STRATEGIC MARKETING

Assignment No#01

Submitted By: Hafiz Huzaifa Anwar (61723)

The Rileys were sitting around their dinner table on July 5, 2007, reminiscing over the events of
the previous several weeks. The Rileys had purchased a new small refrigerator in early February,
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but it had begun to malfunction. They had then contacted the vendor's repair service, which had
provided them with absolutely bad assistance. They were at a loss for what to do next. Should
they do nothing and dismiss the poor service as a one-off occurrence? Should they walk away
promising never to do business with this merchant or this brand again?

THE RILEYS
They had met each other while at university in the 1970s and had been living in Montreal since
1980. They had two children: a boy, 23 years old, who had just completed a bachelor’s degree at
McGill University, and a girl, 18 years old, who had just completed her first year of CEGEP.1
All members of the family were completely bilingual in English and French.

The Rileys’ refrigerator for the past 25 years had been a Bryand and it was still in good working
order, even though it was a bit noisy. The family also needed more refrigerator space in order to
accommodate the special dietary needs of the youngest child. After some discussion, they
decided to purchase The Canadian brand, Bryand, since they had always had good experiences
with The Canadian regarding service. The couple subsequently bought a traditional top-loading
washing machine from The Canadian.

THE NEW REFRIGERATOR

It did not have a freezer as expected; the panelling of the door was made of stainless steel and it
had a capacity of 16.7 cubic feet. The delivered price was $1,401.56. On the day of delivery,
Clinton noticed that the appliance was much noisier than the one that it had replaced. He did not
notice a difference in the functioning of the compressor but thought that maybe that was the way
modern refrigerators functioned.

The representative had also told Clinton that buying a new refrigerator in order to save energy
did not make sense because the annual savings were miniscule and in any case modern
refrigerators were not as durable as the one that the Rileys had replaced. He said that if he had
been in the same position he would. Sometime in April, the Rileys’ Bryand dishwasher
developed a problem: the dishes were not being washed properly. He felt that repairs that should
be covered by the warranty or extended service were no longer being covered by The Canadian.

On the evening of June 11, Clinton noticed that the internal temperature of the new refrigerator,
bought only four months ago, seemed to be less cold than it should be. The following morning
the thermometer showed that the internal temperature of the refrigerator was 16 degrees Celsius
instead of the generally recommended four degrees Celsius. As a result of the failure of the
refrigerator, the Rileys had to throw away several food items but they were grateful that the
problem had been solved relatively quickly. They decided, however, not to pursue the matter
since they had lost only about $50 worth of food.

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Clinton opened the refrigerator at about 6:00 p.m. When Clinton checked the refrigerator on the
morning of Thursday, June 28, the temperature was once more at 16 degrees Celsius, a good 12
degrees above the recommended temperature.

The morning of June 29, a Friday, Clinton, after apologizing profusely, cancelled an appointment
with a client so that he would be available when the technician arrived. His tests indicated,
however, that the compressor was sound. After some discussion, the technician called his office,
spoke to someone and scheduled the next appointment for early on Tuesday morning. He
mentioned to the Rileys that he might be the one to return but that he was not certain. Both
Clinton and Chantale were disappointed that the refrigerator had not been repaired that day
because Chantale was expecting her brother who lived in France to arrive that evening at Pierre
Elliott Trudeau airport and she had wanted to prepare a special meal for him. With the
refrigerator not working, they had to make do with leftovers from the previous day that had been
stored in the cooler. On Monday evening, when they returned to Montreal, the Rileys stopped
once more to buy ice for the cooler and milk for their Tuesday morning coffee and breakfast.
That Monday evening, all members of the family had cereal with milk and some fruits for dinner.

On the morning of Tuesday, July 3, Clinton had to take the family car to the tire dealer. When
Clinton arrived home from the tire dealer at about 9:00 a.m., he decided to remain at home
because Chantale had called The Canadian’s customer service and was told that The Canadian
would investigate and call her back. She once more repeated the whole story to the customer
service representative since, at each call; she spoke to a different person. She was told to be
patient; that the file clearly indicated that a technician would visit her home that day. They had to
buy more ice to preserve a small quantity of food. At about 3:30 pm Clinton called the customer
service and inquired about the delay after repeating the sequence of events. At about 6:30 p.m.,
Chantale again called the repair department. He said that no one would visit the Rileys that day,
since the repair department closed at 4:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, having heard nothing from The Canadian, Chantale had called the service
department at 8:25 a.m. She said that there was a note in the couple’s file and that she would
communicate with the repair department, asking the person in charge to call the Rileys. She said
that she would phone Chantale as soon as she had heard from the repair department. At 9:30
a.m., having heard nothing from The Canadian, Chantale phoned again. At that point, Chantale
lost her cool and asked the person on the phone where else could she call if nobody called her
back saying what time the repair would be done. After apologizing on behalf of the company,
Diane told Chantale that she would check things out herself, since the file clearly stated that the
repair was supposed to have been done the previous day. She said that someone would call the
Rileys as soon as possible.

Clinton called the store at about 2:15 p.m. Clinton said that that was unacceptable and that The
Canadian should deliver it. When she returned, she said that the manager was taking another call
and that she could not speak to him. Clinton responded that this was about the fourth time he.

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was given this promise but that no one had called in the past. Nicole was always polite. The
employee said that a technician would visit the Rileys on July 5. She asked if that was OK.
While there, Dorothy, the neighbor, said that she too was a customer of The Canadian but that
after hearing about the experience of the Rileys, she was beginning to think that she should
search for a new supplier. She believed that the service of The Canadian was deteriorating very
badly.

They knew that they would soon have to change the dryer, the stove and the microwave oven.
Dorothy faced the same situation. On Thursday morning, the cleaning lady arrived at 9:00 a.m.
She inquired about the brand and said that she would make a mental note not to buy that brand.
At about 9:45 a.m., a technician called to say that he would be there in 30 minutes. At 10:30
a.m., he arrived and Clinton and Chantale were happy to see that the technician was Miguel. He
began the repairs immediately by using nitrogen to clear the blocked lines. Including the ice,
Chantale calculated the total loss at around $108. One of them had to stay at home to deal with
the problem for five days altogether but, given that they were consultants who had the luxury of
working at home occasionally, they had postponed a few appointments but they did not lose five
days of pay. But the couple was still very angry with the treatment they felt they had received
during the past week.

Chantale and Clinton, after doing a big grocery run and cooking their first complete meal since
the trouble started seven days before, discussed their ordeal. Chantale mentioned that it could
have been worse. The next day, to the surprise of Chantale, Miguel called to inquire about the
refrigerator. Upon learning that it seemed to work well, he promised that he would call the
following week to see if all was well with the refrigerator.