Question

Adjustment Letter: Ben & Jerry’s

In an exciting inside look, you see managers discussing six factors that determine Ben & Jerry’s continuing success. Toward the end of the video, you hear staffers discuss a new packaging material made with unbleached paper. As a socially responsible company, Ben & Jerry’s wanted to move away from ice cream packages made from bleached papers. Bleaching requires chlorine, a substance that contains dioxin, which is known to cause cancer, genetic and reproductive defects, and learning disabilities. In producing paper pulp mills using chlorine are also adding to dioxin contamination of waterways. After much research, Ben & Jerry’s found a chlorine-free, unbleached paper board for its packages, That was the good news. The bad news is that the inside of the package is now brown.

Assume you have been hired at Ben & Jerry’s to help answer incoming letters. Although you are fairly new, your boss gives you a letter from an unhappy customer. This customer opened a pint of Ben & Jerry’s “World’s Best Vanilla” and then threw it out. After seeing the brown inner lid, he decided that his pint must have been used for chocolate before it was used for vanilla. Or, he said, “The entire pint has gone bad and somehow turned the sides brown.” Whatever the reason, he wasn’t’ taking any changes. He wanted his money back.

TASK: Write a letter that explains the brown carton, justifies the reason for using it, and retains the customer’s business.

Answer 1

Dear Sir,

I am sorry to hear about your unpleasant experience with our product. We are committed to providing high-quality products to our customers and are happy to hear about any grievances regarding the same.

As we understood from your description of the issue, we are apologetic for the misunderstanding created by the packaging of our product in your mind. The inner brown side of the ice cream lid is a part of our packaging and was not a result of the ice-cream gone bad/re-use of the packaging. I can understand why you might have thought the same and would like to tell you that we have recently changed our packaging to a more healthier and environment-friendly one. Our packaging now uses unbleached chlorine-free material, that would eliminate all the health risks associated with the previous form of packaging.

We assure you that we are working towards serving our customers better and hope that we have cleared any doubts that you had.

Regards,

Team Ben & Jerry's