Let's face it. We live in an age when customer service is typically so dismal that when someone does something even remotely helpful, we're caught off guard. When someone does something truly helpful, we're speechless.

Such was my experience today when I received this email confirmation from an online merchant, about an hour after I placed an order for a birthday gift for my friend's daughter.

We just wanted you to know how grateful we are for your order and to let you know that since it was a birthday gift, we wrapped it at no charge and made sure it got into the mail today! Hope Ann-Marie enjoys it and that you will give us a chance to do business with you again!

Is your jaw on the floor, as mine was? This merchant took the time to notice three things:

1). I was a first-time customer

2). I was putting my faith in this company to delight someone on a special occasion

3). I hadn't paid the extra charge for gift wrap

They wisely decided it was worth their minimal time and effort to wrap the gift for me. Why? Because I am SURE to do business with them again. And I am sure to tell others (you, dear reader) about it.

Who is the company behind this awesome service, you ask?

A website called Plaid and Stripe that I discovered through a simple Google search. I emailed them back telling them how much I was awed by their service and again got a speedy reply, sent from the owner's iPhone no less:

Thank you VERY much. I am doing everything I can to get my online business up and running and I can use any help possible. I have great relationships with the customers in my shop in Providence and I am determined to exceed that online. Thanks so much.

Small business owners have the advantage (and burden) of doing so much themselves that they can offer this level of high-touch service. But large companies can, too.

How? By hiring can-do people. Creating a corporate atmosphere centered around helpfulness. And building relationships that are personal and customized (notice the merchant referenced my gift recipient by name?). Any size company can do this.

I still smile at the extra-mile service I got from Restoration Hardware a couple of years ago when a single clerk in Portland, Oregon made my son believe in magic by writing "From the North Pole" on every side of the UPS box that arrived from Santa.

Who are the companies that have wowed you with stand-apart service? Comment about them here. It's the very best way to thank them.

Labels: customer loyalty, customer service, personalization, Restoration Hardware

Please leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below, even if -- no, especially if -- you don't agree with what I've written.

Tech companies might snicker at a mere 19% annual growth rate when it comes to measuring consumer behavior. But it sure is a noteworthy uptick when it relates to an age-old pastime that's suddenly growing like... well, like green beans.

I'm talking about home gardening. Nearly 43 million U.S. households are planning to grow their own produce this year, according to the National Gardening Association. Even Michelle Obama is into it; she is the first First Lady to maintain a vegetable garden at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt.

To understand what's driving this trend, I turned to Pattie Baker, an Atlanta mom, community activist, and businesswoman who pens a blog titled FoodShed Planet, about nurturing sustainability close to home and around the world.

Here's her take on the movement:

"Why are more and more moms gardening? It helps put the very highest quality food at the most affordable price on your family’s table. It gives you a classroom right outside your kitchen door where I’ve yet to find a school lesson that can’t be applied. It helps you build a bridge between generations, from heirloom crops from the days of Victory Gardens (and before!) to eco-literacy skills for our children’s future. It connects you with local and global communities. And it gives you and your children the power of positive stewardship over a small patch of earth, which is a leadership lesson these children will never forget.

Personally speaking, gardening has changed me. And this surge of growth in gardening is causing other moms like me to change as well. It is giving us a personal power to make a measurable difference by voting with our dollars three times a day with the food we choose to eat, and dropping us down a bigger rabbit hole to a broader understanding of sustainability. Savvy marketers would be wise to realize that these eco-conscious moms are connected, well-informed, and willing to support the companies that prove their trustworthiness and provide the products and services that meet increasingly discriminating demands about triple-bottom-line sustainability."

Food for thought that I, for one, am intrigued by. Not only am I actually considering transforming a small patch of my own suburban lawn into a garden -- despite my proven "black thumb" and our neighborhood's veggie-loving squirrel population -- but I'm curious to see what companies will recognize, celebrate, and support this movement. Maternal Instinct's client Easy Bloom is one, for sure. But who else?

Labels: eco-conscious moms, home gardening, michelle obama

Please leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below, even if -- no, especially if -- you don't agree with what I've written.

What is the right frequency to message to your audience? Too much and you become a pest. Too little and you become a distant memory.

Here's a novel thought: ask them.

Smart marketers are making their "Unsubscribe" links work hard for them. For instance, here's the message I encountered when attempting to remove myself from the list of an e-tailer who was becoming a stalker:















Very smart. Smarter still would be to gather this key fact at the first touchpoint, along with email addresses. That way you never become a nuisance in the first place.

I'm guessing the reason so many marketers don't do this is that the "permission" they get to email comes via a tiny pre-checked box that many customers don't even notice -- or bother to uncheck -- when registering or purchasing from a site. While this might seem a good way to build your list quickly, it's also a way to alienate prospects quickly. Especially Moms. The very best way to endear yourself to a mom is to not waste her time. Find out what she needs, and how she wants it delivered, and then follow her directions to the letter.

Labels: Email frequency, Email marketing to moms, Unsubscribe

Please leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below, even if -- no, especially if -- you don't agree with what I've written.