Customer Service Is SO 1998.

There's a widespread problem with consumer brands today. It's dying out, but not quickly enough. How long will it take for brands to take action online and follow in the footsteps of major brands with excellent customer relations. Zappos, JetBlue and smaller brands like Atebits are utlilizing the social space to communicate with their consumer base effectively and with great return. Brands, regardless of size, must be proactive in communicating with their customers.

Not only are brands not communicating with their customers, but some are still implementing incredibly archaic and ineffective methods of interacting with consumers. Last Friday, my red Etymotic Research HF2 noise isolating earbuds shorted out in the right ear. I've been headphone-less since then. HF2's are not cheap devices. As soon as I got to the office on Friday morning, I researched Etymotic Research's warranty policy. To my delight, the headphones were still covered under a two-year warranty. I emailed them posthaste, and waited for a response. A response finally came on Monday in the form of an email with canned instructions on how to send them my HF2's on my dime for them to make a diagnosis. Preposterous.

I am expected to pay for packaging and shipping to Illinois so that I can be left without a product that I've already payed for? Let me also say, I take excellent care of my gadgets. I never wind my headphones too tightly to prevent exactly what occurred. I also made it explicitly clear that I had had one previous pair of HF2's and got a second pair in May. The first pair was 11 months old and I had never had a problem with them. The second pair is well within a year of purchase, but since they were purchased from my employer at the time, the receipt was sent to my corporate email address which I no longer have access to. Okay, I understand they'll need proof that it's within two years from purchase. Oh, right, I forgot to mention one thing: RED HF2's haven't even been out for a year yet! So, I think they could take me at my word that I didn't paint an older pair red for argument's sake.

I replied to the email right away requesting that they send me a new pair with a return label so that I could send back the defective pair.

I still haven't heard back.

Now, on Monday of this week I decided to also contact Mophie support to finally take care of the passthrough port on my Juice Pack Air. The passthrough doesn't work properly and won't maintain a connection. Imagine my surprise when I got nearly the same response, with one exception: they emailed me a shipping label. The rest was up to me. Again, I am expected to ship you a defective product you sold me so that you can make sure that you messed up and not me? I don't think so.

Trust your customers.
We trust you enough to give you our money in the first place.

The reason this is absurd is because more brands are doing it right every which way you turn. When I needed my 17" MacBook Pro battery replaced, Apple sent me a new one 3-day air and had me send the old one back. If they didn't receive it within 10 days, they charge me for the new one. Fair and square.

Not to mention, I've been tweeting about my Mophie Juice Pack Air malfunctioning for a few weeks now. Why didn't anyone reach out to me? Do they not have a digital strategy team? A good digital strategy team is a marriage of Public Relations and Customer Service working in harmony to deliver an exemplary experience to customers, thus creating good PR.

My dad contacted Logitech last week, and spoke to a tech concerning a grievance with the scroll wheel on his 4-year old MX Revolution. It seemed that in order to scroll the wheel, it needed to be pressed so hard that it actually triggered the button function. Logitech immediately sent him another one. In fact, while I was visiting my parents today, he got a package in the mail:

Etymotic Research, you have a perfect example. Mophie, you have no excuse. The game is changing, and if you don't want to step it up right now, that's fine. You'll have to sooner or later if you want to survive. If you don't that's fine, too, because you will be crushed. Listen to your users. Listen to your customers. Trust isn't hard to earn. It's hard to earn back. Give your users the benefit of the doubt, or soon you'll be struggling to fend off comparisons to AT&T. Meanwhile, if you need any help, feel free to drop me a line.

Update on Friday, August 7, 2009 at 01:16PM by Mark Burstiner

Yesterday, I received emails from both Mophie and Etymotic Research agreeing to ship me replacement products with return packaging so I can send the defective products back. I'm very pleased with their responses. I wrote to them calmly and articulately. It's good to see that brands can listen and maintain a relationship with their customers.

I think the most important thing here is to remember to always acknowledge when a brand goes above and beyond for their customers. Don't just blog or scream about they screwing you over, and not say a peep when they go above and beyond for you. Praise them for what they do right, or they really have no incentive to do anything at all. The process could have been smoother for get my replacement products, but I"m happy nonetheless.

Kudos to Mophie and to Etymotic Research. Both are brands I'd recommend without any reservation.