Business With Style Instead of Diversity
I logged onto my computer to place an order. The item I wanted was in another state, and I hadn’t ordered from them in twenty years.
Finding them online, I filled out my request. There was no line to pay out, so with some skepticism, I hit the send button, imagining the dead-end I had just accomplished.
The next day, there was an email from a person named Virginia, from whose farm my order shipped. She wrote that my order was on its way. Just a friendly note, email to email: We are happy to ship {your order} to you. Since it is going to you, you won’t need us to enclose a gift card. Correct? Thanks for your order. Virginia.
No e-note for payment. No request for a credit card. No prepayment bill–nothing attached to pay. The only way I had ever ordered from them before was through snail mail. I knew they would get their money, but how did they know in this snatch and grab world we live in today?
They run a multi-generational business, and although they’re savvy enough to place themselves on the world-wide web, commerce as usual isn’t their style. Instead, their refreshing, This is the way we still do it, washed all over me.
Within days the postman brought my order. Inside the box, on top of my order was a hand-written bill for my product, the shipping charges and insurance. She had totaled the amount, but made no further demand for money–no due date, or pay upon arrival request. Instead, along the bottom it read, Thanks! 12-7-10, Merry Christmas.
I emailed Virginia that I had received the order, thank you very much. I also told her I wanted to place another order to be mailed to another person, and I would double the amount of my bill and send her payment for both immediately.
She wrote back: Be glad to send another to your friend. It will go out tomorrow. We have been having some terrible weather. Our school has used up all three snow days already–before the 15th of December. Twice your bill is correct. Thanks very much, and have a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends. Virginia
A happy unknown face beamed at me through email: ALL IS WELL IN THIS SILLY WORLD.
Virginia is a real person, and I felt like her real friend. Merry Christmas, indeed.