The Car That's Allergic to Ice Cream
The Pontiac, or “the car that’s allergic to ice cream”, was one of the car models manufactured and launched by General Motors in 1925, with production eventually ending in 2010. The story began with a complaint sent in by one of the car’s owners to the company’s customer service department.
The Customer Wrote the Following in His Complaint:
“My family and I are in the habit of eating ice cream for dessert after dinner every night. The type of ice cream varies based on a vote between the members of my family, and here’s the problem: I recently bought a new Pontiac from your company, and since then my daily trip to the supermarket to buy ice cream has become a problem. I’ve noticed that when I buy ice cream (vanilla flavour) and come back to the car, the engine won’t start. But if I buy ice cream in any other flavour, the engine starts with no issues at all. Believe me, I’m being serious.”
The Company’s Response
A maintenance engineer reviewed the letter at the direction of the company’s president. Although linking ice cream to the engine of a new car may have seemed like madness and nonsense, the maintenance engineer decided to go to the car owner’s home.
The owner of the “ice cream allergic” car began proving the truth of his story to the engineer. He took him to buy ice cream and they bought vanilla, and when they returned to the car, the engine wouldn’t start.
The maintenance engineer was puzzled and decided to repeat the experiment over three nights. Each night they would buy a flavour other than vanilla, and indeed, the car’s engine would start without any problem.
The engineer refused to believe what his own eyes were showing him, because it defied logic, and he began repeating the trip to the supermarket daily. He recorded meticulous observations: the distance covered each day, the time it took, the streets travelled, the amount of fuel in the car, the speed it was driven at, and every other piece of information that could be tracked about the journey.
Analysing the Results and Identifying the Root Cause
After analysing the data he had gathered, the engineer found that buying vanilla ice cream took less time than buying any other flavour, because the vanilla counter at the supermarket was located near the front of the store and was stocked with large quantities, since vanilla was the most popular and preferred flavour with customers. The other flavours sat at the back of the supermarket, so buying them took longer.
The maintenance engineer was getting closer to the solution and to identifying the root cause.
The car’s engine wouldn’t start if only a short time had passed since it was switched off (which is what was happening when vanilla was purchased). The engine needed some time to cool down before it could be restarted (which is what was happening when the other flavours were purchased). In the end, the root of the problem had nothing to do with the flavour of the ice cream, but with a phenomenon known as vapor lock. The company later addressed this in its newer models.
The Lesson Learned
Even though, at first glance, the complaint might have come across as a joke or as a customer who couldn’t find anyone else to entertain him except the company’s customer service department, the company’s management still chose to practise empathy and sent the maintenance engineer out to walk in the customer’s shoes and look at the world from his perspective.
The causes of complaints are varied, and the initial inputs may not seem logical at all. Yet digging deeper and searching for the root cause will lead you to a perfectly logical explanation.
In Closing
This is an old story about empathy, first published 21 years ago, but the lesson it offers is still valid today.
Many companies jump to negative conclusions and would rather not take the extra steps and the extra effort to listen to the customer and understand their problems. The same applies to identifying the root causes of complaints. Business owners often see nothing in their companies but the numbers (profits and losses), and as long as these indicators and what they’re tied to look healthy, why bother?
This is a serious mistake, regardless of company size. Remember that when an elephant falls (a large company), it’s not the same as a gazelle falling (a small company), and both must care about their customers and learn from them.
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