Presents

Amazingly Shocking Customer Experience Stories

A BOOK OF

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Compiled By

Sonal Jaiswal & Vivek Jaiswal

Omoto

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Sainsbury’s renames ‘Tiger Bread’

• Exceptional customer service by United Airlines

• Ritz-Carlton wows its customer, and how!

• Morton’s the steakhouse literally goes the ‘extra mile’

• Flipkart goes out of its way to help a customer

Sainsbury’s renames ‘Tiger Bread’

Sainsbury's is one of the biggest supermarket chains in the United Kingdom. It hit the bull's eye with customer experience when it went ahead and renamed its 'Tiger Bread' after a little girl gave some brilliant piece of advice.

It started in May 2011, when three and a half year old Lily Robinson wrote to the supermarket and asked why its Tiger Bread was called that when it looked more like a giraffe. Have a look at the hitherto named 'Tiger Bread' and decide for yourself!

Chris King, who at that time worked in the customer service team ensured that the letter was responded to - and it was done brilliantly. King acknowledged that it was a bit weird why the Tiger Bread was called that when it actually resembled 'blotches on a giraffe than the stripes on a tiger'. He also candidly admitted that renaming the bread would be a 'brilliant idea'.

Here is the letter and its response for you.

Lily's mother posted this on her blog, and the letter and its response went viral. It trended on Twitter for a while before it died down. However, In January 2012, Twitter and Facebook was buzzing with this exchange again. Sainsbury's received thousands of emails and phone calls extolling its amazing customer experience gesture.

But that was not all. In the same month, Sainsbury's decided to give in to the overwhelming unanimous voice of its customers - that the Tiger Bread actually looked like a Giraffe. And, believe it or not, Sainsbury's changed the name of the bread to 'Giraffe Bread'. Its statement on the website said: "In response to overwhelming customer feedback that our Tiger Bread has more resemblance to a giraffe, from today we will be changing our Tiger Bread to Giraffe Bread and seeing how that goes." (Source: Why we're renaming Tiger Bread to Giraffe Bread)

Wasn't that an amazing piece of customer experience? Of actually making your customers believe that you are listening to them? Of taking feedback constructively and implementing changes accordingly?

Exceptional customer service by United Airlines!

Crew of United Airlines went above their call of duty when they delayed a flight to help a passenger say a final goodbye to his dying mother.

Sounds unreal, right? Here is the full story.

It was January 2013. Kerry Drake from San Francisco got a call from his brother informing him that his mother, who was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis for decades, was breathing her last. Kerry went ahead and booked the first flight that he could to Lubbock, Texas. His connecting flight to Lubbock was via Houston, and it was the last for the day. He also had only a 40 minute stopover, but the circumstances demanded that he takes the risk.

Unfortunately, his first flight (United flight 667) was delayed by half hour. It goes without saying that Kerry was distraught. The extremely empathetic flight attendants brought him some napkins to wipe off his tears. They also conveyed the plight of the customer to the captain – passing on the details of his connecting flight. The captain, in turn radioed ahead the information apprising the Lubbock crew of the situation. This is when the crew of the connecting flight decided to delay the departure of the aircraft to ensure that Kerry would be able to board in time.

Kerry had been in panic-mode since, rushing to catch his second flight, when he heard the gate agent say, ‘Mr. Drake, we’ve been expecting you.’ It was only after he settled into the second flight, from Houston to Lubbock when he realised how much effort and coordination had gone into helping him board the plane. But that was not all! The Houston crew had also ensured that his luggage arrived in time.

With so many forces conspiring in helping him meet his mother, it is little wonder that Kerry reached the hospital, well in time to meet his mother. “At one point she opened her eyes, and I think she recognised me,” said Drake, who spent the night at the hospital. “Around 4 a.m. she had a real moment of coherence, a last rally, although we didn’t know it at the time. It was the last time.”

She died that morning.

Upon his return, Kerry ensured that he had written to the crew of United Airlines, expressing gratitude for their immense help and support.

Truly, this IS one of the most amazingly shocking stories of excellent customer experience! Don’t these kind of stories reinstate our faith in humankind?

Ritz-Carlton wows its customer, and how!

The luxury hotel chain Ritz-Carlton is known for providing its customers exceptional experience and delight. Many a times, we hear heads of organisations of varied industries saying that they’d aspire to be the ‘Ritz-Carlton’ of their respective industry.

Read on to know how Ritz-Carlton provided exemplary customer service. Something every organisation must take inspiration from.

