Here are some quick ways to lose a customer...
(1) Sell a product which is not fit for purpose.
For many, many years I bought Wescobee creamed honey. Why creamed ? Surely creamed honey is just honey bulked out with cheap air (as my sister once told me). Ah, but creamed honey is solid. It stays on the bread.
At least, creamed honey *should* stay on the bread. Like cream, all that beating makes it thick. No dribbles of honey falling off the bread while I try to eat my bread and honey.
Except...
Wescobee now sells creamed honey which is still semi-liquid. Just runny enough to dribble off the bread. Not fit for purpose...
Oh, and Wescobee has been sold to an out-of-state company. So my long-term loyalty is out the window.
Now I buy West Swan creamed honey. It's made in my own state. It appears to be owned in my state.
And it is thick enough to stay on my bread while I eat my bread and honey.
Fit for purpose.
(2) Use poor packaging
Kraft is a multinational conglomerate. I like to support local companies. So I looked for a local brand of peanut paste.
I found a brand of peanut paste which is made in Australia, from Australian peanuts, by an Australian company. Excellent !
This peanut paste is pure peanut. No sugar. No salt. No additive to keep the peanut oil from pooling at the top of the jar. So it tastes of pure peanut. And it comes with a pool of peanut oil sitting at the top of the jar.
My wife likes the salt and sugar taste of Kraft. I have a slight preference for the pure peanut flavour. (And I eat most of the peanut paste.) The oil is no trouble...
Except...
The lid of the jar is not oil-proof !
No worries with the first couple of jars; nothing leaked. I found a simple trick for getting the oil to mix back in before the jar is opened: sit it upside down for a week. I was worried about leakage so I sat the jar -- upside down -- on a bit of kitchen paper.
But then...
The next jar had leaked -- in the shop ! Pick a jar off the shelf -- and it was slippery with oil ! Yuk !
Seal the lid ! In the factory, screw it down tighter ! Or add a seal, under the lid.
I don't want to buy peanut paste which has leaked before I even get it out of the shop... So, for now, I'm back to Kraft.
(3) Design an awkward container
Okay, this may not be a "quick" way to lose a customer... It took me several years to change brands.. But I did change.
Nutella comes in an odd-shaped jar: a round neck with wide shoulders. It makes it very difficult to get to the Nutella in the shoulders. In fact, the size and shape of the jar make it very awkward to clean it out.
Is this deliberate ? Is the jar deliberately designed so that the last dregs are impossible to get ? So the customer always wastes some of the product -- so has to buy more ?!
Deliberate or not, it annoys me.
So I have switched brands. To Nutino.
As far as I can tell, the two products have the same ingredients. They are both a bit runny in hot weather but otherwise fine. One jar of Nutino has not been a smooth paste but the flavour -- and feel in the mouth -- is the same as ever. Both brands are Italian.
Nutino comes in a round jar with a round lid. No awkward shoulders to encourage wasting of the last dregs.
And that simple design difference caused me to change brands.
One customer, lost.
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Problems ? Solved
