I had a remarkable customer service experience at my favorite wine store.
I shop at K&L Wines in San Francisco. I started shopping at the original store in Redwood City when I lived there. (Apparently, they've opened a new store in Hollywood in Los Angeles, so I assume they plan to continue expanding.) The coolest thing about K&L Wines is their inventory system; go to their web site, search for a wine (which is my habit any time I encounter a really special wine), and like any other online wine store, they will tell you if they have it. But then they'll tell you how many bottles they have in each store or in their main warehouse. Order a bunch of wines and they will consolidate the order in one store so you can pick them up in one stop. (They will ship them to you too, of course.)
That's all the reasons I already shop at K&L, but I had an experience recently that needs telling. I ordered four bottles of wine for a special event. The day after I picked them up, I got an email from a fellow named Eric Story: "I was in our back room, after you left yesterday, and came across an order with your name on it dating back to April 19th. In our computer it looks as though you have picked up the wine (6 btls. 2004 Varner Pinot Noir) in July of this year." Since he still had the bottles of wine, he was wondering how the computer showed them being picked up. So he asked!
Of course, I couldn't remember picking them up but I also didn't remember drinking six bottles of Varner Pinot either. So I picked the bottles up on Friday. Even then, I forgot to print the email exchange out, couldn't remember the name of the wine or his name, but he overheard me talking to the clerk who trying to help me and produced the box with the wine in it.
Mr. Story went so far beyond the call of duty in getting me my wine, I feel motivated to post about it. I love doing business with K&L anyway: They have a huge inventory, their inventory and customer systems are designed for great service, but they must also have a great culture that allows their employees like Eric Story to treat customers as well as I've been treated. (And the Varner is really pretty good, to boot!)
