A Lesson in Customer Service
Apr 20, 2007Today has been the first really nice weather we’ve have here in Lancaster in the past few weeks. It actually feels like spring finally. Of course being a sunny, warm, Friday afternoon the only logical thing to do is go get a case of cold beer and sit out on the porch. This requires a trip to the beer distributor.
(A note on how liquor sales work in Pennsylvania: You can only buy beer from licensed beer distributors, and if you want wine or liquor you have to go the generic state owned stores, called appropriately, Wine & Spirits. It’s a goofy, strange state I live in.)
Now beer distributors are basically just warehouses with a pseudo-storefront. Mostly just long racks of beer, concrete floor, nothing fancy. On the upside they always have all the local micro-brews in stock. We have a few places close to us, but I always go out of my way to drive the extra few miles to the same place every time. Why? You never have to carry anything. The employees there get what you want (cold if they have it), carry it to the register, and then straight out to your car. This small convenience (or not so small if you buy a few cases of bottles) makes all the difference in the world to me.
This is one of those cases with doing some a little extra over the competition, completely unrelated to price, wins the customer.