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Reebok – not just another brand.

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Today was made special by Stephanie, a Reebok Customer Support representative, in a profoundly meaningful way.  However, to tell that story, let me set it up:

I had lunch today with several of my West Point Classmates.  One of the guys I haven’t seen since the Infantry Officer’s Basic Course.  He went Special Forces and obviously was wounded in action and continues to serve in the Army.  He had visible scars across his temple and down his right eye, was wearing hearing aids from likely having his eardrum blown out from concussive forces, and talked about issues with his back, etc.  Folks in the military know not to ask other folks about their Combat experience so I didn’t inquire at all, it was just self-evident through the course of the conversation.  However, the main focus of our blathering was life after the military and the civilian work place.  An interesting theme of discussion was about professional ethics, morality, and right action and the general consensus from those of us who were out was that being right-minded AND taking right-action tends to have a negative short-term (some times long-term) professional consequence.

I emphasized that it was really important to understand what kind of person you are when picking your post-military career path. My key point is that if you are a person who when you see wrong/bad/inefficient/etc. and are strongly compelled to act to make right/improve/whatever, who always has an eye for the big picture and buys into supporting organizational mission and goals – well, it is very hard shopping to align professional career/company with personal values and, unfortunately, often corporate environments don’t have the culture they advertise for.  I’ve been in several situations where it was easy to ensure personal success, but sacrificed what I believed as right for the organization in the long run and suffered the consequences for ensuring “right” action under management that is short-sighted and after the illusive “quick-wins” – sometimes folks eventually recognize the value of these class of actions, however, often folks only remember the fact you made things hard or created more work by driving change.  I don’t take the back lash for harder right personally- I just know it is the environment that we work in that makes these issues hard for folks.

The back lash for harder right is such that it is one reason that when folks consult me on a “right-action” issue, I make a point of helping them assess if they are really dealing with an issue of morality/ethics or just appropriate-change, understand their options, and the consequences of actions – what I never do is encourage them to “do the right thing” if it is not an issue of legality and or organizational policy.  Right and wrong is easy to interpret if the rules are written down, but most of life’s challenges are in the grey space and making the right call is a choice the individual has to make.  Not everyone has the moral fortitude to “do right” and there is no shame in that – if there is a negative consequence to do right and more positive for doing nothing, why do right if no one is getting killed, injured, and it is an issue of revenue or cost inefficiencies?  As a parent the reality of right-action, not-lying, etc. is a challenging conversation when you learn as an adult that folks lie and manipulate circumstances to their advantage all the time in blatant contradiction to the ethos we were raised to believe and adhere to – I just tell my kids that I’m a man of principle because I don’t want to live in fear.  I tell them doing right doesn’t always has it’s rewards (because it doesn’t), however, the real reward is internal and intrinsic to their sense of self and the meaningful relationships they establish in life.

So our multi-path conversation ended with the obvious conclusion that an organizational culture begins and ends with Leadership and the resulting management culture that manifests from said Leadership.  We used the example that if Leadership wants folks who are innovative and take the initiative, then they are an organization that doesn’t punish everyone who fails.  Taking the initiative and being innovative is about taking risk.  Taking a risk isn’t gambling where success or failure is unsure, a risk is a calculated bet on desired outcomes that may or may not succeed.  However, in many organizations Managers do not want to be innovative or take the initiative outside of a crisis situation because they are setting up an opportunity to fail, so it is best to do nothing until you have to.  The is exactly the management culture many organizations do not want because it prevents the individuals from making the right decisions and doing what is right in the long-term and in the big picture for the organization.

Anyways, this conversation was resident in the recesses of my consciousness when I followed up on a Customer Service email I had on Product Quality to Reebok.  I had an issue with their Nano 2.0s.  I was pulling a 240+ lb sled uphill on asphalt as a cool down from my workout. It was easy going down hill, but coming up I realized that I was a wee bit in over my head.  Uh, I made it up the hill, but discovered I ripped the sole of my Nano 2.0s.  I was both surprised and disappointed.  Granted, my disappointment wasn’t that I thought my shoe was poor quality, I recognized that this was an unusually stressful situation for any shoe, I just didn’t expect the product to get damaged.  I know to wear crappy shoes with rope climbing – sled pulling and prowler pushing wasn’t on my list of activities to wear crappy shoes with.Nano2-damage

Anyways, as a typical CrossFitter, aside from posting on FB matching a pre-shoulder surgery PR in Strict Pull-Ups and other details about my workout, I posted this picture to illustrate further how  awesomenessness my workout was – so awesome, I destroyed my pimp Nano 2.0s!  However, as a problem-solver type weenie, I noticed that the harder rubber sole wasn’t compromised, but rather the softer rubber compound failed that the harder stuff was glued to.  So I though,t as a product design issue, Reebok could improve this product by ensuring the more durable rubber compound was anchored in a more integrated fashion than just glue.   So I just went to the Reebok website and sent an electronic message via their customer service interface.  I didn’t really feel like I was lodging a complaint.  I considered the fact the Nano 2.0s are a legacy product with the 4.0s coming out and my issue has probably been resolved already.  My intent was simply to provide the product manager for the 2.0s with customer insight to improve the Nano product line for my future benefit.

