Friday 1 March 2013

Contact with the executive team

I wasn't completely honest last night when I last posted.  In addition to writing to the customer services team I wrote to Mamas and Papas executive management team too, but wanted to wait until I got a response before I put it up here.  Maybe I was hoping for a grand reveal or something.  Anyhoo, here's my note to the owners, with the rest of their team cc'ed.


Dear Mr and Mrs Scacchetti,
I'm writing to you to make you aware of a number of opportunities to improve your after care offering and in turn, to enhance your brand. I've been engaged in a dialogue with your customer services team over the past couple of weeks and have come to believe that in order to get clarity on the decision making process and its outcome I will need to communicate directly with the decision makers, i.e. you and your senior management team cc'ed here. 
It all started when my friend had a baby. I wanted to do something nice for them, and thought it would be great to hand on the cot that my kids used a couple of years ago. It was a really nice bit of kit - a Murano cot bed from Mamas & Papas, bought in that flurry of enthusiasm you get for baby gadgets when you're about to become a parent for the first time. We thought the cot bed would make sense as we would get to use it for an extended period of time as our baby got a bit older. We didn't expect that we would be using it for a second addition to the family shortly after, but that we did, and it carried out its task admirably. Once our two had grown out of the cot we broke the unit down into its bed form and that was the way it remained for a couple of years until my friend had her baby and we offered to hand it on. 
Obviously we were confident that the cot was in good condition as a result of the excellent build quality that you would expect from Mamas and Papas, and our friend was delighted. So about a month ago I thought I'd better check we still had all the bits to turn it back into a cot and that everything was in good order. As I put it together I found I was missing four small screws to hold the side panels together. Not ordinary screws, but really strange headless ones. So I called the Mamas & Papas help line as indicated on the assembly instructions and asked to order replacement spare parts but was advised that because the cot is now discontinued the parts are no longer held. Apparently two years is how long you hold on to spares for discontinued units. 
So comes my first observation: the cot bed is designed to move from a cot into a bed, so it's likely that they will be used for more than two years for a single child, never mind younger siblings who come along, or the chance to pass it on to others. I want to ask you the question directly. Is two years really long enough to hold spare parts for a product of this type or could Mamas and Papas do better than that? 
The discussion with the service agent indicated that a match for the part might be available from a parts kit from a more recent cot priced at £30 plus delivery charge. Apparently the fittings pack is sold as a complete entity and you can't sell the specific bits I'm interested in. Let me underline what that would mean to me: £30 for four small screws and no guarantees that they would fit. This thus provides my second observation: surely it's unreasonable to charge those kinds of prices for replacement parts? 
Next on suggesting that I would like to make a complaint, the advisor indicated that she could reduce the price to £15 plus postage, again for a full fittings kit that might not fit. I declined believing this was still far too high and was very disappointed with the integrity of the customer services process that the price could be halved so readily. 
Instead I did a wee bit of research, measuring the screws and the dimensions of the recess where they fit. I found they were standard 8mm M6 sized, but the only tricky part was the fact that the original fittings had no head on them at all. On closer inspection of the recess I found that it was in fact wider than the screw, so could potentially accommodate another type of head if I could find one. 
So off I went to EBay, searched on 8mm M6 screws and found a pack of 10 socket head screws for £1.60 with free postage. That was 16p each, giving me six spares should I need them again in the future. I thought at that price is was worth a punt in case they didn't fit, so ordered them, and a couple of days later when they arrived I found they fitted perfectly. So much so it was almost as if the recess was actually designed for them in the first instance. 
A couple of weeks later when I was assembling the cot in its new owners' home they advised me that the original screws were actually called "grub screws" and you can get them in lots of different places. This brings me to a further observation: could the customer services team be better equipped by providing them with a list of components and their names and dimensions. In addition, could these names and dimensions (or internal parts reference numbers) be specified on the assembly instructions so that customers could try to source them independently. 
An extension of this observation was that if the type of screw used was more recognisable as a standard fitting and easy to source elsewhere I wouldn't have needed to call customer services in the first instance, saving you money on dealing with the call, the subsequent complaint and this escalation. 
On discussing this experience on various websites and with friends and colleagues it has become clear I'm not the only person to have encountered this issue. Indeed, some have made me aware that they ordered a parts pack, paying the full price and on receipt they found they didn't fit. Instead they cobbled something together by changing the structure of the cot itself by drilling and pinning it. This raises a further observation: if people are carrying out DIY changes to their cots because they can't get parts they are risking the structural integrity of them and thereby the safety of their children. While I accept that Mamas & Papas wouldn't be held at fault should an accident occur on a modified piece of furniture, but there would likely be some fallout that would affect the brand should it reach the press. All for the want of a few screws. 
In addition, I wonder if this demonstrates a certain amount of naivety that your company has with regards the life cycle of these products. It's clear that people value your products enough to want to hand them on, so surely you will want to develop and maintain a relationship with the new owners. The opportunity you had was to delight me with the supply of four screws, and the failure to do that has ultimately resulted in the loss of revenue from the new owners. Why? Because the new owners are not buying their new mattress from Mamas & Papas, and they're not buying their sleep suits from you, and they're not buying their changing mats from you or anything else for that matter. Indeed, all the trappings that these proud new parents are buying are coming from the likes of Boots, Mothercare, John Lewis and Ikea. Had I had a different experience, I would have been talking in glowing terms about how I trusted the company, but instead I'm blogging about this battle I'm having to do in order to persuade you to change your policies. 
So what I'm asking you to consider I think should be is fairly simple to implement for a company of your scale. 
1. I would like Mamas & Papas to reconsider your position with respect to the time scale for which spare parts are held to one that is more reasonable and in keeping with the lifespan of your products, even if they are discontinued.
2. To reconsider your position with respect to selling individual spares at a fair price as opposed to over-priced packs.
3. To ensure that standard components are built into the design so that if needs be customers can pick up what they need from a decent hardware store.
The benefits of doing this will improve customer service standards, build brand trust, reduce stock holding and production costs, and most importantly help avoid accidents from the use of modified cots. 
Your customer service team have advised me that my suggestions are being discussed somewhere in the company, but I want to ensure that this takes place at the highest level and I would also like to know what the outcome of these discussions are. This is something I feel passionate about and I trust you will be able to keep me informed on progress. 
I look forward to hearing from you.
 Fairly constructive I thought.

