Customer Service - From Promise to Performance

K believes in providing the best possible customer service.  She's well known for taking on any challenge and being on-time or early with good results. 

"You Bar" - the power bar goes high tech

Posted by K Krasnow Waterman on Wed, Jun 18, 2008 @ 23:06 PM
The custom-built power bar has arrived. "You Bar" offers a website where you can choose the ingredients for a power bar that suits your particular needs and tastes. You can have nuts, fruits, grains, protein, and extra flavors like cocoa, cinnamon, or mint. You can choose only the ingredients you want and you can change the amount of each ingredient to alter the flavor and nutritional balance. Sure, it's a bit more expensive than buying a power bar at your local market, but seems worth the expense for folks ranging from diabetics to athletes to folks with food allergies.

I travel frequently and often am challenged to choose "lunch" from a newsstand or dinner from a one-step-above-drive-thru chosen by business colleagues. Occasionally, I travel to very exotic places and always want to carry something I'm confident I can eat without risking a reaction. So, when a nutritionist told me about "You Bar", it seemed like a promising option.

I give "You Bar" high marks for customer service. The website is pretty simple and the user interface for ordering is self explanatory. You click on the items you want and the amounts you want. If you have questions or comments, you can put them in boxes right alongside the item(s) in question. And, there's a nutrition calculator button on the ordering page, so you can see exactly what the bar's nutritional content will be as you add or change each ingredient. You can name your personal product, making it easier to order again or differentiate among them if you're ordering multiples.

I thought all that was enough to constitute good customer service and I placed an order. As it turns out, that was only a hint of customer service to come. I don't know if this young company can keep it up as they grow, but they were amazing about sending emails to respond to my questions (I challenged them to stick to my ingredients but change the nutritional ratios) and trying to help. Even with sticky questions, the bars arrived much sooner than promised. Although I loved the long-lasting energy produced by my non-traditional no-sugars bar, it turned out I reacted to the particular protein I'd chosen. I sent You Bar an email and got back a fast response offering to replace them under their satisfaction guarantee. A couple of clarifying emails later, a new batch was promised and is on its way. And, they're expediting at no charge just to make sure I can take them on my trip to the Artic next week! That's great customer service.