Not every innovation turns out as expected. Regardless of what you learn from focus groups or test marketing, the real-world experience may be different. The question is, how well do you respond when it’s obvious you’ve made a mistake? Those of us old enough to remember Coca Cola Company’s disastrous rollout of New Coke back in 1985 know firsthand what happens when a company doesn’t aggressively deal with a problem. I won’t recount that fiasco here. Just type “New Coke Disaster” into your search engine and you can read all about it.
What I will do in today’s blog is describe three innovation blunders I’ve personally come across in the last three weeks. In each case, I wrote to the company to voice my concern and ask that they fix the problem. In each case I got a reply. The differences in these replies illustrate the difference between companies that are in touch with their customers and those that aren’t.
My first example is that of Bull’s Eye Original Barbecue Sauce. A product of Kraft Foods, it was introduced in 1985 with a slogan, “The Big, Bold Taste of Bull's Eye.” It does fairly well in reviews (see here for example), and I’ve been slathering it over barbecued ribs, burgers, and chicken since its introduction. I recently opened a new bottle and rather than finding the familiar thick brown syrupy paste, I found a watery, tan substitute. It didn’t stick to the meat, didn’t end up slightly caramelized when cooked, and had a weak flavor. I double-checked the label, and while it had a different design, it still said “Original.” So I fired off an email to Kraft with my complaint.
I got a quick response from Kim McMiller, Associate Director of Consumer Relations. She apologized for my disappointment and explained that they have eliminated the use of High Fructose Corn Syrup in the product’s recipe (no explanation for why—cost savings, health reasons?). She promised to share my complaint with the product development staff and promised to send a check for a full reimbursement to me. The quick promise of a refund suggested I wasn’t the first to complain. I sent a note of thanks and expressed hope that they would revert to the true “Original” formula. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
Barbecues need charcoal (I refuse to switch to gas), and my next example comes from Kingsford, the source of my charcoal for the last 30 years. I usually buy the 20-lb bags, which shrank to 18 lbs a few years ago. At the time, Kingsford claimed the new briquets lasted the same as the old ones. The most recent bags I bought were only 16.6 lbs, but were still claimed to last the same as the old ones (which raises the question, "How low can you go?"). My experience was not pleasant. The new briquets took much longer to light and never got as hot as the old ones. My Weber has a built-in thermometer so it was easy for me to tell. The old briquets could easily get up to 400-450 F, while the new ones had a hard time getting over 300 F. They might last as long, but only because they aren't burning as hot.
So I wrote a letter of complaint to Kingsford. Again I got a rapid reply. Patti Cooper, a Consumer Response Representative, apologized for my experience, said it was unusual, and promised to send a coupon for a replacement bag. Unlike Kraft, she didn’t acknowledge any change in formulation, but at least she understood my problem and offered to do something about it.
My final example is Comcast. As a Comcast customer, I like to use the Comcast.net home page to see the latest news, sports, and entertainment stories. Up until recently, I could access the same page from either my personal computer or my iPhone. But a couple of weeks ago, Comcast launched a new mobile site so that when I try to access Comcast.net from my iPhone, I get redirected to the mobile site, m.comcast.net, instead.
I hate the mobile site. Where previously I could scan all the news and decide what I want to read from a single screen, now it takes multiple clicks just to get to where I can see one article. I don’t want the mobile site, I want the main Comcast.net site on my iPhone. But I can’t find any way to get it. I know it must be possible because when Amazon made a similar change awhile back, they sensibly gave me the option to retain the classic view.
So I wrote Comcast explaining my problem. I got a reply from Angelo. He obviously didn’t understand my question, thought I was having problems accessing Comcast.net from a PC, and gave me a list of instructions for making sure I was using a compatible browser. I wrote back further clarifying my problem and got a second response from Ann. She apologized for me not being able to access Comcast.net from my iPhone and proceeded to give me instructions for how to access the mobile site—the exact thing I didn’t want to do. Exasperated, I thought I’d try one more time, reiterating that I didn’t want to access the mobile site, I wanted to access the main site. This time I got a response from Ernesto (apparently no one at Comcast has a last name), who again apologized and proceeded to once again tell me how to access the mobile site from my iPhone. Both of these last two responses were obviously canned paragraphs. No one at Comcast apparently reads emails, they must do a word search and send out a canned answer based on the number of times a certain word appears in the email. At this point I’ve about given up, although I will try one more time, asking to talk to a supervisor, before I finally surrender.
With Kraft, I felt my complaint was heard and understood. There’s a good chance my feedback will actually get to the product development team. Whether they change back to their old formula is another question, but at least I'm being heard.
With Kingsford, I felt my complaint was being heard, although I wasn’t as confident it was understood. I’m not sure whether any feedback will make it to the product development team, but if enough people complain, it probably will.
With Comcast, my complaint was neither heard nor understood. I’m quite sure the developers of the Comcast mobile site will never hear my request for an option to get to the main site. Perhaps they feel it isn’t necessary to pay attention to one lone consumer, but here’s the fallout from that attitude. I’m just about to select a new phone and high-speed Internet provider for my business, a much more lucrative proposition than my home service. Although I haven’t finally selected a provider, you can bet that Comcast won’t make the final cut.
No comments:
Post a Comment