Media in the New Millennium

posted by Doyle

If you read my post about my issues with Jawbone customer service, you know I was none too happy with them earlier this week. 

The good news? Jawbone watches the blogosphere, and they read my post (points!). Then, they called me to discuss the issues (points!). And best of all, they solved my problem with “above and beyond” service (major points!). Nice work, Jawbone!

I posted my issues last Saturday, and got a call from Barb at Jawbone on Monday. She was great. She apologized and offered to send me not only a replacement headset in advance of getting mine back (one of my issues), but also sent me a free car charger for my trouble. Best of all, I got my care package from Jawbone on Tuesday. I’m really enjoying the new headset, as I now realize my old one had issues long before it quit working altogether. I always liked the product (I had a first gen, which my wife is now using) but this new headset is amazing.

So, the good news: all’s well that ends well. The not so good news — for Jawbone and me — is that it took longer and more involvement from more people than necessary. That irritated me and cost them money.

In the end, I got what I deserved — a new bluetooth headset in exchange for the one that was under warranty that stopped working. On the downside, I had to argue, then got a somewhat rude follow-up call and finally wrote a blog post which got Jawbone’s attention. Like I said, all’s well that ends well, and Jawbone — in the end — handled this quite well. 

Here are some recommendations for Jawbone to make it better moving forward:

1. Don’t argue about a receipt for a product that has to be in warranty, since it has a one-year warranty and has been on the market for less than a year. Are there grey-market products and possible other issues? Yes. Take a lesson from companies like Zappos.com. Give the customer — me — the benefit of the doubt. In the end, in this case, it would have saved you money and made me even happier.
2. I was told the reason that an advanced replacement (take a credit card, ship me the new product and just don’t hit my card unless I don’t return the defective product) wasn’t possible was due to a finance decision. Any company that let’s finance make customer service decisions will probably irritate lots of customers. Customer service needs to take short-term hits — and maybe even some scams — in order to build long-term brand value. Letting finance make short-term decisions will not get you where you need to be.
3. Start the way you ended. Rather than make me talk to three people, just take care of the issue. It would have saved you a car charger (but I really do appreciate that). 

In the end, nice job, Jawbone. I really hope you learn more from this than just how to make me happy. Your products are outstanding. Honestly, that’s the hard part. Get your customer service to match without a fight, and you’re on to something.

Thanks, Barb from Jawbone!

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