Within 24-hours I got a timely response from a Reebok Customer Care representative with a message to feel free to follow up by calling their toll free number.  I wasn’t going to call as I consider myself a satisfied customer.  Plus, I simply super-glued the torn sole back on and it seems to be working good enough.  However, I was compelled to call because I didn’t want them to think I was an unhappy customer (and I didn’t want to get follow up emails to that effect asking if I was good to go).  This is when I met Stephanie.

She was really nice (as I was nice also).  I outlined my issue.  I highlighted I wasn’t an unhappy customer, just wanted to provide insight to an issue with their near obsolete product, blah, blah.  Anyways, she outlined Reebok has a 1-year warranty on product quality for all of their products and that I could get a new pair of Nano 2.0s and/or refunded and a gift certificate so I can upgrade to 3.0 or 4.0s if that was my preference.  Reebok would have a return shipping label to me w/in 24-hours and I just had to UPS my old shoes back and once UPS had my shoes, they’d send a new shoe out to me.  At first, I was like – Seriously, I’m all in!  Granted, as we started to get my info so I could return my damaged Nano 2.0s, etc.  I started to really stress out by the possibility of not having my go to kicks for my near term workouts.  I do still have serviceable New Balance(s) and Vivobarefoot(s) I could wear, however, the Nano 2.0s are my most favorite and precious Cross Trainers.  I don’t even wear my lifting shoes most times because the Nano line is just so versatile and comfortable.  I thought getting new kicks would be great, but working out for a week or so to address this issue w/out my Nano 2.0s wasn’t a good proposition for me at all.  My routine workouts are the core of my sanity and focus and the less distractions I have when I can make sure I do good work, the better.  I can suck up my super-glued Nano 2.0s no problemo!

I interrupted Stephanie and explained to her that I really appreciated Reebok’s willingness to stand by their product quality, that I think I damaged my shoe via a more extreme workout that most shoes would not fair well in, my product quality issue was more an FYI, and, most importantly, I’m a very happy Reebok Customer, not for just the Nano’s, but for all my fitness apparel – their stuff is the most awesome gear out there I’ve tried.  I also explained I’d rather suck up my repaired show than do without for the few workouts it would take to make the verified exchange.  Anyways, I was really surprised to learn that we could work the process where I would get my replacement shoes up front and then I could return my existing ones via the honor system, etc.  So I was back to being all in and, more importantly, really impressed by Reebok and find myself in a really good mood today and I’m sure my worldview of Reebok will be extremely more positive!

In my past life, I worked in a more strategic role associated to IT Customer Support.  One of my responsibilities was dealing with customer service escalations for critical customers.  In that world, Customer Service Representatives, who were on the front line of customer engagement, couldn’t make common-sense calls in favor of the customer.  My role partially existed to take the “blame” for making a strategic, pro-customer service decisions when a warranty issue was suspect or less clear cut challenges came up.  I really had issues with having to call the ball on every one of these issues. I believed, like in the Military, decisions have to be made closest to contact.  So I’d worked out common sense policies so that folks dealing with my customer could call the ball in real-time with my customers and not delay doing what was right at the most critical moment of impact.  I didn’t want my customers being put on hold while waiting for right-action after a series of email exchanges with someone in corporate who was willing to accept the blame for the cost to make right.  My written policies were technically, unofficial, because it was unreasonable to empower folks on the bleeding age of business as I wanted per my organization.  I worked it out so the Call Center folks knew my business rules and followed them, and I would just carte blanche take responsibility for whatever the consequences were for them trying to do right-action for my customers.  So the fact that Stephanie was empowered to do the best thing for the customer without asking me to go on hold, ask for permission, blah, blah – really made me appreciate how sincere Reebok’s customer focus is – it is manifested in the trenches where it counts and it isn’t just some marketing hype from Reebok Headquarters.   I mean seriously, I was/am happy with status quo – Reebok didn’t have to show me any luv at all, but they did – AWESOME!

Anyways, THANK YOU, Customer Service Representative Stephanie – YOU ROCK!  Also, thanks to Reebok for being not just an awesome company with sweet products, but also truly empathizing with the needs of everyday folks who use their gear – Awesome Sauce!

 

 

 

 



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