I’ve never been afraid to point out a mistake. I wouldn’t say that I’m critical, but if something is wrong, I have no trouble telling you so. Some people call that being negative, but I think it’s simply being honest. That is certainly why I believe I was fired from my job. But that’s not really the point. With the people I interact with, I can tell them verbally how they’ve wronged me. But what about when a brand does something wrong? The only means I have to communicate with them is through social media.

Woodchuck Hard Apple Cider

I’m still shocked in 2013 how many brands are not on top of their customer service. That’s why it was so surprising when I found a brand that has excellent customer service. That brand is Woodchuck Hard Apple Cider. D bought me a six pack of Woodchuck and a friend of ours noticed when we went over for dinner. I had a couple of the granny smith ciders that night and left the rest behind for them. The next time I came over, that friend had purchased a six pack for me.

When I went to the fridge to grab another hard cider, this is what I found:

The photo may not make it clear, but that is a completely empty, but completely sealed bottle of Woodchuck Cider. I thought it was funny, so the first thing I did was text my friend who’d purchased the six pack to let him know about it. The next thing I did was hop on Twitter to send out this tweet:

Excellent Customer Service at Woodchuck Hard Cider

I wasn’t upset and I’m sure that must be refreshing to a customer service representative. Having worked in various areas of retail, I know how difficult it is to keep your cool with an irate customer. I was surprised by their great customer service. Most customers expect to heard back from a brand very quickly. I’ve always been satisfied to receive any response at all. Within minutes I got this tweet back from Woodchuck:

I quickly emailed Woody:

First of all, kudos to your social media team for being EXTREMELY on top of their game. I usually expect about a 24 hour turnaround from a tweet to a brand. I think your team responded in less than five [minutes]. That is amazing customer service.

I tweeted to you because today I discovered a completely empty, completely sealed bottle of Woodchuck in my six pack. Kind of cool to discover, but not so awesome to drink.

I then wanted to be sure I followed up with @woodchuckcider:

I was at first embarrassed by my typo, but they were once again very quick to send a nice response:

I continued about the rest of my evening. That night actually happened to be watching the entire first season of Girls on HBO while D was sick with the flu. I emptied a full bottle of hard cider and was satisfied with their efforts.

Woodchuck Cider wasn’t quite as quick in responding to my email, but once again I was pleasantly surprised by their excellent customer service. I received this email from Woody:

Ryan,

Thanks for taking the time to write in and sorry to hear about your experience with Woodchuck Hard Cider.

I have forwarded you email on to our quality assurance team, for their review.  If you happen to still have the bottle they may email you looking for the production code print on the neck of the bottle.  If you still have it and could forward on to me that would be great.

In the meantime, for your trouble… can I offer you a refund of your six pack or a couple of pub pints?

Let me know which you prefer and where you would like it sent to!

Cheers,

Woody.

What Makes Woodchuck Cider Special

What made this email so special isn’t simply that they responded to my problem. They did not respond quite as quickly as I was expecting, but they still responded. It wasn’t even all that special that they were willing to correct their error, most brands are willing to extend goodwill when they screw up. What really made this email special is that they asked ME how I wanted them to correct their error. I was given options to make the situation better.

Brand Loyalty & Woodchuck

Today I received a box from Woodchuck Hard Cider, inside were two pub pints and a couple of magnets. The magnets are displayed on our fridge and the pub pints are anxiously waiting to be filled with some Woodchuck Cider. That is how you create brand loyalty. They made a mistake, and they went above and beyond to correct it. I will always purchase Woodchuck Hard Apple Cider from now on.