Whatever it was about the actual David Ortiz bobblehead that was deemed egregious, the upshot was that we Red Sox fans went home without one this past Tuesday night.
Originally, the first 15,000 fans who attended the August 9th Red Sox-Yankees game were promised a bobblehead made in Big Papi’s likeness. But the Red Sox organization decided that these collectible dolls were unacceptable because they were racially insensitive. We left the game a tad disappointed, although we did beat those Yankees 5-3.
The good news is that the organization had it all under control. When we passed through the gates of Fenway Park, we were each given a baseball-card-size handout that told us how to register online for our Ortiz bobblehead when a new batch was produced.
This was a simple fix for a disappointing problem. The instructions were clear, and I completed the survey in under a minute. I did notice the ubiquitous pre-checked box down at the bottom, indicating that “I’d like to receive news, emails, and updates from the Red Sox organization.” I unchecked it, but they get points for trying.
The icing on the cake is that everyone who attended could register for a bobblehead, which, according to their site, comes to 37,949 lucky ducks. They could have said that only the first 15,000 registrants would get the doll, but that would’ve been pretty frustrating.
In the end, the Red Sox did the right thing. They moved fast after determining the product was unacceptable. They articulated their solution to their customers in clear language. They made it easy for us to register online for our kitschy keepsake. And it will cost them more than a few bucks to ship bobbleheads to as many as 37,949 ticketholders. (Although I imagine the manufacturer will eat this expense.)
Which brings me to your print manufacturing company. How do you handle similar mistakes? If you print a job and then deem it unacceptable, how do you rectify it? How fast do you inform your customer? To what lengths do you go to ensure the customer’s not put out? How do you go above and beyond correcting the mistake?
Hopefully, this is a rarity in your print business. Yet it’s important to remember that customers fully expect you to make amends for your production errors.
How you straighten out a mistake you make is an important measure of a print partner. Customers may not give you three strikes before you’re out of their lineup. One bad one will do the trick.
(c) 2016 Margie Dana