Partly to submit feedback and partly to see if they were listening to the online conversation about them, I posted an open letter to Yogi Tea on July 11 (Dear Yogi Tea). I allowed six days for the company to jump at the opportunity to engage with me, a loyal customer with a simple suggestion for the company to refresh the Yogi Tea experience. Basically, it was open customer feedback and the chance to turn a loyal customer into a brand ambassador. That post became the number two return in a Google search of “Yogi Tea” within a few days of my post — second only to YogiTea.com.

I heard nothing.

So, I decided to contact Yogi Tea on their terms. I submitted feedback on their site, pointing out my post and suggesting that I’d be happy to speak with them about social marketing as a way to increase notice of their product. I received a personal (vs. automated) acknowledgement of receipt from customer service within four minutes. Wow! I took that as a good sign that someone would be contacting me quickly to tell me if my idea was viable or not.

One day went by. Then two. The days kept passing, eventually becoming a week.

It’s been nearly two weeks since my note to customer service; nearly three since my open letter and product suggestion to Yogi Tea. Still nothing.

I probably shouldn’t care. I do. Why? Like many people who are changing the way they consume products and interact with the companies that make them, I care because I have been a loyal customer and wish to remain so. Spending money on a company’s product is no longer enough in this age of engagement. I want to feel like the companies that I patronize see me as more than a sale and statistic. I want them to know that I care about my purchase and consumption experience. Similarly, I want to know that they appreciate my business and feedback.

In many ways it’s entirely selfish of me to expect a company to follow up with me. In many other ways it’s good customer relations and relatively affordable to be engaged with your target market, especially those that are already consuming your product and reaching out to you to expand that experience. That kind of engagement can turn existing customers into brand ambassadors which can result in new customers.

At the same time as Yogi Tea appears to not be listening and has missed an opportunity to engage with an existing customer, other tea manufacturers such as Numi Tea and Choice Organic Teas seem similarly disconnected from the online conversation about their competitors.

While there are a few standouts in every market, many products and services are becoming homogenous. To be remarkable in this world, you need to be more than just the purveyor of a quality product or service with a slick marketing campaign. You need to be a connector in your market.

Dear Yogi Tea:

Part of my enjoyment of your great tea over the last two years has been the affirmations that come attached to your tea bags. While I find some of the messages a bit too flowery for my liking, I have always enjoyed the element of surprise each time I have a tea.

That is, I have historically enjoyed the element of surprise. Recently, I’ve grown tired of it.

As any good marketer knows, it isn’t just the quality and consumption of the product, it’s the consumer experience that makes a product. My experience has soured because the affirmations have grown stale. I’ve been reading the same, roughly twenty, affirmations for more time than I care to admit.

It seems like regularly introducing new affirmations would be an obvious and probably inexpensive way to keep your product fresh. It will certainly keep the consumer experience fresh and interesting.

Thank you for taking the time to consider my thoughts and for making great tea.

Sincerely,
Mark