Dear Dollar Shave Club

How to Use Social Media to Solve Problems and Get Free Stuff...

 by: Adam Dean


Social Media isn't just for communicating with your friends anymore. Businesses are listening to the chatter and they react to customer feedback. There are countless examples of companies working to solve problems through social media. Whether it is Apple trying to help you troubleshoot your iOS update mistakes or Domino's redelivering that pizza that you ordered incorrectly, businesses are constantly working to minimize negative comments on Social Media.

But how do you do it? You can't just fire off angry tweets and emails and hope to get a refund for those lousy waterproof headphones you ordered on Amazon at 3am. The best way to get help is to speak their lingo. Take this example below of a recent encounter I had with Dollar Shave Club. They are a fairly new company and rely heavily on word of mouth and guerrilla marketing. DSC takes a very tongue in cheek approach to their campaigns and so when I was face with an issue, I responded in the same way I would expect them to write me.

Below is the Facebook post I scrapped together and sent to DSC when my fairly new razor handle broke on me during a trip to Vegas.

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Hello Dollar Shave Club,

Greetings and salutations. I am a very happy and satisfied customer. I love dollar shave club and have encouraged many a friend to try. I believe you have good, solid, quality products which you stand behind, or in front of.... or beside, however sounds best. I look forward each day to my morning shave. Something I dreaded. I was a cheap skate. I bought the disposable Bic, Schick, Dip, stick crap-ola razors, or whatever the cheapest available was, for many moons. Then a friend showed me the light. DSC. After only 2 months of clean smooth shaving I feel as though my life has been changed in  a beautiful way. The wife loves my face, and she even uses the "lovers blade"  for her legs every now and again. So....

Why am I writing this email?

Well you see a few days ago while traveling (which I do a lot of for work) to Las Vegas (where I don't go very often) to a conference... Well I can't tell you exactly what happened because of the rules... you know its Vegas. "What happens in Vegas..." well you know.  However, when I arrived, I opened my luggage to discover that my 4X Lovers Blade shave handle head was smashed (say that 5x fast). This is in all likely hood to the large gorillas that handle bags at the airport. I believe some of these baggage handlers make it a competition to see who can hurl 50 pound bags the farthest but I digress...

I attempted to shave using the broken handle with little.. dare I say no success.

I was curious as to the protocol for obtaining a new Razor Handle. Is this something I will need to replace out of pocket or something that DSC will replace? I can ship back the broken handle? I am sure it can be re-furbished, re-purposed or re-cycled into a new shave handle for some lucky future DSC member.

Although I am at the moment fatherless, I envision a day when my son will begin shaving and will receive his first set of DSC blades. Possibly, although highly unlikely, his shave handle might possibly have some recycled elements of his Pa's old shave handle. I may also never have a son. But if his name will be Roman. They all had such nice clean shaven faces. At least the statues did.

A beautiful thought.

Please let me know as soon as you can what I need to do about obtaining a new lovers handle. I can feel my 5 o'clock shadow laughing at me.

My best,
Adam Dean

So after firing this off, I was pretty unsure of the result. However with in 10 minutes I had a message back from the DSC corporate office on how to get a new razor. Then 30 minutes later even better news...



From Dollar Shave Club:
Oh Adam, you've given us the shivers! Your positive attitude and heart-warming feedback makes it all worth it. We will do our best to make you proud.
Thanks for your beautifully crafted email and support of DSC.
You're bada$$. Excuse my French.
 My colleague thought your email was so fantastic she sent you a handle for FREE. But, not realizing this I gave you the link to purchase one.... So, it looks like you're going to have two handles. Unless you want to halt the second and get a refund for the one purchased? Your call. 
Now go out there and tackle the world with that baby-butt-smooth soft mug.
Happy Shavin'



PS- You're officially a super member.

So, the next time you are faced with a situation where you have a complaint or need assistance from a business who literally has no idea that you are having a problem or how to help you, try to think about what they would most likely respond too. How would they talk about the issue you are having and approach it as a business? Keep these things in mind before you blast of on a Twitter rant about Taco Bell forgetting the sour cream in your loaded burrito.
#tacos4life