Lunya: From Wreck to Rockstar

Lisa Hirst Carnes | February 2019

We all know that reviews can make or break a brand. We as consumers are heavily influenced by reviews, both positive and negative.

Think about your own buying process. You probably start by doing a quick Google search and then, chances are, you read a review or two, or twenty.

So, what do you do when you receive a poor review? Let’s face it, even the best brands experience some sort of hiccup every once in a while. This is a reminder that a bad review doesn’t have to be the end of the world and that there are steps you can take to repair the relationship.

Here’s my story…

On December 12th, my husband David ordered me a Christmas gift. He saw some advertising for an up-and-coming women’s sleepwear line called Lunya and decided he’d go to their website to see what they had to offer.

The Lunya website was modern with gorgeous photos showing elegant, yet comfortable sleepwear. “Sleepwear for the modern woman” as they put it. Maybe he was trying to tell me that he was sick of my ratty t-shirts and sweatpants or maybe it was those cat pajamas?

At any rate, he found something beautiful at Lunya and placed his order. He paid for 2-day expedited shipping to make sure my gift arrived on time for Christmas.

Fast forward 10 days. It’s December 22nd and after multiple attempts of contacting Lunya and not hearing back, David told me he was concerned his gift wouldn’t make it in time for Christmas. He was disappointed especially since he had planned ahead (Christmas shopping is something that my family does in December, not six months before). I asked David if he had tried contacting them via social media. He had not. They were active on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and they’d probably respond to our questions there. We decided to use social media to get some answers.

This is the part of the story when we discovered countless bad reviews describing our exact scenario.  People who had ordered Christmas gifts hadn’t received their orders, tried to reach someone at Lunya, and hadn’t gotten a response. We weren’t alone.

We tweeted, we contacted them on Instagram and Facebook, and we still didn’t hear back from them, not a peep. Had they gone out of business? Were they already on holiday? Were they having fulfillment issues? We suspected the later because they had recently gotten some great press in Forbes Magazine.

I was mad. I wanted my new pajamas. Yes, I realize this sounds utterly ridiculous. David had planned ahead and picked out something really nice.  He had paid for it and he was left scrambling at the last minute. I told him not to worry about it but he really wanted me to open something on Christmas.

I left a pretty scathing review on Facebook and even encouraged other people complaining to leave reviews. Was I trying to organize a little army against Lunya? It takes a lot for me to leave a bad review. This probably has something to do with my profession since I’m often tasked with helping people improve reviews and their online reputation.

Reviews 101

People rarely leave reviews when they’re happy but always seem to have time to write a negative review. Still, I was mad and they had left us in the dark for three weeks without a single response.

One thing to note, we may not have received any help about our order but David was receiving lots of email from them. We had been added to their marketing automation email workflow. Their marketing automation was firing on all cylinders.

*Note to self, find out what Lunya uses for marketing automation.

About a week after Christmas, a box from Lunya showed up on my door. Guardedly, I opened the box to discover the softest, comfiest sleepwear I have ever felt! They were absolutely supreme. How could I stay mad at Lunya now? It was going to be really difficult. Even though the box had arrived, they had never responded to us and it had left David scrambling.

Around the same time, David received an email (not a marketing email) from Lunya apologizing for the poor customer service and lack of communication. They gave him a code to receive 20% his next order and told him that they’d be mailing “a little something” to make up for the trouble. Given our first experience with them, we weren’t holding our breath.

Fast forward, about three more weeks. For the most part, I had forgotten all about the poor customer experience. Did I mention that those pajamas are SOFT and stylish? I was at work when the UPS driver came with another box from Lunya. When we opened the box we were delighted to find a really nice candle, a handwritten note, and a $100 gift certificate.

Wow! The note explained how orders went through the roof after some press and they were unable to fulfill at that capacity. They apologized and promised they’d try to do better. I felt that it was a sincere apology.

I immediately went back to Facebook to see if I could add a follow-up to my review. I wanted to share that Lunya had come through in the end and genuinely tried to make things right. Unfortunately, they had disabled reviews on Facebook. So, now I’m telling all of you. If you need something to sleep in, look no further, go to Lunya.co. Yes, it’s a little pricey, but they are exquisite.

Now that folks is how to make lemonade out of lemons.

Key Takeaways – What Lunya Did Right

1. Own your mistake. At some point, something will go wrong. When it does, be prepared and have a plan for how to remedy the mishap.

2. Be honest. Don’t give some a BS excuse. Most people will see right through that. Be honest and tell the truth.

3. Send a personalized card.  A handwritten card makes the card feel more sincere plus it’s almost unusual to receive a handwritten note nowadays. Having the card come from a real person rather than a department feels more authentic.

4. Be generous! Let’s face it, if Lunya would have only offered 20% on my next order, there probably wouldn’t be the next order, but they didn’t. They gave me 100 bucks, a candle, AND 20% off. Most people will take another shot with an offer like that.

5. Produce THE best pajamas in the universe! This one you can’t really steal because they already exist.

See what they did there? They literally turned an unhappy customer into an evangelist!