You don’t need a 13D to write a letter
Almost all of us investors have felt the way Bob Chapman or Dan Loeb at one point in our lives. I can’t count the number of times that I’ve wanted to grab a member of management and give him what for. Well, there are times when just sitting back and searching for 13D letters just isn’t enough.
Truth is, you don’t need to be a 5% shareholder or even a shareholder at all, to write a letter to a company you deal with. Just look around for the “comments and suggestions” addresses on the packaging of the products you use. Or, simply go online and look for some customer service e-mail addresses. In my experience, these little customer service entreats are often a great way to test how well a company responds to the demands of their customers and whether or not they’re nimble and persuasive or stubborn and uncooperative. I don’t think I have to say, investing in nimble businesses which can convince customers of their value proposition is usually a winning bet.
Let’s start with a company I recently wrote about – McDonald’s. Last summer, I tried out McDonald’s new beverages – Sweet Tea and Caramel Iced Coffee. In my opinions, they were cloyingy sweet and just completey off the mark and unenjoyable. I couldn’t help but write an e-mail to express my displeasure.
Dear McDonald’s,
I am writing as a result of a few recent visits to McDonald’s that have left me less than enthused with your new product offerings – particularly the new sweet tea and caramel iced coffee drinks. I’m not sure what product trials the Company went through or how it decided on its formulations but I’ve found both drinks to be sickly sweet, nearly undrinkable. I don’t believe that this is a result of my personal preference or a misstep at an individual McDonald’s as I’ve given the drinks a try at multiple locations.
While a good southern sweet tea is traditionally rather sweet, one would expect a hint of tea flavor to remain. The caramel iced coffee is even worse, tasting like sugar syrup and milk without even a trace of coffee. I thought that these new drink offerings were a terrific way to highlight McDonald’s hot tea and coffee offerings which are truly underrated, but it’s clear that these two new cold beverages were not designed to capitalize on the quality of your base tea and coffees.
These poor drinks are particularly disappointing to me given McDonald’s success rolling out some terrific new products like the southern style chicken, mcskillet burrito, and multiple incarnations of the snack wrap. I would hope that the Company is able to continue its terrific innovation and not slip back into the cycle of misfires like the failed sandwich releases in the 1990s that left me disenchanted with the overall McDonald’s franchise.
Sincerely,
[The Curious Investor]
Lo and behold! McDonald’s wrote back. Later in the year, so maybe they aren’t the most responsive, but they were impressive. See their reply after the jump…
Despite my firing off an e-mail, McDonald’s, in fact, took the time to type up a personalized letter and mail it.
Dear [The Curious Investor]:
As 2008 winds down and the holidays are upon us, I wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you – we value you as a customer.
During this year, you took the time to contact McDonald’s to share feedback or request information about one of our coffee products. You contacting us gives us an opportunity to learn from you, which allows us to better meet your needs and expectations. We want you to know that we appreciate your comments and we thank you for your business.
In appreciation we’d like to invite you and a friend to stop by McDonald’s restaurant for a complimentary cup of Premium Roast coffee with the enclosed Be Our Guest cards. McDonald’s coffee is always brewed fresh every thirty minutes using 100 percent Arabica beans, the finest in the world. And, we have some exciting new products in our McCafe line of specialty coffees (such as creamy lattes, frothy cappuccinos and rich mochas) which are currently being introduced at many of our US restaurants – with even more to come in 2009! We hope you’l have the opportunity to enjoy these new products when they are available at your local McDonald’s
So again, Mr. Hung, thank you for taking the time to contact McDonald’s this year. We appreciate you and the opportunity to serve you. WE look forward to serving you in the coming year!
Sincerely,
Terri K. Capatosto
Vice President
U.S. Customer Satisfaction Department
Outside of the slow response and the somewhat canned line about our the nature of my inquiry, the customer letter does a perfect job communicating to a potentially unsatisfied customer. It’s enthusiastic, supportive, and appreciative despite the negative tone of my original letter.
More than this, McDonald’s takes advantage of an opportunity in front of a prospective customer by both educating the reader about a new product line and offering a free trial to get the prospective consumer back into a McDonald’s location. AND! They think enough to give a second free trial so as to create potential word of mouth advertising. Brilliant! In fact, I ended up giving both my free trials to friends and have become a fan of McDonald’s coffee. Though, I have to say, the sweet tea and caramel iced coffee are still sickly sweet. Maybe my tastes don’t quite converge with the rest of America’s.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
