Question

Dr. Victoria van der Walt has to decide how to handle a complaint letter from a customer. When she received the letter, she passed it along to Paul Zimbalist, the firm’s customer ser- vice manager, to get his recommendation. Now van der Walt has a reply from Zimbalist, and she must decide how to re- spond to the customer and determine if changes are needed in her company’s customer service operations. Dr. van der Walt has a reputation as a health and nutrition guru. Her fame grew after she published two books—both of which were very popular and received a lot of attention in the press. Five years ago, Internet entrepreneur Tania Cox ap- proached her with the idea of creating a website to sell custom vitamins under Dr. Victoria’s name. Van Der Walt and Cox became partners, and the business enjoyed success in its first four years of operation. Cox handles the website technology, inventory, production, and shipping. Dr. van der Walt is the health expert, creates content provided on the website, and is in charge of marketing and customer service. The complaint letter and reply from Zimbalist follow:

Dear Dr. van der Walt,

I am a longtime fan of your books and like to visit your website for health tips. As a new grandmother, my health is even more important to me. I want to see my grandchildren graduate from high school, go to college, and have kids of their own.

You have made me a bit of a guru as well. I work out every day. People always ask me how I stay so fit and healthy. Hav- ing read both your books, I tell them they should exercise regularly and take vitamins and supplements for long-term health. I always recommend your DrV.com website and espe- cially the section on your custom vitamins. That is my favorite part of your website. I really like that you take information about me and my medical history—and then recommend cus- tom vitamins and supplements. I also like how you send me packages that each contain a daily dose.

But after my recent experiences, my loyalty to you and your company is now in jeopardy. Here is my story.

Six months ago, I went to the website to reorder my vita- mins and supplements. The home page announced a new and improved health survey and custom health program. So I went through the survey and filled out all the details—it would have been nice if you had saved some of them from my previ- ous survey. At the end of the survey the website offered me a 90-day supply of a custom set of vitamins and supplements selected for my specific needs. The $212 price was about $50 more than my previous 90-day supply, but I trusted your ad- vice so I placed the order.

About two-and-a-half months later, I phoned your 800 number for DrV.com to place a refill order. The person on the phone was very nice and asked if I wanted to set up automatic refills. I said no because I hate those automatic programs. They remind me of those book clubs that automatically send you books you don’t want if you do not reply fast enough. About a week later my order arrived—then two days later another iden- tical order arrived. I did not understand this, but I figured I would eventually use them up and I kept everything (and I was billed for both orders—$424 on my credit card). I should men- tion there was no e-mail explaining this mystery delivery. I was a little annoyed and sent an e-mail to customer service seeking an explanation. I received an automated response, “Thank you for your inquiry; someone will get back to you within 24 hours.” No one ever replied, but I forgot about it.

Then two weeks ago I received an e-mail from DrV.com telling me my refill order had been shipped and would arrive in a few days. But I did not place a refill order! I did not even need more vitamins because I was still working off the two 90-day supplies that I received three months ago. So I replied by e-mail that I did not want the order and to cancel it. A reply e-mail (from Sally) told me that I had signed up for automatic refill six months ago. I replied that I certainly had not and that I would not pay for the order that was being sent.

A few days later I received a call from Paul Zimbalist, your director of customer service. He told me that I had originally signed up for automatic refill and that was why I received vita- mins. I told him that was impossible, and he told me that unless I checked some box on my original order that this was done au- tomatically, “for my convenience.” He said there were also sev- eral warnings and that I must have missed those. Basically, I think he told me this was my fault. I did not like that one bit!!!

Mr. Zimbalist told me the vitamins were on their way, but I could refuse delivery of them. He offered to let me have them for 20 percent off if I simply kept them. Unfortunately, the vitamins were on my doorstep when I arrived home that day. I had to take the vitamins to UPS to get them shipped back to you.

You guys are no longer very good at your business. You might have a great product, but I am now seeing other vitamin companies offering the same products. I have no doubt these other companies offer better customer service. If you want me back as a customer, I would expect a formal apology from Mr. Zimbalist and a free 90-day supply. Otherwise, I figure my business will be welcomed at one of your competitors. I will be sure all my friends know about my experience at DrV.com, and I intend to post a bad review at resellerratings.com, too.

Sincerely, Maxine Slezak

Next is the reply that Paul Zimbalist sent to Dr. van der Walt concerning Maxine Slezak’s letter.

Dear Victoria,

As per your request, I reviewed Mrs. Slezak’s order history. Yes, she is a very good customer who spent almost $800 with us last year. And she is a member of our referral program— and we can count at least seven new customers she has directed to us in the last 18 months. But I want to clarify some of this particular situation.

• ∙ You might recall that our automatic refill program has been a big success. Since we instituted the program a year ago, our customer retention rate has jumped by 10 percent. There are occasional complaints, but given the large num- ber of customers we serve, the complaints are really just a “drop in the bucket.”
• ∙ When Mrs. Slezak placed her order six months ago, there were at least two different warnings about the automatic re- fill program—customers have to check a box at the bottom of the screen to “opt out” of the program. We all agreed that it was better to make them part of the program auto- matically, but to give them two chances to remove them- selves from automatic delivery.
• ∙ I do not know if we replied to her e-mail asking for cus- tomer service help.
• ∙ I did not tell Mrs. Slezak that this was her fault, but I did tell her that when she signed up there were two chances for her to choose to not be part of the automatic refill program.
• ∙ Mrs. Slezak did not get an e-mail notifying her of the first refill order because that system was not yet in place. But this has now been fixed, and the e-mail notifying her when we ship shows that this works.
• ∙ I offered her 20 percent off, as is our standard policy when we make a mistake. Considering this was her mistake, I thought this was generous.
• ∙ If Mrs. Slezak had called and asked, I could have had UPS come out and pick up the package for return to us.

I do not recommend giving her a free 90-day supply. This may simply encourage her to complain again in the future. Besides, this was not our mistake. We may be better off with- out certain customers—and I think Mrs. Slezak falls into this category.

Feel free to call me if you have any more questions. Paul

Assess the customer service operations at DrV.com. What should van der Walt do about Mrs. Slezak? What changes, if any, should van der Walt make to customer service and order- ing operations?

Use the SWOT method.

Answer 1

1. DrV.com features a terribly persuasive client service policy. It mechanically makes its customers registered for its automotive vehicle refill program and offers them 2 possibilities to prefer of it. additionally, they are doing not create it convenient for the client to prefer of the program intuitively and create it rather tough by putting prefer of check box at the tip of the screen. The client expertise is quite poor in such case and every one tho' the retention rate has augmented that rather comes from the unaware purchasers. The client service strategy may spell disaster going forward.
2. Mrs slezak as noted in her grievance ne'er opted for the autofill. She conjointly mentions that she is grandma and will not be technology savvy. She had to travel to UPS to come the order since she ne'er received a decision back from the client care as accepted by mister. Zimbalist. Ideally, the client care ought to have known as her back and told her regarding the automated enrollment of the autofill and if she desires to prefer of it, however ought to Mrs Slezal move it. Instead, mister Efrem Zimbalist was rude to her and offered her customary discount of 2 hundredth. Mrs slezak being a loyal client ought to be remunerated fairly for her discomfort and dangerous expertise, if not ninety day free provide.
3 The changes, that Van der walt ought to create to her operations are:
a. Remove the autofill feature as obligatory
b. Provide higher client expertise by reverting to any question client have at intervals four hours, use it as a metric in client metric in order that the client service groups square measure on their toes.
c. Provide higher and straightforward navigation options wherever client intuitively create selections for herself instead of client service groups taking selections for them.