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12. CONSUMER SERVICES
What Our Consumers Tell Us At Ben & Jerry’s, social and environmental values are integral to our business, so we encourage our fans to share their thoughts with us on just about any topic, not just about our ice cream. Many do. The opportunity that this gives the consumer services team for personal interaction with our customers and for capturing both qualitative and quantitative data is invaluable; we learn how to be careful listeners, we find out whether people think we’ve fallen short or gotten things right, and we always make an honest effort to explain where we’re coming from.
Messages from 2009 We heard from a lot of people in 2009. In all, more than 14,000 people took the time to contact us about our company’s products, practices, and social mission activities last year in the United States. The number reflects an increase of 4 percent over the number of consumer contacts in 2008. One of the reasons for the increase in contacts can be attributed to our celebration of the new same-sex marriage law in Vermont, which earned us a lot of feedback. E-mail continues to lead the way as the most popular method of communication, followed by phone calls and letters. Praise The amount of product praise was up slightly from last year – a nine percent increase overall – and included comments such as “love the product,” “thanks for not downsizing the carton,” and “appreciate Free Cone Day.” We also received a number of positive comments focused on Ben & Jerry’s ongoing social and environmental efforts, too, most notably concerning:
Complaints The most common complaints we heard from consumers were in the areas below: Product Texture. It’s always a challenge to keep ice cream frozen and at the right temperature from our factory all the way to our fans; and we do get some complaints of what we call ‘temperature abuse.’ Overall, texture complaints increased by twelve percent from 2008. Ingredient Ratio. Sometimes our ice cream ends up with too many cherries and not enough Garcia. It’s hard to please everyone in this regard. The overall number of complaints increased by 18 percent over 2008. Reports about too few add-ins increased by 37 percent; complaints about too many add-ins were up by 23 percent! Which probably proves that you can’t please all the people all the time. We put additional resources into making sure we’re getting the right mix of ingredients into every pint in 2009. Product Flavor. Complaints in this category increased across some categories, with “underflavored” as the top complaint (up nine percent). Other product flavor complaints that rose in 2009 included “flavor off” and “stale/old.” Add-In Ingredients. We heard more complaints about the quality, taste and texture, color and freshness of the add-ins in our ice cream in 2009 (30 percent increase). As a brand that’s known for the chunks and swirls in our ice cream, it’s an issue we take very seriously, and we’ve put additional resources into trying to resolve it. Franchise. Complaints in this category were down by twenty-nine percent, with franchise/scoop shop item and service complaints being the most numerous (though both subject matters were down from last year, 5 percent and 19 percent respectively). There was a slight increase in complaints about the lack of use of gloves and handicap access. Social Mission. The number of complaints increased (up 37 percent overall). Some of the areas where we saw increases included the following:
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