At 4.30 this afternoon I got a response from their customer service team.  They had the good grace to cc in their team, which I thought was a nice touch.


Dear Mr Kxxx 
Thank you for your most recent emails addressed to both myself and our Executive Team. It really is important that we continue to receive customer feedback both positive and negative, as this allows us to review specific areas of our business enabling us to remain the market leaders in today's competitive nursery industry. We agree that your feedback can make a difference to the service we currently provide our customers and can assure you this matter has been discussed at the highest level. 
We are delighted that you chose the Murano cot bed as your Child's first bed and subsequently used this for your second Child's first bed. Whilst we take pride that our products do not only offer aesthetic value, the safety of our products must remain our primary concern. We are extremely proud that we have an independently accredited UKAS test laboratory onsite where we will stringently test our products to ensure they are durable and compliant to the current safety regulations. 
For safe use, the instruction manual supplied with our cot beds list all components and fittings individually. When assembling our cots and cot beds, we strongly recommend that only approved parts are used and do not recommend that the design is modified in any way, as this may impair the overall safety. 
We would like to take this further opportunity to thank you for providing your detailed experience when shopping with us, it has most definitely helped us to review this specific area of our business and will continue to help customers that shop with us again in the future. 
Best Regards
Vxxx
Well, at least I know I got their email addresses right!  Dissecting the note there are some encouraging words but there's still no sign of a commitment to action here yet nor the outcome of any review that they claim to have undertaken.   I can only assume that if a review was actually done that they decided not to implement any changes, and that's not great.  There is a simple way to find out of course.  Call them up and test the process!  There's a wee job for tomorrow.


