Mar
23
2005Customer Dissatisfaction
23
2005
If you’re going to solicit customer feedback on your web site, perhaps you should actually feign interest in what your customers have to say.
Consider this exchange between myself and the Panera Bread corporation, in which I inquire how I might obtain a certain product and GIVE THEM MONEY FOR IT.
Me (via web form):
I was driving through Connecticut and stopped at a Panera Bread where they gave out samples of a new pepperoni flatbread. It was absolutely incredible, but I wasn’t really hungry at the time, so I just figured I’d stop by a Panera back in my native Massachusetts (north shore area) the next day to enjoy one. I don’t see any mention of these on your web site. Are they available anywhere in northeast Massachusetts? I hope this isn’t just a test-marketing thing in one or two stores… I really have to have another one. It was delicious!
Response:
Thank you for contacting Panera Bread and for the compliment on our flatbreads. They really are delicious. I am sorry I do not have a list of which stores are testing the flatbreads at this time. We hope that you continue to enjoy Panera Bread and have a nice day.
Tracy
Customer Comment Coordinator
Of course, someone at Panera Bread, Inc. knows the answer to this question. A nationwide franchise system tends to keep track of this sort of thing. The reality is, this “Customer Comment Coordinator” either A) Doesn’t feel like actually inquiring with a co-worker or B) is not “empowered” to ask the simplest questions of anyone else with within the corporation. Either way, Panera Bread gets a huge thumbs down for this aborted effort at customer service. But those flatbreads are damn delicious… If they happen to offer them at a store near you, don’t buy any of them, because I’m mad at them. But, damn, are they tasty.
Update: I wrote back to express my discontent with the response, and “Tracy” somehow managed to find the list the second time around - the flatbreads are being test marketed in R.I. and Connecticut only. So, if you’re in those states, go eat ‘em up.