Winning at customer service
BIG NEWS!! I’m taking pre-orders for the second book in the Dax Masters series, FLOW. This middle grade novel publishes August 20th, but I’m offering it to you, my dedicated readers, before it opens up to the public. You can order your copy (or copies) at this link.
I’m doing something different today: talking about a company that does everything right.
I’d like you to meet Lamose, a local Calgary company that has been blowing my mind since 2019.
I was gifted a Lamose insulated water bottle in 2018. This was a few years into the rising popularity of insulated, reusable water bottles. S’Well was the big player; Yeti was gaining ground. I had been slow to adopt the stainless steel bottle, mostly because I hated carrying extra weight around. The 14oz Robson bottleI received from a client sat unused in a kitchen cupboard for the entire winter.
When spring came in 2019, along with the requisite cleaning, I fished the bottle out and decided to give it a go. But I didn’t use it until we went camping in July. I filled the bottle with ice and water, but when we went hiking, I left it behind, favouring the lighter load of a plastic bottle. The bottle sat on our picnic table in the hot sun at Dinosaur Provincial Park for more than three hours while we climbed hoodoos and went on a tour of dinosaur bones.
Upon our return, I was so parched, warm water wasn’t a deterrent. I picked up the bottle, stunned to hear the clink of ice. Inside, the water was frigid. I was sold.
That Christmas, I gifted all my clients personalized bottles with their names engraved. Lamose laser cuts the stainless steel, so there is no cracking or peeling of whatever image or words you choose. You can put anything your heart desires on to the tumblers, mugs and bottles.
In 2020, I bought my kids 28oz bottles (this will be important in a moment). In 2021, I bought my husband a bottle. My next order wasn’t until January this year, when I ordered myself a coffee tumbler, the first time I ordered hot beverage drinkware from Lamose.
That coffee tumbler didn’t keep my coffee hot at all. Within an hour, the coffee was cold. The day after I received it, I emailed the company,
They responded within hours.
They replaced the tumbler, and told me to keep the defective one. It will still be fine for cold drinks, they explained. I offered to pay for the larger size, but they gifted that to me for the inconvenience. A few months later, I ordered another coffee tumbler for my husband.
Last week, my son told me his water bottle (the one we ordered in 2020) was no longer keeping water cold. We went to the website to order a replacement, only to discover the model and colour was no longer available. I emailed the company, explaining that we bought this in 2020 and what the issue was, and asking if they had any other colours. I know sometimes a small business will have stock kicking around the warehouse that is not on the website. The bottle was discontinued, they advised, but as part of the lifetime warranty, they were going to send me an e-gift card for $30 to buy something new.
I was stunned. I hadn’t even considered their warranty. It was a lovely surprise in a world where most retailers are uninterested in supporting their customers. Without hesitation, we ordered and upgraded, spending more than the gift card. The new bottle landed in our mailbox the next day.
I just wanted you to know about this fabulous company that knows what it means to provide exceptional customer service. I encourage you to buy your stainless steel tumblers, bottles, and mugs from a company that really cares.
xo Dana
PS: I’ll be starting a chat, inviting everyone to share their best customer service stories. We need to shop at these kinds of businesses.
What I’m reading
Bryn Greenwood’s All the Ugly and Wonderful Things (2016) is a book that has stayed in my heart for years. She is a master at writing young main characters forced into adulthood too soon, and with every page, my heart squeezes. Her characters leap off the page, and I get attached very quickly.
Over on Threads, there was a discussion about why some novels have “A Novel”on the cover. Someone said it was because some books titles can be mistaken for memoir. Another writer if a book says "A Novel" on the cover, it means someone is going to die and that has held true for every single "A Novel" book that she’s read. I will test this theory with The Reckless Oath We Made.