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“Runner Girl Knits” Shows Us How to Be Bear
By Nate | November 16, 2007
“She Runs! She Knits! Not at the Same Time!”
That’s the zingy subhead for Runner Girl Knits, a blog from an ultra-energetic Bay Area resident named Amy. When she’s not at the day job, Amy likes to knit, prepare for and endure marathons across the country, and, oh yes, love love love on her Vermont Teddy Bears.
Amy’s blog is chock-full of healthy adoration for her Teddy Bears, but if she receives a Bear-Gram in less-than-perfect condition, she doesn’t shy from letting her readers know. That was the case recently when Amy ordered her latest Vermont Teddy Bear, a Sweetheart Bear she named Suzy.
To Amy’s dismay, Suzy Sweetheart Bear arrived in a very distressed box and with an unusual amount of loose fur, so she took the time to document the damage to the box and describe the messy extra fur. I found out about it and alerted Customer Service rep Meg Robarts, who wrote a comment in Amy’s same blog post to express her sympathy, say how she’d share the story with VTB management, and see if Amy would like a replacement box (which a lot of folks like to keep).
Now, I’m way pleased that we’re reaching out to customers online “where they live”, but for me, the bigger picture is the fact that people are using blogs to hold us accountable for our promises. In this stage, it’s an indirect process, i.e., I don’t think Amy necessarily expected that we’d stumble across her blog post or even write to her in the comments section. However, I think we’re not too long from the point when folks just assume that the companies they do business with are keeping tabs.
It’s not necessarily a “Big Brother” thing, more an evolving part of our relationship. Just as our customers depend on real-time shipping tracking to make sure their gifts get there on time, so we should start expecting that our customers will “go public” if there are any problems.
In fact, we’ve seen this kind of thing before, most recently when blogger NYC Watchdog posted the itinerary for a special birthday Bear he sent to his dear friend The Steff. Even before the package got to The Steff (on time, whew!), NYC Watchdog was making sure the world was watching its progress right alongside him. How’s that for pressure?
But you know what? Being Bear is being connected to others. You can say a lot of things about the act of gift giving (and we’re in the biz, we’ve heard ‘em all!), but the fundamental reason you give a gift is to keep connected to another person. To show appreciation. To remind the person that she or he matters.
She may not have realized it at the time, but Runner Girl Amy gave us a gift by reaching out to us online to say that we’d dropped the ball. We reached back to let Amy know that she matters, to try to make it right, and to stay connected. That’s Being Bear.
Oh, and I should mention that Amy’s latest race was the famous New York City Marathon. That sound you hear is applause from a Factory full of clapping paws.
Topics: Blogs & Articles |