Edit: This deserves its own Topic for more general discussion, because this is about bit more than just the Huel bars. Let’s discuss about the following over here: Dismissive communications towards customers by Huel.
I’d call the Huel way of going about this dismissive to customer concerns, at some points even belittling.
Yeah, yeah, the Huel bars were not the best of culinary experiences, don’t still see a reason to cause quite significant turmoil by discontinuing them without an already announced replacement with something reminiscent of a release timeline. This was never going to in any universe work out well. You just don’t discontinue one of your core products people have incorporated into their food habits, and then be dismissive when questioned about the upcoming replacement. I wouldn’t say this was terrible compared to those larger global issues. But, this most definitely was directly caused by Huels own doings and communication style. It caused unnecessary uncertainty and stress to the Huel customers, would think that you’d have at least a bit of respect towards your customers. You probably still want to keep them, alienating them won’t help at that.
Also, this isn’t the first time Huels has done something like this. Here are the most notable recent things as a refresher:
- The Huel bars being discontinued. With a replacement soon to come. Couldn’t give a timeline though, or any idea about what the replacement will actually look like.
- The Huel Ready-to-drink being constantly out of stock. Couldn’t give timelines though on future availability.
- The restructuring of Huel discounts in some regions. And, then being being dismissive and even belittling towards the customers for which this meant a price increase.
- The Huel marketing emails. Of little value currently. Little bit unrelated, but these would be a good way to communicate with customers who don’t wish to constantly monitor social media or forums for products being discontinued, others announced, and other news.
I’d say Huel has certainly made a habit of doing stuff like this. You guys over at Huel make excellent products still. It’s also no secret that you are more than capable of being excellent at communicating too. I personally fail to see the reasoning behind the style of communicating you’ve chosen. You aren’t just winging (improvising) it internally, you have timelines internally, visions of the future products, (ability to do the marketing emails right). Don’t need to make them all public, but at least sometimes it’d be nice to have a little transparency or/(and) certainty, where possible. Why not at least try to be fair and respectful to your customers? They literally are your customers.