We’ve had a subscription to Time Out Sydney magazine since they launched late last year. Not only is it a great way of planning our social life but it also has great Sydney photos thanks to Dan’s awesome photography.
But we’ve had problems with the subscription for most of the time we’ve had it. We got it regularly for about 6 weeks - every Wednesday it arrived in the mail. Then it starting arriving on Thursdays, then Fridays.
I called them and they fixed it and it was perfect for a few months. Recently we’ve started getting it on Fridays again. Not great for a weekly magazine that comes out on Wednesdays.
Anyway Scott was a little tipsy last week and shot them off a smart-arsed email. The response was amazing - he just got an email back from one of the co-founders, who was horrified at the experience. I hope he doesn’t mind me repeating some of it here because it’s the sort of email that warms my heart.
Trust me, it’s not for want of trying to ensure timely delivery that we have failed you. We rely on (a) a third party subscription fulfillment house (b) a mailing house and (c) most painfully, Australia Post to get you your subscription. Because we are an independent, small publisher (ie. comparatively low mailing numbers) it’s hard for us to always get the attention that we deserve (and clearly need). These are our problems, not yours, but I would hate for you to think that we weren’t trying.
…
We’re (yet again) going to meet with our suppliers (your email in hand) to see if we can’t find a permanent solution. Thanks for letting us know about your experience because it will help us try and fix things.
To me, this is the perfect response. He explained the issues, however also took responsibility and didn’t make it our problem (Nokia, please take notes). He’s been keeping us updated as to his progress with Australia Post, and he’s asked us to let him know what days it gets delivered for the next few weeks so he can monitor our subscription. This is pretty amazing for a $100 a year magazine - they can’t be making a profit from this at all!
It just shows the passion that they are working with, and it really comes through in this customer experience - they have turned what was a fairly mediocre experience around and made us incredibly loyal customers for life.
This post is tagged under: random thoughts
Yup, a potential disaster turned into a great experience with minimal effort on their side. These guys were great and I am so stoked on these results.
Great lesson on turning a potentially bad customer service into a ‘word of mouth’ campaign that can actually will now work in their favour and hopefully boost their brand. I am glad I can actually feedback and help them out with the one problem with their subscription service.
If a bank or telco treated me like this I would sign my first born without hesitation :-)