Greatest Customer Service Story Never Told
Jason Ruby
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January 11th, 2022
(This story is 100% true and in no way exaggerated, which is why this is such a great story.)
The Greatest Customer Service Story Never Told
Customer service is critical but often overlooked in many businesses. Many companies put their efforts into gaining new customers but do little to support their customers after the sale. Which is why I am so excited to tell this story.
My friends (Jason, Mike and Mark – names have not be disguised to protect their identities) and I have had a tradition over the years of attending games at different NFL stadiums. A few years ago, we headed to Dallas and while the featured Sunday game was the Cowboys vs. the Eagles, we still had Saturday free and decided to check out an NBA game the Dallas Mavericks vs. the Utah Jazz. The game left a lasting impression.
The Popcorn Incident
We arrived at the American Airlines Center and, while it seemed like your usual stadium, a few things did stand out right away. First, the beer was “reasonably priced”. Now this is relative because prices can range from city to city, and normally buying concessions at a sporting event feels more like donating an organ, but we were all pleasantly surprised by how affordable the food and drink was. (There were even free refills on popcorn – aka. “$5 Bottomless Popcorn”)
With our beer and Bottomless Popcorn in hand, we made our way to our seats. The game was incredibly entertaining and by halftime we had already deemed the outing a huge success. Except for one thing.
While the Bottomless Popcorn was a great idea in concept, we were all a bit disappointed with the quality. The popcorn was dry and somewhat burned. It was a minor concern but with halftime upon us, I sought out a different concession stand for a free refill. Despite the new vendor, I found myself staring into another bucket of dry, burned popcorn.
While the popcorn was disappointing, it was far from a game-ruining experience. We were having a great time. However, with halftime drawing to an end, Mark mentioned to Mike that he had read that if you e-mailed Mark Cuban (the owner of the Mavericks) he would read it. By the way, this was before the social media revolution had exploded.
A quick search of the Mavericks’ website revealed Mr. Cuban’s e-mail address. Moments later, Mike was jokingly composing an e-mail to complain (and when I say ‘complain’, it was nothing more than a general observation) about the dry popcorn. Mike clicked send, we had a good laugh, put the popcorn aside and went back to watching the game.
The Third Quarter
As the third quarter started Mike’s Blackberry buzzed and after glancing down at his phone, he saw “From: Mark Cuban” in his inbox. More than just a little surprised, Mike opened the message to find a very brief but concise reply:
That doesn’t cut it.
I’m on it.
m.
Did the Owner of the Dallas Mavericks actually just reply to our email about burned popcorn?
Nothing about the email was a form reply. This was clearly sent from Mark Cuban himself. Suddenly we felt completely out of our customer complaint pay grade. The popcorn was bad, but we certainly didn’t feel it deserved the personal attention of the Mavericks’ owner (even though our actions suggested otherwise).
Many companies provide a basic, first level of defense when a customer needs support but it often disintegrates after that. Even if that’s what happened here, getting a personal reply from Mark Cuban about our popcorn complaint was still impressive and told us a lot about how he runs his business. We were completely shocked, more than just a little impressed and after another laugh we went back to enjoying the game.
We had a great story to take home with us, but the “Popcorn Incident” wasn’t over yet.
As the third quarter wrapped up Mike’s Blackberry buzzed to life again but this time it was a phone call. We were in Dallas on a Saturday night, who could possibly be calling? Mike didn’t recognize the name on the call display but answered it anyway. It was the Vice President of Operations at the American Airlines Center. Mike handed me the phone, it seems because I had bought the popcorn it was now my issue. The friendly voice on the phone was calling on behalf of “Mr. Cuban”, who had asked him to investigate this immediately. Suddenly I felt like we were causing way more trouble than it was worth. I promptly apologized – it felt like we were pranking them. He continued, assuring me that no issue was too small and, for “Mr. Cuban”, even the tiniest detail around the game experience was important, on and off the court. Since this was a Saturday night, he promised an “investigation” into the matter on Monday, asked for my contact information, thanked us for coming to the game and hung up the phone.
It was surreal and it felt entirely over the top. But there it was. For the rest of the night and the following day we occasionally remarked on the craziness that was Mark Cuban’s attention to detail. I assure you that the Cowboys stadium the next day was not nearly as affordable or impressive.
Back Home
Back at work the following Tuesday, it was fun re-telling the story around the office to whoever would listen.The fun got more serious when my phone started ringing. It was the Vice President of Operations from American Airlines Center calling me back – despite having no expectation of ever hearing from him again. He re-introduced himself and reminded me of our conversation during Saturday’s game. He went on to explain (after what sounded like a legitimate and extensive investigation) that the concessions were bagging up all unused popcorn and saving it for the next event which is why it was stale and tasted terrible. Mr. Cuban had been informed of this and he was dumbfounded. Given that the price of making popcorn is so inexpensive, why wasn’t it being made fresh before every game? As a result of the investigation, I had been assured that it had been officially “mandated” (their word, not mine) that fresh popcorn would be made no more than two hours prior to all future games.
The fact that the Vice-President of Operations took the concern as seriously as he did and then called me back to follow-up was a whole new level of customer service that I had never experienced before. Ever. He also offered us four free tickets to another Mavericks game. I’m not sure what was more surprising – his offer or that I declined because we lived so far away. Looking back, I feel like we should have made a special return trip to Dallas. The offer was beyond generous for an incident we considered to be a minor inconvenience. He insisted on making it up to us and, in lieu of the tickets, he sent a few golf shirts (which arrived two days later).
The Final Buzzer
Since then, every time someone shares a bad customer service story with me, I always think of the Dallas Mavericks. Your customers notice the care you put into your business, especially when it comes to customer service and support. No detail is too small and whether you are a sole proprietor or run a billion-dollar sports franchise, the moral of the story is the same. Pay attention to details and protect your brand with great customer service.
I have no doubt that Mark Cuban doesn’t remember any part of this story but none of us have forgotten it. For me, I have never watched a lot of basketball, but I am a Dallas Mavericks fan for life.
