Here’s a quick customer service test:
On Saturday 11/21, Lego – they of Danish building block fame – put on an event called Lego Kids Fest at the Hartford Civic Center in Connecticut.
They promoted it in their magazine received by Lego Club members across the country, on their website, in calendars, all over locally and was picked up in many corners of cyberspace.
My son and his mom drove the 2 1/2 hours from Albany yesterday afternoon, he’s a Lego-head and a member of the club.
Turns out, they weren’t even allowed to get off the exit for the arena.
The event was mayhem. It was oversold and over capacity. The fire department started to eject attendees. Hundreds of 7 year olds stood outside with their parents howling in disappointment.
My wife called Lego in San Diego and a customer service rep said that they hadn’t promoted it and were taken by surprise. When informed that it was promoted everywhere an event could be, a supervisor came on and came clean. “I’ve gotten calls from several families. We just weren’t prepared.”
OK. Fine. A case of be careful what you wish for. Now we’ll see how Lego will respond.
What would you do?
Posted by: Steve Banis
First, use the same advertising venues – particularly the Lego Club, to thank everyone, and state plainly and apologetically (though not overly) that they were unprepared for the numbers that turned out.
Second, as a token of their gratitude for the exceptional turn out, and as a consolation for those that couldn’t get in or were disappointed, provide some type of promotional product, coupon, discount, etc. Send them to a website to redeem and capture a few bits of attitudinal data.
Make sure everyone is still okay. The survey could be structured to highlight the really pissed off folks – this could trigger a more personalized apology. Best you can do. Can’t change the past and some people are just pissy
Finally, prepare better next year.
Comment by Jayme — December 4, 2009 @ 11:42 am
Simple, I’d schedule more events… lots and lots of events.
Comment by John Braat — December 10, 2009 @ 4:35 pm