In the age of better-informed consumers and omnipresent social media platforms, it isn’t surprising that manufacturers are being held accountable for their wares.

Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation’s marketing arm Amul, however, used Facebook to show how seriously it took customer complaints that could hurt its brand image. The dairy giant responded to photographs uploaded on Facebook by a Gurgaon customer on October 10 showing ‘Amul Gold’ milk purchased by her resembling slop after she tried to heat it. The pictures were shared some 89,000 times and she proceeded to file complaints via e-mail and over the phone.

Amul’s response

The company’s response was immediate. Upon investigating, it found that the expiry date of the product was October 9, and questioned the basis of the complaint.

RS Sodhi, Managing Director, GCMMF, told BusinessLine that Amul deals with complaints swiftly. “This particular complaint stemmed from her using expired stock. Milk is a perishable commodity to be used within the specified time. When the pH level dropped and she tried to make cheese by heating it, such a result was bound to happen,” he said.

The company gave a detailed response through its official Facebook page, where it stated that after visiting the customer at her home twice, she was informed that no problems had been found in any of the ‘Amul Gold’ batches.

The post on Amul’s official Facebook page garnered over 5,000 ‘likes’ and had been shared more than 2,500 times till late in the evening.

Amul also posted a video demonstrating where the consumer had gone wrong. The video, which was uploaded on YouTube, has received around 7,000 hits so far.

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