My last post covered my experience with two different consumer companies and how they handled me as a consumer with a complaint. The deciding factor in keeping my brand loyalty involved recovery – going the extra step to maintain a customer relationship.
It’s not the same, or is it?
One situation involved my no longer being able to obtain a product (which I learned was discontinued), and the other involved a temporary product quality issue. Discussing this with my son, Jason, he pointed out that I was comparing apples to oranges in that recovery didn’t necessarily apply in both cases.
Jason’s point was that when Maybelline discontinued making my favorite eyeliner, they took a calculated risk to lose customers. So there was no need to retain my relationship as a customer via recovery.
I’ll admit that as a marketer I’ve never been involved in a decision to discontinue or retire a product … but I still believe recovery has a role. Perhaps it’s a result of the professional customer service & sales training I’ve taken (as well as taught) throughout my career: Don’t just tell customers what you can’t do for them, tell them what you can do for them.
I’m open to hearing from others with more experience in discontinuing a product or service – what role (if any) does recovery play? Please comment on this post or e-mail me your thoughts on this. Thanks!