The next day he called me at home and said he had telephoned the winery and learned that the entire vintage had been sold to… Trader Joe! Which of course is the Walmart of crunchy gourmet stores, threatening to put the independent Bi-Rites of the world out of business, so it was even more remarkable that he passed this info along. Of course I am going to go over to TJ and buy a case, but I am also going to make a far greater attempt to give Bi-Rite my business including their 10% off a case sale next month.

This is another example (the first was from Timbuk2) of a company giving extraordinary, old-fashioned personal service which is all the more distinctive, and consequently more valuable for both the customer and the vender, because others are dumbing down their service. Compare, for example, to this experience with Electronic Arts, when I found my 11 year old has discarded the paper with our CD key for an electronic game and asked EA if I could have a new one if I sent them the receipt and a photo of the original disks to prove we own them. They responded with an email that told me to go to a web page to read the response there, always a bad sign, where I found:

If you have not register the game and if the Registration code/Serial
Number/CD Key for the game has been lost or misplaced then you will need to
purchase another Registration code/Serial Number/CD Key from our warranty
department, please mail our Warranty department the following information:

-The [Proof of Purchase] page from the manual, or if that is not available
the game disk.
Note: If you send the game disk, please send it using a traceable method as
Electronic Arts is not responsible for products lost in transit.
-A letter explaining that you need a replacement serial number.
-A money order for $10.00 USD.
-Note: We do NOT accept cash, checks, or credit cards.

So EA is going to make me spend basically the original price of the game to get satisfaction, while Bi-Rite is sending me to a competitive store. The cost of the EA response was minimal, the cost of Bi-Rite’s probably $5 when you consider Joshua’s time and his phone calls. But in terms of future buying behavior from me that might result in profits to the vendor, Joshua’s approach makes far better sense. Bi-Rite is at 3639 18th St (parking difficult). If you need wine suggestions, call (415) 241-9760 and ask for Joshua.

I found the replacement piece on their website and ordered it. Got a cutesy email confirmation and then the piece arrived and it didn’t fit. That’s when the good stuff began. I replied to the cutesy email from customerservice@timbuk2.com and immediately got a reply from a real person, Ann H. She said, “I understand what you are talking about and I will look down in production for one for you.” Pretty impressive but what comes next was even better. She couldn’t find it and asked me to send a picture. The picture didn’t match so she wrote back, “Is it the cross strap or is it a waist belt? I can send you a whole new one if I know which one.”

And so she did. Turns out the buckle style had been changed (that’s why she couldn’t find it) but I just snapped off the old belt, put in the new one, and was good to go. And as Ann H said in a follow up email, “I am so happy to hear this. We do not want you to have an unhappy bag just sitting in the corner being neglected.”

Ann H may be one of a kind. But what’s reproducible and instructive about this is having my email go to a real live person, when I hit the reply button on my confirmation email. How many times have you done that and get a bounceback because the email address won’t accept incoming mail? What are they worried about? It’s logical that people would want to reply to an email from the company if they need further service, so why not let them do it… vs sending them to some kind of online form that may reduce the number of incoming inquiries, but also has an effect on overall customer satisfaction and future orders.