move and leave them :(
Tell them I referred you and I bet they'll hook you up with something special!
Regards,
Nicole
This is a note from an UNHAPPY CUSTOMER. After drinking more than half of a 20 oz of a Frost Glacier Freeze, I noticed that there was something on the bottom of bottle. It it very disgusting and looks like a slug. I am very upset about this, since I always have Gatorade in my house for my grandchildren.
This is the only site where I could find a place to comment.
Posted by: Anise at September 12, 2006 11:37 AM