Saturday, February 18, 2006

Swiss Cottage Cabs, Shari's Berries, and responsibility evasion

Duck responsibility, enrage a customer. As Seth Godin explains, it really is that simple. He publishes an email sent to a customer of Shari’s Berries, about a $65+ order for chocolate covered strawberries that they guaranteed would be delivered on Valentine’s Day:

Dear XXXXXXXXXXXXX,

We are writing to inform you that your order for delivery February 14th was not shipped yesterday as requested.

We are prepared to ship your order on February 14th for arrival on the 15th ..  Alternatively, you do have the option of canceling your order, but we’d
rather you did not.

We regret that your order did not ship as requested and in consideration of this delay, if you wish us to still ship the order, we will provide a discount of 40% off the normal product price.

Please choose which course of action you wish that we take by replying to this email or by sending an email to service@berries.com.

Sincerely,

Shari’s Berries Customer Service Team

If this seems to you like a reasonable way to serve a disappointed customer, listen to Seth.

"Swiss Cottage Cabs, Shari's Berries, and responsibility evasion" continued...