Thursday 28 February 2013

Catfish


Towards the end of the 2010 documentary Catfish, Nev Schulman finally meets the woman with whom he’s carried on a long-term online relationship. She is, he discovers, not young and single, but in her 40s and married. By way of metaphorical explanation, the woman’s husband, Vince Pierce, recounts the following story, which inspired the name of the film:
They used to tank cod from Alaska all the way to China. They’d keep them in vats in the ship. By the time the codfish reached China, the flesh was mush and tasteless. So this guy came up with the idea that if you put these cods in these big vats, put some catfish in with them and the catfish will keep the cod agile. And there are those people who are catfish in life. And they keep you on your toes. They keep you guessing, they keep you thinking, they keep you fresh. And I thank god for the catfish because we would be droll, boring and dull if we didn't have somebody nipping at our fin.

Intro courtesy of slate.com.

It's my turn.  Despite saying I wasn't going to write to Mamas and Papas' customer services again, I changed my mind and dropped them a note.
Dear Vxxxx,

It's been nearly two weeks since we last spoke and I'm keen to understand how this issue is progressing internally.  You mentioned that you were planning to review your spares pricing and system.  Can you advise on whether any decisions have been made, what they were and when any changes might be implemented?

Regards,
Sxxxxx

Not expecting much from the response, but at least it keeps the issue on their radar and better sets up my next communication to the management team.

Monday 25 February 2013

Google stats

Afraid I had to take a break from this over the last few days, but like rust, the web never sleeps. Or something.

I Googled the phrase "mamas and papas spares" this evening just to see what other stories might be out there and found my site in the first page of hits.  Number 9 to be precise.  Not bad for a key phrase and only after a couple of weeks.  I reckon that means I'm halfway to getting a high page ranking on the "Mamas and Papas" key phrase too.  So what I would ask is that if you're interested in what I'm doing and support it, you link your own sites to both this blog and www.mamasandpapasspares.com.

Ta.

Tuesday 19 February 2013

Think Global, Act Local

When I first posted a note on Mamas and Papas' Facebook page I didn't expect anyone to spot it and thought it would a quiet dialogue between me and the company.  However, that's proven not to be the case and the story appears to have resonated with a large number of people. Since that first posting I've been amazed at the number of people who have offered support and advice as well as those that have empathised out of a sense of consumer justice, and even a number of people that made me aware that they had experienced a similar story themselves.

Then when I started blogging about it I had no idea how far that would reach.  Today's stats show that while the majority of people are reading from the UK, I appear to have collected a few readers in some far flung parts of the world.



It's that support that makes me sure that I'm doing the right thing and need to push on with the campaign.

From yesterday email I think it's clear now that there is little point responding to the customer services team.  They're just doing their job and holding the company line.  It's the decision makers I need to find.  And find them I think I have.

David and Luisa Scacchetti - Husband and wife team - owners
Tim Maule - Deputy CEO
Amanda Scacchetti - Product Development Director
Rob Jennings - E Commerce Director
Jason Greenwood - Group Finance Director
Karl Brown - Group HR Director
Olivia Robinson - Creative Director
Louise Bontoft - Design Manager in New Product Development
Jason Barker - Head of Integrity (Seriously!)
Marek Laskowski - Retail Managing Director

I've also found their legal team, but I think I'll steer clear of them for now.

The next step will be to communicate with them directly ensuring the message is consistent and persistent.  It's important I get this one right in terms of content and tone, so I'm going to spend a bit of time crafting it.

In the meantime, I've also found another thing that irked me.  Hidden in a corner and only apparently accessible through a Google search was a page that describes a comprehensive spare parts service.

http://www.mamasandpapas.com/order_spares.php






Back to the original argument, the question I would ask is whether this statement really described the service that is offered to people making enquiries about spares for discontinued items.

Anyway, time to get writing I think.



Monday 18 February 2013

The response from Mamas and Papas

I spoke with Mamas & Papas' customer services team today.  Perhaps I was a little naive to think that they would see things my way at the first attempt, but unfortunately they didn't.  Essentially it came down to two things:

1.  They did not believe that it was reasonable to hold spares beyond two years despite my assertion that by design these units have a longer lifespan and 
2. They wouldn't be able to implement standard components in their global supply chain. 

They did say that they were discussing the feedback although given that conversation I don't think it will be particularly high on their to-do list. Still have a few tricks up my sleeve, though, so onwards and upwards!

