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Rituals Legendary Comeback

By Quilin Achat on Friday 13th November
my colleague, Chiller-gifting barista, & mois

my colleague, Chiller-gifting barista, & moi

I’m still so blown-away by this past week’s experience, that I’m still pinching myself to make sure i’m not dreaming.  So, Rituals is having a “Buy One, Get One Free” promotion, Mon-Thurs in their stores.  Being a former frappaucino drinker and now a chiller drinker I was excited to take part in this offer.  This past Tuesday (which is Chiller day), I took a colleague as a treat and walked to our  nearest location.  What happened next, led to a series of events that had the most shocking of outcomes.

We entered to a buzzing coffeehouse ( no pun intended), and clearly the chillers were the order of the day. As we lined up waiting for our turn, I overheard the cashier calling out four available flavours and then saying that whatever flavour they chose, the free one had to be that too.  Well from, ‘bubblegum, green tea, strawberry and heath mocha’ as my inevitable choices, things started to go downhill.

After ordering strawberry, we had about a 7-10min wait as the barista tried to blend four drinks in one blender.  By the time we got it, the consistency was watery and the drink, very pink.   I sulked and complained all the way back to the office.

What  provoked me to write an email to the contacts off their website was this:  I worked for Starbucks for 4yrs, so when it comes to coffee, i’m spoilt.  Second, while I stood there waiting for the drinks in flavours I didn’t want, with my friend that I had offered to treat, I noticed half-full tubs of flavours labeled “white chocolate”, “hazelnut”.  Hey!  I wasn’t offered those! I wanted to shout.  So, I thought this was some great marketing ploy to get rid of undesirable flavours, and I said so in my e-mail to Mr. Mahabir their Business Analyst.

The following day a manager had called to apologise for my experience and explain to me that staff had actually gone against the policy and procedures of the deal.  I could get two of any flavour and yes, sometimes they did run out of one or two of their flavours when busy, but the ones offered were not the only ones in the store.  She promised a follow-up to our call.

Today, my Inbox had one message from Mr. Mahabir with an attachment from the COO of the Pizza Boys Group who apologised again on behalf of the company and included his mobile number (!) in case I should need anything in the future.  Talk about legendary!  And I know legendary.  The HUGE maraschino cherry on top was they hand delivered two chillers. To my office.  Folks, this is laidback Caribbean island.  Getting a passport appointment takes  a year and to renew your driver’s license requires taking a day off.

Thank you. thank you.  Thank you Rituals.  I am still in euphoric shock that there are businesses out there, in our small island of Trinidad & Tobago, that seek to be legendary.  Special kudos to Mr. Mahabir, Mr. George, Mrs. Ortega-Lewis and the sweet barista who hand delivered it to me.  You guys rock!

My msg

The response

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Posted: on Friday 13th November, 2009 at 10:58 am
Category: Do-Good Marketing.
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  • carlene
    wow... I'm well impressed! And this is very inspirational- you handled your displeasure with class and not with "waggan" behaviour. And look at the result!!
  • Thanks Carlene. I try to do the professional thing first and give any company the benefit of the doubt, but the wajang would've ranted and raved on Facebook for sure if this wasn't handled the way it was :)

    Overall, I think many Trinis are just frustrated and fed-up with the lack of customer service in this country that they figure the only way to release a little of that vexation is by acting out a bit. I can't say I blame them either. I had a manger at a popular bookstore refuse to give me the price that was on the book, even though it was 50cents less that the correct price, mispriced by their workers and I was buying over $70 worth of stuff.
  • Qui
    I accidentally sent the email to Mr. Mahabir. I just went on their 'Contact us' page and CC'd everybody on it :) So I'm glad he didn't say, "this isn't my job" and let it die. Thanks again sir!
  • Qui
    I wrote the email bc I EXPECT great service/product when I pay my hard-earned $$. Full stop. Working for Starbucks also engrained in me, that when ppl spend their money, they deserve a legendary experience that will balance out the hour of work they just spent on a latte. Translated to the rest of my life, if you're not doing something that's positive or uplifting in some way, even if some people look at it as a low-paying menial job, then why do it?
    I truly feel that Mr. Watson feels similarly. The tone of his email was a little corporate, but even for the business minded and not creative, if you don't want your company to be in the Fortune 500, why start one?
    I've forwarded the link to all the ppl at Pizza Boys Group who helped in this little episode, and I hope that they use it as an example of LEGENDARY (going above & beyond)customer service for their cashiers/baristas etc, but more importantly, I hope that mgmt uses it as a starting pt to hire people who will have the same pride in their company like they do. They are your frontline so if they do a poor job, customer-companny relationship is damaged and you don't even get to know about it...until someone writes an email.
  • dennisramdeen
    I found the Ritual's Manager's comment to be instructive; "they will be dealt with accordingly"...so while you and Gillain were having your kissandmakeup chiller, two streets away, some employees were being fried or at least being given a chilling experience. Does vinegar or honey work best on people? You probably need a bit of both; so I hope Mr Mahabir, has done enough business analysis to know that he also needs some honey. And what is a Business Analyst doing dealing with a Customer Experience matter? It's like sending your Accountant to a Charity auction. He's not likely to come back with anything.
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