Lesson Forty-Three: Dear Mr. O’Hara

Steve O’Hara, CEO
Executive Office
Rawlings Sporting Goods Co., Inc.
P.O. Box 22000
St.Louis,MO 63126

Dear Mr. O’Hara,

I recently purchased a Rawlings Radar Ball from your online store and wanted to share my buying experience with you. I have to say, I am disappointed that a company I formerly held in high esteem could have let me down in such a big way.

It’s not even that you ultimately sent me the wrong product, or that the 1-800 number listed on your website doesn’t work in Canada; or that the product took forever to get here; or that there is no contact email address listed anywhere on your site and therefore no way for me to get updated on my order; or that your catalog is inconsistent and unintuitive; or that my $29.99 US purchase ended up being close to $80 CDN on my VISA due to unexplained costs. It’s not any of that.

It’s that you sent me the little league ball. I don’t want to know how fast I can throw from a little league mound. I want to know how fast I throw from 60 feet 6 inches—the length of a big league pitching mound. Your product clearly says on the packaging it is accurate only to the distance it is calibrated for, in this case 46 feet.

You see, Mr. O’Hara, I wasn’t a very good athlete as a kid. In fact, in my last year of little league I had exactly two hits, both in the same game,off the same pitcher. One was a grad slam, the other a solid double.

For one magic day I was a star. I still have that grand slam ball. It sits on my desk at home. And though it is dirty and scuffed, I can still make out the brand name—it’s a Rawlings ball.

I’m like many of your customers—people who wish they were better athletes than they are. People who still have the spirit of that kid playing ball, but are now grown adults. You’ve tarnished a great memory for me. Whenever I look at that ball I’ll not only remember my grand slam day, but the lousy feeling I have for the Rawlings company.

It’s clear to me that your online effort is half-hearted, which puts me in the awkward position of feeling unwanted. As a result, the thing you are really losing is not only my business, but my goodwill. Something you’ve been building since 1887.

I’d suggest you decide, really decide, whether Rawlings wants to be online. And if you do, stop navel-gazing, and create something that considers the user first. An online store shouldn’t be an after-thought. It should be user-centric, intuitive, friendly, helpful, and above all interactive.

I sincerely hope you will give your website a chance to be successful, remembering: just as you win business one customer at a time, so too do you lose it one at a time.


Sincerely,

Shane Sparks