They followed up with an email to confirm the position.  Interestingly, this came from a different person than the one with which I had the conversation.


Dear xxxx 
Further to your telephone conversation today with Fxxx, I am sorry that you remain unhappy with our response to your enquiry. I understand that you purchased your Murano cot bed from us a few years ago. This has been used as a cot and later converted to a junior bed and was used fault free since purchase. I am aware that more recently, you have opted to gift the cot bed to a friend and discovered 4 screws to be missing that were originally used in the assembly of the cot. We are genuinely sorry that this is the case and being that the Murano range is now discontinued, we are unable to supply you with replacement fittings. We do not recommend that you use replacement parts that are not recommended or supplied by us as non-approved parts may render the cot bed as unsafe. We realise that this may be frustrating and disappointing in circumstances such as yours, where parts have been misplaced. 
I am sure you can appreciate that the safety of all our products is of the utmost concern to us. All our products are stringently tested for safety, durability and for compliance to the current safety regulations. With safety being our priority, we also want to provide our customers with the most innovative designs and offer and extended choice of many different styles and colours, that we believe would compliment our customers nurseries. To enable us to provide this variety, the supply chain we have is worldwide and therefore prevents us from being able to provide universal fittings for our cot beds and furniture ranges.
When originally purchasing your cot bed, we offered a 12 months manufacturing guarantee. It is reasonable to expect that in the unlikely event a fault in manufacture was to occur, this prevail within this time frame. However, as a further commitment, we will hold spare parts for up to 2 years after a product becomes discontinued.
All components and fittings are listed in the instruction manual and specific reference is made to ensure all parts are identified prior to assembly and if there is any discrepancy, we ask that we are contacted to ensure we can remedy this. Thereafter, responsibility to secure all components and fittings must lie with the consumer. 
As a direct result of your feedback and further research carried out by us, the pricing of our spare parts is currently under review and we hope to improve this within the foreseeable future. 
I can confirm that we are seriously considering your suggestion to offer a more streamlined spares system. We genuinely take on board all our customers feedback and will implement changes where necessary. It is with regret that we cannot offer specific feedback as to what our future collections may include, but can give you our assurance that as a business, we have taken on board all the comments you have made and will continue to investigate these internally. 
Once again, we are genuinely sorry that we have been unable to provide the spare parts you required on this occasion and again thank you for your detailed feedback, this will most definitely help us to continue to review this situation and meet with our customers expectations. 
Best Regards
Vxxx
Customer Care Manager

I am now considering my response.  I only wonder if there is something I can take from their comment about the pricing of spare parts.  I like to see the best in people where I can, and maybe they are listening.  Needless to say I'm not going to go away any time soon.

Saturday 16 February 2013

Screw pics

I've been asked to post pictures of the screws that have been the root of all this, so here you are.  You'll see that they're pretty small, somewhat inconsequential items.



The one on the left is the original grub screw and the one on the right is the replacement.  You can see why to the untrained eye it might be difficult to believe that the new one would be suitable, but when you look below, you can see the size of the recess that it fills. 



Like I've said before, almost as if it was designed that way.

Grub screws

I delivered the cot today and put it up in the new baby's nursery.  It all looks good and the substitute screws fit just fine, so all good there.

My friends recognised the original screw type though.  They're both technical people and they told me it was a grub screw, something I'd never heard of.  I've now found various vendors on the web for a similar type of screw to the headless original.  But this begs the question - why did M&P's customer service agent suggest that these would be difficult to find?  It looks like they're standard fittings after all.  With a little more information on the parts database they could have advised me better and my frustration could have been disappointed.  Maybe that's something I will discuss with Fiona on Monday.


Further update...

Been thinking about this.  I have to question why I was advised by M&P's CSA that these were bespoke parts that would be hard to replace elsewhere? It's either one of two things I reckon. It could be a lack of training and the CSA is as clueless as I am about the types and names of screws and fittings and their systems are not set out to help them because it's not occurred to M&Ps that this might be a good thing to do. Alternatively, it could be that M&Ps have made a conscious decision to ask their CSAs to push their parts packs because they make a bit of money out of it. Either way I think they need to do something about it.