I’ve always loved Steve Jobs’ famous quote about good design, “You know a design is good when you want to lick it!”
And, when I saw my first Keurig Coffee Brewing System and used my first K-Cup, I became a lip smacking fool of a fan of their well designed brand.
My wife got me one for Christmas last year and I was psyched. So, you can imagine my disappointment when all of a sudden – a few months shy of our 7-month anniversary – my Keurig went Kaput!
Luckily (I thought), I still had my receipt and went to the Macy’s Department Store where my Keurig and I were married. Unfortunately, Macy’s said that they wouldn’t accept the return because my service issue was outside of their 180-day return window. I felt like throwing the not so nice Macy’s salesperson out of said window!
Trudging back to my car with my Kaput Keurig, I thought I should call King Keuring directly and try my luck and I’m so thankful I did.
Here’s what happened:
- I called their free 866 number
- I had just two cool options – press one to place an order or press two for customer service
- There was no “press two for Spanish”
- A real person in customer service answered my call on the third ring
- She was lovely and oh so nice and listened to me
- After a brief and easy qualification conversation, she quickly sent me over to another very nice lady
- She asked me a few easy questions and said, “I’ll send you another one free this week along with a box of K-Cups”
- All I need to do is send back – as proof of purchase – the little cup inside the unit, no receipt needed
WOW! I’m now a bigger fan than ever!
Here’s the marketing point.
No matter how good your product or service is – something will go wrong – it’s not an “if” it’s a “when.” So, you need to plan for the when. First, you work to build something the very best you can. Then, build processes to ensure your brand promise is delivered when things go wrong.
Keurig will sell me – rather they’ll partner with me 0n many more purchases in my lifetime. Plus, my little circle of influence will hear my Keurig pledge allegience time and again and I’m sure some will buy Keurig products and/or influence others too.
They’ll save advertising (some call extortion dollars) dollars too. They’ll get great word of mouth from me (already have) and they have my email address to keep me in the loop with their latest and greatest news. Net – the little expense they spent on delivering their brand promise to me is an investment that will reap far more dividends in the future.
And, I’m sure their cost to satisfy my needs are based on some defect calculation because no one is perfect. So what? I love the fact, that they recognize their challenges, step up and deliver and strive to be the best – that’s why I’m Krazy about Keurig!
I bet you will be too.
