The 2019 Box Fiasco

Today I needed to find some cardboard boxes for some product that got wet in transport. 

It sounds simple enough right? 

So a quick google search to find a major player of cardboard box manufacturing.

You know them well, it rhymes with busy. 

Thinking, there a market leader surely they can help me!

I go to their website and with a quick glance see the 13 phone number at the top of their website. I have further a look through the website, find some broad info on cardboard and scroll to the bottom of the page. 

At the bottom it says “Find Relevant locations” I click on that, they have one location for all of Australia in Vic with the 13 number, I am in QLD. 

At this point I am mildly frustrated, back about a year ago I had a local Brisbane rep call me and there is actually a Brisbane plant as well and I know this because I drive past it regularly. 

I begin to wonder why aren’t the locations of the factories or at least some virtual addresses on the website if you are trying to promote a “relevant location” on your website.

So I ring the 13 number and get a happy enough & polite front desk person that says she needs to transfer me to my state based local office, I agree, that makes sense.  

Still hoping for a quick resolution on boxes at this point!

Transfer successful and the “local office person” than says that I will need to speak to my local rep. Her name is x and here is her number.  There is no offer to ring the for me have the rep return my call, it all feels very transactional at this point.

So I ring the local rep, get no answer and leave a message on the message bank. I am slightly frustrated at wasting time at this point, because the whole thing seems simple enough, I just need some boxes and I feel like it should be dealt with by now.

2 hours pass, I get a call back.  

The call back from the rep is polite.  I am advised by the rep that the number of boxes I want (100) is too small an order the Busy manufacturer.  I will need to deal with a re-seller. 

I get given 2 names and 2 numbers, I jot down the numbers. The rep goes on to tell me that they may have stock, seeming very iffy about the whole thing to whether or not the re-sellers can help me, we end the call.

So now I have to ring the re-seller, because I know so much about boxes right… they come in that cardboard colour and are used for shipping items.

At this point I am not overly happy with the result. I just need boxes and now I have wasted 40 mins of my day and still have no boxes nor do I really have any real direction apart from 2 numbers for people who may or may not be able to help me.

Now at first glance when you read this, it seems pretty straight forward.

Here’s what I think should have happened in relation to the enquiry

The local office should have recorded my name, number and enquiry and offered to have the rep to call me back. The local rep should have received an email or call from the office with my contact info and my enquiry details.

The local rep could have then called me back or having checked beforehand that one of the 2 local re-sellers could help me and could have advised me that I can expect a call to sort out my boxes.

My thinking is; the rep would need 10 maybe 15 minutes to ring their 2 favourite customers to try and put more work through them. The re-seller thinks, wow what a great rep! This rep calls regularly and tries to put more business through us, helping us grow our business…. What great support!

The rep also gets to tick 2 more calls off call sheet for the day.

Me as the end user, my result would have been, “what a helpful rep”.  They have found someone who has what I need, directs me where to ring in one hit and I get what I need quickly and with great service too or even better the re-seller calls me, they have what I need to take my order.

I get my boxes, repack and ship my product and I am happy as a kid in heated pool.

Overall the experience with a big manufacturer to get something simple has not been easy.

I believe in 2019-20 we need to be making things easy for our consumers. Simple websites, accurate details, & encourage our staff to have high levels of customer care that go beyond the days of just referring by phone.

The whole thing could have taken 10 minutes.

Unfortunately, I am into day 2 of still needing boxes.

#customerservice #cardboard #boxes #manufacturers