Customer Service with a Happy Ending
Back in December, I read on Blogging Baby about a diaper bag from a company called Passchal. They called it their "dad's baby bag." It is no secret that I love bags. I had been shopping for the right diaper bag since a long time before my little guy was born, and still hadn't decided on one yet. I sent the link for the Passchal diaper bag to my brother, stating both how cool the bag was, and how cool that it's made from recycled inner tubes. The smell of inner tube rubber may be off-putting to some but to me, it evokes memories of Summer time in Texas, visiting Schlitterbahn or floating down the Comal River.
So I guess I wasn't too surprised (ok slightly) when I opened my Christmas gift from my brother, and there was the bag. Mama's very own "dad's diaper bag." I swiftly packed up the essentials into my new bag (Mama's got a brand new bag!). Diapers, wipes, cream, change of clothes, pens, lip gloss, you know - the essentials! I stuck the bag next to the door and even was able to pack a small sized football in for a trip to the park. As we were leaving, I went to pick my lovely new bag up, and the strap ripped free of the bag and flew in my general direction, causing me to lose hold of the strap, and the bag, and luckily not anything else as I was holding my baby. At first I was shocked, but I just clipped it back on and went on my way.
Then, it happened again. And again. And several more times after that. It just didn't feel right. I've made several bags in the past and I have to admit, the clips did seem a little light weight for the size and function of the bag. I wanted to love the bag, but it did not want to love me back. So after much hoping that the problem would resolve itself (why don't they ever just resolve themselves, problems?) I faced up and realized that I didn't love the bag this way.
So I bucked up and e-mailed the folks at Passchal. I told them that I do love so many things about the bag but then I itemized the things that I thought were weak points about the bag. I felt a little guilty griping and moaning but I felt like it could at least benefit the future owners of this bag somehow, so I did it anyway. I tried to make it clear that I did like the bag but I thought it could be better. Minutes later, I got a response from Passchal's co-founder. He asked me to stop using the bag for now and asked my address so he could send me a new, improved bag. I was so impressed with this response that I sent my address right away and included my phone number in case they wanted to ship with Fedex or something. Not a second after I hit send, my phone rang. It was Ken, co-founder of Passchal, calling me to thank me for my feedback and also let me know he was going to send a replacement strap, but still not to use the bag around the baby. Wow - that is some customer service! He actually thanked me for being so nice as he said he wouldn't have been as kind with that kind of feedback. He also mentioned that they didn't have the capital to put together focus groups when they rolled out the product, so feedback like this was essential for his business.
So guess what? Mama's gettin ANOTHER brand new bag! And daddy might get the leftovers as a messenger bag - if he's lucky ;) I feel a little bad receiving the free bag, but I'm certainly happy with the way they handled the situation. Anyone else had huge success with customer service? I think small business does a better job of it, so I'd love to hear about some local businesses who really stand behind their product like this.
That's a great story. We had disappointing customer service from a different company that makes recycled tire products (we explained how the handle tore off after only a few months and their response was "well, these things are biodegradable"). On the other hand I want to share great customer service from a local company: Queenbee. I have a truckette from them that I use nearly everyday and, likely from my own overstuffing, one of the shoulder straps started to tear out. I called and asked if I could pay them to repair it and they not only fixed it for free but reinforced the other side to prevent this from happening again. And a year plus later - still no problems. Given their great service (and spiffy bags) it was an easy decision to buy our diaper bag from them.
Posted by: rosebengal | March 09, 2007 at 11:32 AM
You shouldn't feel bad for getting a new bag! Do you know how much focus groups costs? Tens of thousands when you use an agency! For the cost of one product you gave that company hundreds of dollars in value. Everyone should speak up! If companies don't get honest feedback they can't stay competitive. They want to hear from you!
Posted by: Kat | March 09, 2007 at 11:46 AM
that's awesome. i try to call companies often when they are doing well, as well as poorly! and if i could do focus groups as a part time job, i'd be all over it. they love the opinionated folks, i do as many as i can. how else can you really get through and tell people how to change their product and make it better?
recently i had some great customer service from BOON, inc. they're the company that makes those frogpod bath toy organizers. they also make potty seats and highchairs too. i got a frogpod as a gift last june, and loved it. a month after it was on the wall, the support bracket (attached w/ doublesticky stuff) fell down (thankfully no babe in the tub when it did). i called then to see if they could send me more sticky stuff, which they promptly did after profusely apologizing. now 6 months later it fell again! just last week i called and talked to customer service. not only did they rush over more adhesive, they did some troubleshooting on the phone to figure out why it won't stay put. in addition to the sticky, they're sending me a new style bracket and all the hardware needed (including screws) to mount it another way (that wasn't available earlier). the package arrived really fast, i have to say their service is great.
another place i used recently was radio flyer. i purchased a push trike, the kind with the parent steered controls on the back, at a yard sale for $5. unfortunately the seat attached to it doesn't have a strap, and my daughter isn't big enough yet to stay on by herself. when i called the company i was hoping to order some sort of strap, or a new seat to attach to the trike. i was honest and told them i got it at a yard sale and was looking for new attachments. they told me the model is 2 years old, so they don't sell the same type anymore or make any attachments for that specific model. however they do still make one trike with a strap seat. then the woman took my information, and they sent me the new seat with a strap for free! didn't even charge for shipping. i thought that was pretty great.
Posted by: virginia Meyers | March 11, 2007 at 04:45 PM