Valentine's day is the hallmark card holiday of love. It is a day that flowers, cards and chocolates (among other gifts) are given to millions of women around the world.
One instance that happened to me today, got me thinking about this holiday in the eyes of a PR specialist.
Around 6pm, when I was leaving my internship in the city to get on my train- my boyfriend called me from Maryland. He sounded worried and questioned me about how my day went. When I told him it was fine, he started cursing under his breath. When I asked him what was wrong he said- "I sent you flowers, chocolates and a teddy bear to your internship office today. I can't believe it didn't get there."
For the next couple of hours he tried desperately to track down where the flowers went. At 8pm a confirmation email came to him that said the flowers were successfully delivered - apparently not, because I was on the train back to Long Island flowerless. He tried to get through to 1-800-Flowers for hours afterward and gave up for the day.
On my way home on the train, I began thinking of all the things I would implement in their company's crisis plan for these exact instances. (After, I calmed down from being so angry- of course.)
I understand that they are a huge company, but they need to make their customers feel like they are individually being taken care of. A company like that should be striving for a personal connection with the people that are ordering something from them. Something as simple as a phone call from the company to confirm that a delivery was received by the correct person would go a long way.
Time will tell how they will handle this situation, if they handle it at all. Stay tuned.
I'm sure that companies this large have a protocol, however I am pretty curious what happens. I guess its the senders responsibility to make sure it is the right address.
ReplyDeleteDid you end up getting the flowers? Did they handle the situation?
Its situations like these when companies should go the extra mile with customer service. Seeing that the valentines day presents never arrived on time and these were time sensitive presents,the company should should handle the situation in several different ways. From a PR standpoint this has the very high potential to tarnish the customers view of the company and give them a reason to express their negative views through word of mouth or even tell their story online. First the company should send an apology email or a personal phone call. Then the gifts should be free of charge since they never got there on time. Lastly the company should offer some sort of compensation.By going the extra mile the company can show customers they care and hopefully wont lose them for future business. Whether it is the fault of the company or the sender, customers are always right and therefore 1-800-flowers should bite their tongue and apologize! Sorry you didn't get your flowers on time :/
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