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Farrel C
Active since Sep 2022
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2 reviews3 months ago
Bye Bye Bakers Forever - shocking attitude
Inadvertently grabbed a 200g box of Bakers Romany Creams Cappuccino 'flavoured' biscuits from one of those large wire bins that retailers use to mix similar flavours, similar products of the same company brand name selling at the same price. I mistakenly thought that it was the same as the Bakers Choc-Kits that was already in my trolley. It is uncanny how similar the packaging colour and marketing images are of the two different products and i doubt whether I am the first or the last to get the two mixed up. That night i sent the complaint about my perceived taste and quality experience to talk2us@bakers.co.za. expecting a quick "thank you for contacting us and bringing your concerns and brand/product/taste/quality experience to our attention etc etc but nothing happened. One week later I had not received a reply so I called their consumer services on 0860 100 219 at 09h52 today 21 January and spoke to Anneke. She explained that my attachment ( just a standard high res 1mb cell phone photo of my till slip) was to large and so their server rejected my email. Funny how when i sent the same email to Anneke at anneke@consumercontactcentre.co.za she immediately received it! After being bemused by Anneke''s irrelevant IT department and factory manager escalations process we agreed that she did not have the authority to assist me so I consented (reluctantly and correctly so) to be transferred to her supervisor Olivia. Olivia remained silent while i summarised my experience but then when she rep**** she proved that she was a poor listener and thus an equally poor supervisor and not someone that should be entrusted with the responsibility of speaking to customers and representing AVI/National Brands/ Bakers as the case may be. Our conversation was recorded and right off the bat she asserted that my compliant had no merit because of what she claimed was personal preference (taste) and an informed buying decision (opening the box). We only opened the Cappuccino flavoured Romany Creams because the packaging looked so much like the Choc-Kits and no Olivia, the boxes are not two completely different colours - they both have similar brownish packaging and very similar images and are generally very similar in many aspects. My bemu*****t fast turned to feelings of ''abu*****t''. I was shocked and felt humiliated and branded a **** by Olivia. Her tone and language was contemptuous and dismissive. Surely this is not the way John and Leonard Baumann, the founders of Baumanns in 1851, later to become Bakers biscuits, would have imagined their loyal customers to be treated by a staff member? who is also a shareholder. You had several win win choices and happy customer outcomes to work out with me Olivia - but it seems to this disappointed Bakers consumer that you chose the only way to lose one more customer forever. I leave you with this thought to dwell on while I eat a low cost no name lemon cream that will add to the declining Bakers market share. As Peter Cheales, the founder of Hello Peter, the online customer service review portal and author of the book by the same name would say "I was your customer". I am sorry that my product experience did not match your corporate taste test mouth feel expectations or your intelligent shopper awareness expectations, so its "bye bye Bakers forever".
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38 months ago
Great Business, thanks Peter and good luck Alon and Team.
Spectacular Business what more can be said, except that I met the founder Peter Cheales in the early days when his pay off line was something to the effect of You ignored me, You did not answer my call or get back to me like you promised......but don't worry....."I was your customer" I read the pay off line "I was your customer" before the book was published in 1994, probably in a Hotel and Catering style magazine while I was at Hotel School. I met Peter in Kimberley when I was a starry eyed waiter, barman, chef, pot cleaner and at that moment his porter, and carried his bags up to his 'Luxury Suite'. Peter was either a guest speaker being hosted by the Chamber of Business or a similar guild or he may have been flying solo promoting his vision, platform or even his book his iconic book. I remember like yesterday how passionate he was expounding on the idea that one satisfied customer might recommend a product or incredible experience to just one or two friends but one unhappy customer (justified or not) would bad mouth a service or product within minutes to everyone who would care to listen for all eternity. People love to complain and Peter realised its not the customer that calls to complain that is a threat, its the 90% of less than satisfied consumers who just could not be bothered to complain directly to a firm that were (still are) the biggest threat (and opportunity). I remember wanting to abandon my Hotel Management aspirations and to ask Peter for a job because I had a similar passion about people and service and I believed in what he was doing but life had other plans for me right then. I owe Peter a debt to sensitizing me to the power of listening to complaints because a complaint is the biggest opportunity a company has to retain/ reply/ replace/ re-evaluate/ re-imagine/ re-train/repeat and to ultimately remain in business. I call this my R8 model which I expect will be studied at Harvard one day and if not at least I might get scooped up by Alon, its never to late to follow your dream. Well done Peter, for following your dream all the way.
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