How to win customers for life…
British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s are enjoying a boon of newfound popularity, after a customer service response went terribly right.
When three-and-a-half-year-old Lily Robinson scrawled a letter to Sainbury’s, expressing her doubts about the appearance of Tiger Bread, the publicity potential was largely unnoticed. But Sainsbury’s customer manager Chris King, aged 27-and-a-third, agreed with Lily and kindly wrote back and told her so. He went on to explain the origins of the bread’s name and questioned the Zoology skills of the baker who came up with it.
“It is called tiger bread because the first baker who made it a looong (sic) time ago thought it looked a bit stripey like a tiger. Maybe they were a bit silly.”
Eight months down the track and Sainsbury’s has caved in to a Facebook campaign, triggered by the toddler’s mum, and changed the name of its Tiger bread to Giraffe bread. Thus winning them countless publicity, popularity, new fans, and loyalty. Priceless. And a very good ROI on the three pound gift card they sent Lily.
A spokesman for the store told The Daily Telegraph: ‘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.’
Although Sainsbury’s may not have its star PR man soon. Despite, or maybe because of, King receiving hundreds of compliments for his thoughtful response, he is now training to be a primary school teacher.
Of course it is not just large supermarket chains mixing up their exotic animals, Fairfax had a bit of a Stuff-up of their own last week, announcing the birth of a new baby giraffe at Auckland Zoo.
What do you think?