Kosher Corndogs and Customer Care
My daughter wanted to try a corn dog. Now, under normal circumstances, this is a simple ask. There is one brand of corn dog available at most grocery stores here. However, they’re pork or contain milk and since we try to buy kosher, we avoid these. So after visits to a few kosher grocery stores without success, we expanded our criteria to include vegetarian options, especially ones that had a kosher certification.
From about a decade ago, I had recalled one brand that had carried a frozen vegetarian option. While they were out of stock at local stores, the product was still listed on their website. So, working in the customer care technology field, I thought — why not give them a call and see what happens?
It reminded me how calls are so unnecessary. After a few minutes and navigating a short phone tree, I spoke with someone who might have been doing customer service for multiple companies or who was fairly new. I started with my opening line:
“Hello! I’m wondering if your line of vegetarian corndogs is still being produced. I haven’t been able to find it at any of my local stores. Would you be able let me know if it is being produced and, if so, where I might be able to find it?”
The human on the other end was warm and then when she got to the questions, the robot in her came out…
“What is the bar code on the package?” she asked.
“What? I don’t have the package.”
Clearly, this wasn’t going well. At first, she said that the product wasn’t avaialble, and then, she said she was going to check again. She said they are still being produced and that they were available at local retailers. She then provided a list of retailers and said that if they are not in stock, I should request from the retailer that they special order.
No thanks.
The call took about 20 minutes. At that point, I had received another call while on hold and when she came back on I said that I had to drop our call. She then called back after a few minutes to update me on the other retailers she found that might carry.
I didn’t move towards resolving my issue because:
- The agent didn’t have access to the information that could help me (which retailer has recently ordered the product)
- They didn’t have connections with people who could answer the question
- They didn’t take into account the journey I had already been on
The agent did do many things right. They were courteous, they called back when disconnected, and I feel they were genuine. Lacking the tools and resources to do their work, they were constrained.
What would have been perfect?
- First, the company could have had up-to-date information on the status of the product on their website.
- Second, they could have offered a virtual / chat agent to avoid me having to call in.
- Third, they could have offered to call me right from the webpage I was browsing, and continue my journey from there.
I also looked over the menu online for many kosher restaurants and came up empty handed for a corn dog. Another fall back option was to get a veggie Korean rice dog, but that wasn’t really a corn dog, was it?
In the end, I searched Instacart for corn dogs and found one brand in stock for a vegan offering. Instacart seems to do a much better job at tracking inventory in stores than the stores themselves — and definitely better than suppliers.
I saw which store it was at and took my chances. It worked out. That said, the taste was a bit of a let down. Corn dogs falls into a food class that has a very short half life for taste. They have about five minutes to get from a deep fryer into someone’s mouth before they lose their appeal.
The hunt to find them was the real fun.
