Business leaders are infatuated with the potential of AI to automate interactions, expand creativity and reduce costs.
There is no question that AI has the potential to transform marketing, but my recent experience with restaurant-chain Sweet Green is a cautionary tale and a good reminder that companies shouldn’t rush to embrace automation.
The basic story: Sweet Green’s apparently automated customer service is dreadful. I recommend people avoid the brand – if the company can’t handle a simple customer question, I have little confidence that it can safely source and manage fresh ingredients.
Sweet Green
Sweet Green is a large U.S. restaurant chain, founded in 2006. The company has over 200 locations and serves salads and bowls. The food is tasty and seems to be healthy; it is a popular lunch destination for affluent young people.
The firm went public in 2001, trading near $50 a share. The stock hasn’t performed well and now trades at $11.
A Gift Card
My son’s birthday was in January. He lives in New Haven, and I knew Sweet Green would be opening a new location in town. He is a fan of the chain, so I sent him a $100 gift card for the birthday. I received a confirmation email from Sweet Green, and the company charged my credit card for the amount.
Unfortunately, my son never received the gift card. Now, he might have missed it, or I might have typed in the wrong address. Or perhaps there was a technical problem.
Regardless, this is an easy situation to deal with. At least that is what one might think. I clearly bought a gift card, and we just need it resent.
So, we contacted Sweet Green.
Customer Service Disaster
This is where everything went wrong.
In response to my son’s email, he received this cheery response from Fredy:
Thank you for taking the time to write us + we are happy to help!
We appreciate bringing this to our attention and we are sorry to hear your redemption link for your gift card is not working. Would you be so kind to please share with us the gift card number and order number?
Wishing you all the best,
Fredy,
sweetgreen customer experience team
My son sent the order number, but not the gift card number since he didn’t receive the gift card.
Ingrid from Sweet Green then asked for my email address. My son sent it over. Ingrid then asked for the last four digits of my credit card number. My son sent it over.
Ingrid replied:
Please request to your father the following information:
purchase date
last 4 digits of the card
email address used
Looking forward to your reply.
Warmest regards,
Ingrid- Sweetgreen customer specialist
So, I sent over the information. Fredy then responded:
Thank you for taking the time to write us + we are happy to help!
We appreciate the details provided. We were unable to locate any account with the email provided. Could you please share with us the order number? Is usually a 12 digits order number that starts with a 6?
Wishing you all the best,
Fredy,
sweetgreen customer experience team
We replied with the requested information, along with a copy of the credit card transaction.
Fredy then replied:
We are deeply sorry for the experience, but unfortunately we are unable to locate your gift card with the details provided. Could you please share with us a screenshot of the email confirmation you received where we can view all these details?
Wishing you all the best,
Fredy,
sweetgreen customer experience team
So, we sent a screen shot of the email I received. Stephany then jumped in:
We have tried to track gift card number: 1150012971736806535024 but I’m afraid this seems to be an inactive gift card. Do you have by any chance the order number of this gift card?
Looking forward to hearing back!
Warmest regards,
Stephany – Sweetgreen customer specialist
Feeling somewhat frustrated by this point, I replied with this impactful email:
Hi Sweet Green – Of course it is an inactive gift card! That is the problem.
I purchased it, gave it to my son, and there is no gift card. The only number I have is the long order on the email you sent me.
Can I talk to a manager? What is the problem?
Did we buy a gift card? Clearly yes. I think you agree with that.
Do we have it? Clearly no. I think you also agree with that.
Please send us the gift card I purchased or connect me to a manager.
If you can’t help, I’m happy to discuss this situation in my newsletter, my blog, LinkedIn, Instagram and all the rest. Also, I’m happy to file a report with the Better Business Bureau.
Should I go to a store to talk to the manager there?
Tim
This clearly promoted a reaction because Fabian now jumped in with this:
Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out to us + we would love to help you. Do you have the order number of the gift card?
If you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact again.
All the best,
Fabian- sweetgreen customer experience team
The useless discussions continued, with Sweet Green asking the same questions despite my clear frustration.
An Explanation
Anytime something strange happens, you have to wonder what is actually going on. This is embarrassing customer service. The company could fix it with a $100 gift card, the value of which is probably just $20 since the $100 has to be used to buy Sweet Green products that would generate a margin.
The entire situation doesn’t make any sense. Why is Sweet Green so inept? Who are these people? Are they actually people?
The logical answer has to be that this is an AI driven customer service platform. It is just creating responses to emails and sending them automatically, without review.
I understand why Sweet Green might be doing this. It is cheap and quick. It looks nifty and feels personal. One can imagine Fredy and Fabian at their desks responding to us.
The problem is that the system just isn’t good enough. Instead of addressing issues, it creates immense brand damage.
Recommendations
Two recommendations. First, don’t go to Sweet Green. The company clearly values cost savings over quality. For a restaurant that sells fresh ingredients, this is a bad situation.
Second, be careful if you plan to turn your customer service over to AI. There is a reasonable chance the system will annoy your customers and damage your brand. You may not even know that it is happening.
A Plea
If you happen to know someone at Sweet Green, please let them know that their AI system isn’t working well. And ask them to send me the missing gift card.
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