Forever loyal…
The sign of a great book is when you keep referencing it.
And so now I find myself doing the same with Jeff Jarvis’ What Would Google Do?
In the book, Jarvis tells the story of how he was annoyed with Dell and so began to blog about what a crap company it was for feedback from consumers. The company, of course, responds and changes.
But the interesting point is that in the world of online, we as consumers can respond directly to companies and now I am in the habit of doing that. The companies, however, are often not so used to this open new world.
Case in point:
I like fountain pens. In a digital world, I like the feel of writing with the flowing ink.
One of my favorite pens was the Montblanc Nobless Oblige. Unlike other Montblanc pens, (thick, plastic and black), this one was silver and sleek, made of titanium, lightweight and strong. With a gold nib. A lovely pen.
I took it with me everywhere I went, including Ho Chi Minh City in 1992, when it got stolen from my pocket as I walked down the street in broad daylight.
Although I liked the pen, it was a sentiment that was obviously not shared by a lot of other people. Montblanc stopped making it after a year of two. So when I went to buy a replacement, I couldn’t find one. This being the era before eBay, I was at a dead end.
Instead, I wrote to the Chairman of Montblanc in Switzerland and explained how much I liked the pen and how disappointed I was that they had stopped manufacturing it.
A few weeks later, a small box arrived at my home.
It was a new pen, with a note from the Chairman.
He explained that they didn’t have the pens in stock anymore, but that he had this one built for me out of spare parts. No charge.
Well, I don’t have to tell you that this experience made me a Montblanc advocate for life.
Over the years I have bought dozens of the pens as gifts for friends or family, and I always recommend the company to anyone who asks.
One small effort made me a lifelong walking advertisement for the Montblanc Company.
Good move by them.
On the other hand…..
When I was in England last month, I came across a fantastic breakfast cereal. It is called Eat Natural for Breakfast. It contains pumpkin seeds, barley, grain, (you get the idea). I like to mix it with yougurt.
It was so good that I bought a bag to take back to NY with me.
As I approached the bottom of the bag, I went onto the Eat Natural website, (all very hippy-dippy stuff), and seeing that there was no place to purchase their product online, I wrote to the company where it said ‘contact us’.
So I did.
I asked if they could ship me say, 6 bags of the stuff to NY. I would pay for the product, all shipping and handling expenses and anything else, because I just liked it so very much.
I had to email them 4 times to get a response. (Well, it’s England, and customer service is not their number one priority as a rule… or numbers 2-300).
Finally, after 4 emails, I got a response.
They said, ‘we don’t sell here and we don’t ship. But you can buy our breakfast bars at Amazon.com’.
Thus we have the difference between Montblanc and Eat Natural.
If I could eat the pens for breakfast I would.
But I don’t think I am going to try and write any thank you notes with the granola.
In fact, I am off to Whole Foods to look for something else.
