Brand – Page 12 – The Consulting Artist

Naked Whine

A few months back a couple of friends recommended I try the Naked Wine service. I’ve had trouble in the past with Virgin Whine so I was a little nervous but decided to give the folks at Naked Wine a try. I registered, asked not to be sent any marketing bumph or receive any telesales calls and ordered a case of wine. The wine arrived. It was good wine. I enjoyed it.

Shortly afterwards I received a call asking what I thought of my purchase. We had a polite brief conversation during which I asked that my records be marked so I didn’t receive any more calls. I know where Naked Wine are, I know how to get in touch, I know how to buy and drink wine and I’d really appreciate being able to manage this relationship from my end. The guy was OK with this said the records would be amended and we parted company.

I bought another case. The wine arrived. It was good wine. I enjoyed it.

Shortly afterwards I received a call asking what I thought of my purchase. We had a brief, to the point conversation about my preferences. I stressed, without being rude, that I didn’t want Naked Wine to call or email me. Thanks very much your records will be marked sorry about that good bye.

Several months of peace passed. Then I received this:

I replied to the email, pointing out the previous phone calls. I received an apologetic email back from Lewis confirming I am not on any mailing lists and this won’t happen ‘going forward’ (his words not mine – can it happen going backward??). I heaved a sigh of relief – no more shall I receive unsolicited unwanted stuff from Naked Wine.

Or so I thought.

I (just about) appreciate why this note was sent but given the nature of our previous correspondence it just amplified the sense of me talking with a company which ain’t listening.

I chatted through this scenario with friends at the weekend. Some told me to shut up and stop being a grumpy git, fair enough 🙂 Some said that Naked Wine are just trying to build a relationship with me and understand my wants and needs and service me better. That’s all very well but surely that should be on terms which suit us both? I run an email newsletter and everyone on that mailing list has given permission and/or asked to receive it. Sometimes folks subscribe out of the blue, and sometimes they unsubscribe. That’s cool, it’s their choice eh. I’m pretty sure if I just started adding people to my list willy nilly there’d be some grumbles and complaints – and quite rightly too.

What do you think? Am I being unreasonable to expect Naked Wine to want to do business with me as I wish or is it OK to get grumpy when a supplier repeatedly ignores your preferences?

Update

The conversation this story sparked here on the blog has been very interesting and offered different points of view. I’m grateful to everyone who retweeted the tale and who has contributed to it. I appreciate the fact that Rowan Gormley, the founder of Naked Wine has also been in touch. I wanted to share some of the twitter reaction to his participation – just to show that I’m not always a grumpy git 🙂

Naked Wine - getting respect on Twitter

Hong Kong Wait Long

I’m delighted to welcome the excellent Rob Jones as today’s guest blogger. When he’s not kicking up a racket over here, you can check Rob out over at the excellent Masters or Bust. As the late great Joe Strummer would have said, take it away Jonesy…

“In my experience you don’t have to look far to see either the good or the bad in customer experience. The best businesses have it systemised – it’s part of their DNA, everything they do is with the customer in mind (Apple stores come to mind) and the worst rely on individuals to bring their personal standards to work and trade off the back of them.

Airlines have had a torrid couple of years. With the advent of technology making global communication easier and cheaper along with the global economic situation making business travel far less attractive, the airlines have been facing an awesome challenge to remain profitable and in facing that challenge some cost engineering has clearly gone on…. with a few employee relations issues, the ghosts of a bygone era still challenging some!

I have had the (mis)fortune to fly a lot over the past few years (I think I did around 45 work flights last year) and it’s amazing how the service standards on the Asian airlines are very different to those elsewhere. I’m not sure whether it’s cultural but the attention to customers and the care taken in the service (irrespective of flight class) is just a notch above.

Last night I flew from Shanghai to Hong Kong on Dragon Air. Dragon Air is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cathay Pacific and operates regionally in Asia, winning quite a few awards. Despite being ‘down the back’ I still received great service. A menu for dinner, my choice of Haagen Daazs ice cream and even the landing card was delivered with a smile and the proactive offer of a pen. For not a large sum of money it was a great experience which had me landing in Hong Kong on time and in a great mood….

Which is when the wheels came off the wagon and all of Dragon Air’s good work was flushed!

We arrived at a satellite terminal and rather than a train or walkway to get to the main terminal we needed to get a bus. No big deal. Apart from the fact that 3 flights had arrived at the same time and there was only one bus and NO communication. After waiting 25 minutes (at around 11pm) to finally get on the bus we arrived at the main terminal to see queues for immigration that resembled the opening of a Star Wars movie.

Staff were promptly mobilised and the rate increased when two things happened that got me ranting and given I was travelling on my own I had to rant by email…

1. More immigration officers opened more desks and they split the queue across more desks. All good so far… Apart from they took the back of the queue to the new desks so people who were behind in the queue were processed first. My exhausted righteous gland was twitching

2. A video was looped to TV sets showing to the queue. The topic of the video was the proposed third runway at Hong Kong airport. The video featured Hong Kong business people and celebrities talking about the need to expand the airport and WAIT FOR IT – what an amazing airport it was. How it is a model of efficiency to airports all over the world and how easy and effective they find the airport. At this point I nearly ruptured something!

I understand that every operation has challenges. I recognise that the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley etc etc but DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT, play a video bragging about how brilliant your airport is to a queue of people who are experiencing first hand that it isn’t always brilliant!

I landed at 2242. I picked up my bag at 2356. I will not for fear of distress discuss the taxi queue…

Dragon Air – we doff to you

Hong Kong International Airport – epic FAIL!”

In other news, our recent BA flight from Nice to London was delayed for over 90 minutes with no explanation. At least we had a seat to sit on, a game of Yahtzee and a small bottle of wine purchased from the café just before closing to help pass the time. Has anyone else found themselves hanging around at the airport lately?

photo c/o Giacomo P

Five star service from the gutter

While the sun shines I’m doing some house maintenance, namely fixing some guttering (note to my builder, water prefers to flow with gravity – not against it). In the course of my work I need to replace some parts. Some are made by Osma, some by Polypipe. Osma are by far the more expensive option (example – a gutter jointing bracket from Osma is almost £5, a similar Polypipe piece costs less than £2). There seems to be no discernible difference in the quality but I reckoned it was easier to replace like with like.

Osma – sold by Travis Perkins

I arrive at the shop and after a brief friendly chat with someone behind the desk another guy takes me into the yard. He points at where the Osma stuff is and then stands there while I fiddle about with stuff. The guy offers no advice, replies reluctantly to questions and is about as uninterested as he could possibly be. I pay for my (expensive) stuff and leave. To be fair, not a bad experience, but definitely underwhelming and not what I expect when I’m paying top dollar. Although as you’re about to read – the price ain’t what it’s all about.

Polypipe – sold by Plumbase

I arrive at the shop needing a replacement bracket. I have one with me as an example. A friendly guy asks to take the bracket from me and he takes a look. “yeah – we stock these, but this little fixer here” he points to a part of the bracket “it looks wrong.” “How long has it been installed?” the guy asks me. “Around 18 months” I reply. “Well I reckon that’s faulty then” says the helpful chap and quick as a flash he replaces the little piece at no charge and sends me on my way. What a difference. Hands on, interested, and positive. Friendly and fantastic!

I appreciate it can be more tricky when you distribute your brand through others, but in a couple of day’s time I’m going to need a whole load more bits and pieces to complete this project. I wonder where I’ll be returning to buy them?