Being Ignored During A Pandemic

Early in my career, I was a small firm’s director of customer service. Sometimes I’d speak with unhappy customers wanting refunds; most were ultimately satisfied just knowing someone had listened to their complaint.

This leapt to mind yesterday when desperation moved us from sheltering to grocery shopping.

Stores limiting the number of shoppers and masked consumers insisting on leaning into my six-foot personal space made grocery-hunting a surreal experience.

At Albertson’s, many staples (paper goods, dairy, cleaning items) remained in short supply. So imagine my surprise to find extensive inventory of one brand of rice, despite the absence of all their competitors.

Price wasn’t a factor; they’re not the most expensive rice. Furthermore, lack of sales impacted all their brand extensions and package sizes.

Naturally, I reached out to the manufacturer’s communications department to ask why their brand is being passed over so consistently. Their response: other stores are selling our stuff, so we obviously got inventory to the store you visited.

Yeah…I’m not buying it.

Poking around online, I found this brand generally gets middling reviews, and negative comments aren’t unusual. There’s a pattern here, and it’s manifesting itself at my local Albertson’s.

Still, one must wonder how bad this company’s product really is if, during the greatest period of hoarding staples and foodstuffs in generations, nobody wants to buy what they’re offering.

Furthermore, after this whole thing is over (when? WHEN?), I’m not going to be in a hurry to buy their product again. I’ve been educated, and I’m expecting to carry this message with me for a long time.

Regardless of what you sell, there’s a good lesson here in the importance of both quality control and reputation. Every business owner needs to have someone authorized to immediately counter negative comments on social media. This includes contacting unhappy customers to mitigate potential damage to reputation…and long-term sales.

Mollifying those who’ve had bad experiences might mean an email or phone call, discounts towards future purchases, or even distributing free products.

But in these days where social media exponentially multiplies the impact of negative messaging, the few cents spent to placate an unhappy customer is guaranteed to be money well spent in the long run.

I mean NOBODY was buying their merchandise…and what kind of endorsement is THAT?

With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.

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