You are a salesperson for the Sport Shoe Corporation. At the office, there is a letter marked urgent on your desk. This letter is from the athletic director of Ball State University, and it pertains to the poor quality of basketball shoes that you sold to him. The director cited several examples of split soles and poor overall quality as his main complaints. In closing, he mentioned that since the season was nearing, he would be forced to contact the ACME Sport Shoe Company if the situation could not be rectified.

Question:

What actions would be appropriate for you? Why?

a. Place a call to the athletic director assuring him of your commitment to service. Promise to be at Ball State at his convenience to rectify the problem.

b. Go by the warehouse and take the athletic director a new shipment of shoes and apologize for the delay and poor quality of the merchandise.

c. Write a letter to the athletic director assuring him that SSC sells only high quality shoes and that this type of problem rarely occurs. Assure him you'll come to his office as soon as possible, but if he feels ACME would be a better choice than Sport Shoe he should contact them.

d. Don't worry about the letter because the athletic director seems to have the attitude that he can put pressure on you by threatening to switch companies. Also, the loss in sales of 20 to 40 pairs of basketball shoes will be a drop in the bucket compared to the valuable sales time you would waste on a small account like Ball State.