In 2012, Chris Hurn, founder and CEO of Fountainhead Commercial Capital wrote about the absolute delight they experienced, thanks to Ritz-Carlton. Hurn’s wife and their two kids had spent a few days at the Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island (Florida). Once they were back, they realized that Joshie, their son’s beloved stuffed toy – a giraffe, got left behind.

Hurn’s son was heart-broken and was finding it difficult to go to sleep in the absence of his companion. (Have a look at Joshie in the picture below!) That was when Hurn, the concerned parent told him a lie – that Joshie was taking a longer vacation and was still at the resort.

Hurn got a call from the resort telling him that Joshie was safe and sound at the resort, under the care of the Loss Prevention team. He confessed to them the lie that he had told his son, and made the team a request – to click a few pictures of Joshie by the poolside on a lounge chair.

A couple of days later the Hurns received a package from the resort. In the package came Joshie, along with some merchandise from Ritz-Carlton like a football, frisbee etc. But that was not all! The package also had a binder that meticulously documented Joshie’s stay at the resort and all the fun he’d had.

Here is proof of the amazing time that Joshie had.

Joshie chilling by the poolside Joshie making other friends

Joshie getting a massage at the spa Joshie driving a golf cart on the beach

Joshie was also made a member of the Loss Prevention Team! Here is his ID card:

After this experience, Ritz-Carlton definitely found a customer for life, and rightly so!

Wasn’t that a truly incredible example of how you can totally WOW your customer?

Morton’s The Steakhouse literally goes the ‘extra mile’

In August 2011, author and entrepreneur Peter Shankman experienced amazing customer service, thanks to Morton’s. Shankman knew he was going to have a long, busy and tiring day; he was to catch a 7 AM flight out of Newark to reach Florida, and return by 9 PM. He also knew that this chock-a-block schedule would hardly give him the time to pick dinner on his way back home.

A self-confessed steak lover, Shankman began having visions of steak when he was on his flight back to Newark. He picked up his phone and jokingly tweeted to Morton’s.

Shankman was only joking and had absolutely no expectation from the tweet. A couple of hours later, Shankman alighted at the Newark Liberty International Airport. He began walking towards the parking area, keeping a look-out for his driver. He finally saw his name on a placard, waved to his driver and began his walk towards him. That is when his driver mentioned to him that he had a surprise waiting.

Shankman turned to see another man in a tuxedo standing beside his driver. And what he noticed next was that the man was holding a Morton’s bag! Alex, the representative from Morton’s then told him that he had brought him a 24 oz. Porterhouse steak, an order of Colossal Shrimp, a side of potatoes and bread.

Shankman was zapped – this was THE quintessential example of customer experience. He also analysed that the closest Morton’s outlet was 23.5 miles away from the airport. This meant that, in just under a few hours, Morton’s saw the tweet, acknowledged it, got his request sanctioned, communicated this to the local Morton’s outlet, tracked his flight and handed it over to him.

Isn’t that an absolutely incredible story?!

Obviously, Shankman thanked Morton’s for their outstanding service. And there is little doubt that Morton’s found a customer for life.

Flipkart, goes out of its way to help a customer

Rajagopal Natarajan was due to travel by train the next day. He agreed with the old saying that there is no better travel companion than a book. Since he did not have enough time to buy a book, he did the next best thing he could –order one online. This happened to be through the India’s biggest e-commerce website, Flipkart.

The delivery address was in Bangalore and Mr. Natarajan was promised a delivery time of 3 working days. However, regular Indian online shoppers would know from experience that purchases to big cities generally happen on the same day. Mr. Natarajan assumed the same and went ahead with the order.

However, what Mr. Natarajan had not anticipated was that Flipkart had scaled up, and had added new warehouses within the city and had more than doubled their logistics team. And because of all the new processes and teams, there were some unexpected inefficiencies and delays.

The shipment had not arrived until noon the day Mr. Natarajan was due to travel. Not taking anything away from Flipkart, as they still had a couple of business days to deliver the consignment to their client.

It was then that Mr. Natarajan called the Customer Care at Flipkart and explained his situation to them. That he had hoped that, like always, Flipkart would deliver his order the same day and that he would have his travel companion with him. The executive immediately gave him the contact number of the delivery in charge of the warehouse where his book was available. Mr. Natarajan called them to check on the status of the delivery, but what happened next took him by surprise.

The delivery in charge and his colleague literally ‘went the extra mile’ and travelled more than 15 kms to deliver the book at his office!! On a general Bangalore-day, the distance would take over an hour to cover. What is even more commendable is that the book cost only Rs. 150 (just around $2.5). Very obviously, it was not required of them that the book be delivered that day, but then, isn’t that what great customer service is all about?

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