Winethropology
Here's a tale of two approaches to customer service, shipping, short-sightedness, and why it matters when it comes to wine. There's an interesting study in contrasts here - and some great business lessons, too...
I had already placed an order for a bunch of wine with Cameron Hughes. At the time I was hoping to get some of the awesome Lot 168. The guy taking my order says, "Sorry. Sold out." A few days later I get an email from the company promoting the same wine - Lot 168. Come on! So I call and the conversation goes something like this:
Thanks for calling Cameron Hughes Wine, this is Jessica.
Me: Hi Jessica, this is Steve McIntosh calling.
Jessica: Hi Steve, how are you? (I've never spoken to this person before, but she sounds like she knows who I am)
Good, thanks. Listen, I'm calling about Lot 168. Now you see it, now you don't. What's the story?
Oh, can you see it as available online?
Yes, I can now, but I couldn't when I ordered all that wine last week and Jake told me that it was out. Like OUT OUT.
Hmmm...let me take a look at what's going on. Can you hold on for a sec?
Sure.
(30 seconds later she's back.) Okay, so here's what happened: Looks like we pulled a distributor's allocation, so now we have about 1308 bottles.
Wow. Wish I had known that last week.
Well, let me take a look and see if your order shipped already...Yeah, it did. But I'll tell you what...How much of this did you want?
A case.
Okay. Well, I'm really sorry about the mixup. How about we get this case out to you and we'll pick up the shipping?
Deal. How hard would it be to hold the shipment until Monday?
No probelm at all, I'll just make a note of it here for the warehouse. Anything else you need?
Nope. That's it. Have a good one.
Forgetting about the dollar delta (which definitely counts), the whole approach was night and day. I loved this experience. And you know what? It's going to keep me coming back for more, dammit.