How Allbirds Won and Lost Me - Customer Service

A handful of months ago, I put on my first pair of Allbirds shoes. I immediately told everyone (whether or not they'd listen) that it felt like stepping into a marshmallow. They felt amazing. Just wonderful. So, I bought a second pair (because I read somewhere that you should swap out your shoes every other day, and I knew I wanted to wear these all the time). A tiny bit later, I bought the trail running version, then the slippers. I bought my oldest son two pairs for his new job. In all, I bought 6 pairs of the over-$100 shoes within just a handful of months. Talk about a win.

The Little Problem

It could've happened to any company. While in Las Vegas, my dark navy pair of Allbirds suddenly had a hole in the toebox area, as if one of my toes had poked its way through. Only, this shoe was a few weeks old at best. That's not typical.

So, I contacted customer support. They started by asking me to gather all kinds of information about the shoe, including taking several pictures. I did what I could and sent that all along, asking about how I'd go about getting a replacement pair. Mind you, if I got an apology for the inconvenience, it was pretty mild because I don't remember it.

Eventually, they said to me that they'd send me a box. I'd put my bad pair in the box. When they finally arrived at Allbirds, someone would check out the shoes, try to figure out what went wrong, and then decide upon giving me a replacement pair. (This is about six days into reporting the issue, by the way.)

Fly Away, Birds

I replied to the customer service email that this sure was a lot of hullabaloo. They answered back that they'd send me a pre-printed return label me some of the steps. (Even more days into reporting the issue.) Mind you, that still meant me finding a box (because who keeps a shoebox after the shoe fits?), affixing the label, going to a shipping location, waiting for them to decide if the shoe was somehow damaged in a way that they felt like they'd want to own up to the problem or just blame me, and then maybe send me back a replacement pair of shoes (weeeeeeks later).

So, no more Allbirds. I'll wear the pairs I bought. But that's it. I bought their stock upon their initial public offering and I cashed out (at a loss) after the way they handled my customer service issue. Why? Because I can't imagine them getting better at that any time soon, and I suspect they're going to run into several more people dissatisfied with their customer service methods.

It's Not "Exactly" Their Fault - But It Was their OPPORTUNITY

Here's the thing: I'm spoiled. Have you ever returned something through Zappos? Amazon? L.L. Bean? (Until the last few years.) So many great companies pride themselves on outstanding customer service and they deserve that pride. I realize now that Allbirds never said anything about their customer service (or lack thereof). They didn't brag about it because as I experienced first hand, they didn't know how to deliver it.

I went (in the span of just a few months) from being a major advocate for their brand to writing this to you. All because they couldn't manage customer service in a way that befitted the expense and assumed quality of the product.

Allbirds can run their business however they want. But if they looked at my account, noted how many pairs I'd purchased in very short order, and even dared to glimpse my social media praise far and wide for how delightful the shoes were, they might have at least seen something to cause them to reconsider their basic lack of customer service. And that's just me, a regular person. Here I am, telling you, the fashionable and the intelligent and the people with wallets. On LinkedIn, across thousands of pairs of eyeballs.

Because customer service excellence is the NORM now, the baseline. If you're not going to serve your customers well, expect to falter.

Chris...