Drumming up great service on line

If you have any doubt that people are doing a good percentage of their shopping on the interwebs, all you have to do is visit the local ghost town that was a shopping mall to reinforce this thought. Unless there’s some compelling reason to go to a physical location, web-based shopping is the wave of today. But I just had the most remarkable web-based shopping experience of my life. So far. 
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I love what I call strange musical instruments. From Stumpf fiddles to washboards to Cajons, the stranger the better. In fact my favorite music video is of a guy who has a truly strange instrument and plays it with great skill. Enjoy.

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So in discussing strange instruments on Facebook I saw an ad that offered me a discount on a small Cajon that featured snares from Louson Drums. You know how that goes. You see the ad and say, “naw, I don’t need that.” Then you get more interested and click on the ad “just to see.” Then there’s a discount and that entices you further. 

Well finally I bought the darned Cajon with snares, for gosh sakes. The video they had was honestly done and very explicit and really enticed me. I might need this someday. 

That’s when it all started. 

I got a thank you text via Facebook messenger when I bought the Cajon. Wow. 

Then I got a thank you letter from the owner of the company via email. That was also impressive. This email also said that they would notify me when my custom Cajon was shipped and what an impact an order like mine had on a small business. 

It wasn’t but a few days that I got a message via Facebook messenger that the Cajon had shipped with a link to the shipping information, which I was easily able to access via the link in the message. 

I also got an email with the same information. 

Then, of course, the Cajon came and was even more beautiful than I had thought it would be. This is a nicely-made product and worth what I paid for it. 

Of course I got another text acknowledging that I had received the Cajon and letting me know that I could ask them any questions about it. And, lastly, I got an email where I could offer others a discount if they also wanted such a cool product. 

These texts and emails were completely appropriate, well timed, well written and made me feel like they cared about the order. The company’s website was solid, the video answered my questions and enticed me to buy it. 

I’m sure there are a lot of companies out there that make Cajons, perhaps as well as this company does. But this company has their marketing and follow up down to a science. 

So it goes back to what I’ve been often caught saying. “Whatever business you’re in, you’re in the business of marketing.” Period. And I realize this was all automated follow-up and that someone didn’t just sit down and write individual texts and emails to me, it’s how well it was done. 

How many times have you made a purchase online and wondered if the product were coming? While Amazon is really good at this many smaller retailers aren’t. So this kind of outstanding follow-up gave me a lot of hope. 

This also reinforces that customer service is a huge differentiator both on line and in person. Just because someone sells on line doesn’t mean they do it well. This company absolutely does it well. 

Oh, and I have one nice Cajon for the next time I have the opportunity to play the drums with others. After all, you know I’m always trying to drum up something.