[Updated] Amul Keeps Its Brand Image Intact After Solving a Customer Complaint on Facebook

Amul has had a record in content marketing for years. It is now becoming an example of customer service on social media. The brand has proved that it is actually using social media for listening to its customers and solving their queries on Facebook. A week ago, a disgruntled customer posted pictures of Amul Gold milk. The images within the post were scary and portrayed a very negative image of the brand.

The images caught the attention of social media users and went viral within a few days. Within 4 days, the brand has come out and explained itself on its Facebook page through a detailed post on why the customer faced the issue along with other details of the incident.

The brand posted,

"This is regarding the Facebook post that Ms Neha Tomar has shared on her wall. The details of the matter are as follows:

The consumer called our customer care on 10th morning at 9.22 am and shared her experience of using Amul Gold Milk on the very same day. She also emailed the complaint to our official email ID on 10th afternoon. As informed by her, the "use by" date of the Amul Milk was 9th of October. This means the consumer had used expired milk in the first place.

However, it may be noted that Ms Neha posted her grievance on her Facebook page on 9th October, a day prior to her informing us about the same. Ms Neha Tomar's post on Facebook on 9th Oct, screenshot attached.

Our officials asked the customer that if she has faced the problem on 10th Oct, how is it possible for you to post the same on 9th on Facebook? We now see that the timing of her post has been changed to 10th.

On 11th, we visited her residence in Gurgaon and discussed the above.
On 13th we once again visited the customer and provided technical reasons for the incident. We informed her that we checked all the batches of the same Amul Milk and found that there is no problem in any batches including the one which consumer had purchased.

As mentioned in her post, the consumer was trying to make cheese from sour milk which turned out to be a stretchy mass. Let us explain why this happened.

Any natural milk (branded/unbranded) which is acidified (sour) in the chilled condition and then heated shall result in curd mass which shows stretching property similar to that of mozzarella cheese. We have demonstrated the same in the video attached in which we have used fresh milk, acidified to the pH 5.2 and heated to obtain similar mass as shown by the complainant.

It may be also noted that the consumer has been misusing her office to publicize this story on Amul. We hope that she has informed her office regarding the same as we shall hold her office too responsible for her actions.

The customer when contacted and replacement was provided on 11th Oct, was requested to update her post with a clarification of her satisfaction with explanation provided by us. However it took more than 48 hours for the consumer to mention the same on her wall. She even told that our officers that she will update the same post on 13th evening. But till time of posting this, it has not been updated with correct information. This clearly reflects that she has malafide intentions. Also, the facts have been carefully concealed by her to generate and sustain the hype.

We wish to clarify that there has been absolutely no problem with the fresh milk that we supply in the market. Based on the misrepresentation of facts by the said consumer, we infer that the expired milk used by the complainant was deliberately abused to malign the brand. As a brand owned by 3.5 million milk producers, we are serving you from last six decades and we take utmost pride in the quality that we provide to you."

This has not only earned the brand brownie points among customers but also restored its positive image. Customers have come out in support of the brand and posted various comments.

While Amul stole away the buzz last evening after it responded smartly to a consumer complaint, the consumer has posted a reply this morning on the same.