Cheeky Dinosaur A Surprise PR Success For M&S

How do you deal with the complaint of a disgruntled customer whilst winning positive media coverage in the process? By sending him a drawing of a smiling dinosaur of course!

This unusual course of action was taken by Marks and Spencer employee Steve Jones to apologise for a recent case of poor customer service at their Taunton store.

Customer Bill Bennett wrote to the store to complain after being charged £3 for a salmon sandwich which should’ve cost £1.90. Quite rightly he requested a refund and was immediately offered a gift card but after several weeks and no arrival of said card he wrote back asking for a ‘hand-drawn picture of a smiley dinosaur’ to compensate ‘for the inconvenience’.

Clearly this was the remark of a good natured man keen to make a bit of a point about the lack of recompense he had been promise and I’m sure he thought no more of it, remaining hopeful that his gift card would arrive in the post in the next few days.

However he was pleased to find that the good humoured customer service operative had indeed included the sketch with the gift card and a note which said, ‘Please also find a picture of a smiling dinosaur, hand drawn.’

Now this may seem like a non-story and in many ways it is. Man asks for silly drawing and surprisingly gets one wouldn’t normally be classed as media dynamite but whether intended or not (and I suspect not) it has worked out as a really positive piece of PR for M&S.

Why? I hear you ask. Simple, it shows they’re willing to go beyond the call of duty to satisfy their customers and do so with a cheeky picture which is perfect for the press and viral spreading.

Reading the story you don’t think, ‘look at M&S overcharging’ you instead think, ‘wow they must be a fun and understanding company and the picture isn’t bad either.’

It just goes to show that conveying a positive message about your business to the masses needn’t cost big bucks - in this case I’d imagine it cost less than a pound.

So to Mr Jones well done on gaining your employer some great free press coverage and also well done to Mr Bennett for making such an audacious request.

Could this be a stunt? Sure. Does anybody care? No, because it makes such a fun and heart-warming story.