About ten days ago, I left the office at around 8:30 pm and walked to Grand Central Terminal to catch a train home. As I walked towards the correct track in the lower level, I spied the Ciao Bella Gelato sign and my grumbling stomach and sweet tooth together lobbied successfully for a treat. I thought “if they have dulce de leche flavor, I’ll get some.”

Well, they did and I did. I ran to the train with recent purchase in hand, my mouth watering at the anticipation of the wonderful flavor and luscious mouth feel of Ciao Bella dulce de leche gelato. I’m a big fan of gelato and dulce de leche and of this brand in particular.

Sadly, when I started wolfing down (did I mention I was hungry?) the gelato, I was unpleasantly surprised by the quality of the product. It wasn’t sweet. Its texture was more grainy than velvety. It just wasn’t very good. I was quite disappointed because I had never had a bad experience with this brand before. So I decided to whine about it.

I took out my phone and tweeted:

albertoferrer Usually lovely Ciao Bella dulce de leche flavor gelato today not so much. Bland, a little rancid, even some ice cristals. Sigh.
8:39 PM Feb 4th from txt

About an hour later, a fellow fan of the Ciao Bella brand tweeted:

mindytweets @albertoferrer ohhh, fail!! Try the blackberry cabernet flavor, yum!
9:41 PM Feb 4th f rom UberTwitter in reply to albertoferrer

I got home and thought nothing more about the incident. That was until I had some free time the following week and checked my Twitter feed more closely. There I found this tweet, from the Ciao Bella folks:

CiaoBellaGelato @albertoferrer Oh NO! Sounds like a remelt issue. Please call our office or email info@ciaobellagelato.com and we will handle it. sorry
2:58 pm Feb 5th from TweetDeck in reply to albertoferrer

I was floored. These guys had not only picked up my tweet, but they had tentatively diagnosed the issue and responded with (1) a promise to make it right and (2) contact information. And that was done in less than one working day. I was also thrilled.

Following their instructions, I emailed the company, explaining the situation with the tweets above pasted into the body of the email. This was on a Wednesday afternoon. The next day I received an email reply from Justine DeRose at Ciao Bella.

She apologized for the incident, which clearly was not their fault (it was the retailer’s), explained in more detail what might have been the cause of the issue, and asked for the code at the bottom of the package so they could better look into the matter. She also offered a coupon for a free pint.

The explanation was great, as it directed any questions I might have about the product away from the product itself. Asking for the code on the package also was great because it suggested that they’d really look into the matter (“these people are serious about the quality of their gelato!” I thought). And of course the free pint coupon was just icing on the proverbial cake: unexpected and delightful.

I replied to the email saying that I no longer had the packaging but letting her know where I had made my purchase. She then asked for my address and mailed me the coupon. I received the free pint coupon this weekend.

Since this situation transpired, I have visited the Ciao Bella website several times (that’s where I was able to put a face to the name of the person at Ciao Bella who was actively engaged in resolving the issue), I have looked for stores that carry their product beyond the stores I usually frequent, and I even tried to buy a pint online. I’ve told the story to several people I know and they’re all impressed with how quickly Ciao Bella handled it, how positive the experience was, and how big an advocate for their brand I’ve become. And now I’ve written this post and will tweet about it.

Was that customer service? Was that marketing? That’s for another post. But from the perspective of a consumer, it doesn’t matter. It was done very well and it will pay off for Ciao Bella. Kudos to them and special thanks to Justine.

Update:
Within an hour of my tweeting the link to this post, Ciao Bella re-tweeted it with a thank you and responded here with a comment by Deborah Holt, their VP of Marketing.