Prefer audio? Listen wherever you get podcasts.
About this episode
Sam Whitaker led Pagewell through the recall of its best-selling planner. A binding flaw meant pages fell out after a few weeks of use.
We talk about the first phone call, the email to 40,000 customers and why sales went up the following year.
In this episode
0:00 The first phone call
11:15 The email to 40,000 customers
27:30 Why sales went up
39:50 Three things to borrow
Three things to borrow
Tell customers before they tell you. Pagewell emailed everyone within 48 hours of confirming the flaw.
Make the fix easier than the complaint. Replacements shipped without forms or receipts.
Write like a person. The recall email was signed by the founder and admitted the mistake in the first line.
Mentioned in the episode
The quiet death of the all-hands meeting.
Transcript
Leo: Sam, take me back to the first phone call.
Sam: It was a Tuesday, and it was a customer, not a supplier, who told us.
Leo: How quickly did you decide on a recall?
Sam: Two days. We tested twenty planners from the same batch and twelve failed. There wasn't much to debate.
Leo: What was in the email?
Sam: An apology in the first sentence, what went wrong in the second, and a button that shipped a new planner with no questions.
Leo: And sales went up?
Sam: The next year, yes. People kept the email. A lot of them told us it was the reason they stayed.
The guest
Sam Whitaker
Head of Ops, Pagewell
Sam runs operations at Pagewell, a maker of paper planners.
Get the next episode
A new conversation every other Tuesday, sent with the case study behind it. Free.
You're in. Check your inbox.
Confirm your email and next Thursday's issue is on its way.
Join 4,200 readers
