Green Options » customer service

Blue Bottle Coffee and Fair Trade

Susanna Schick — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 06:56:25 +0000

Coffee Snob Chooses Starbucks over Artisanal Blue Bottle!

OK, I must admit, I’m not a coffee snob. If it’s thick as tar and wakes me up, it’s coffee. However, I know others who are. Especially here in San Francisco. I heard a lot of buzz about this “Blue Bottle” place, and although I haven’t yet tasted the elixir myself, I have a heartwarming story to tell. My sister-in-law told me about a recent experience she had at Blue Bottle at the Ferry Building. She asked the barista “Do you have fair trade coffee?” to which the barista reportedly replied in the negatory. So she and two others in line behind her left and went to the nearby national chain that happens to be the world’s largest buyer of fair trade coffee.

Image credit: Banky177 at Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

But I Want to Support the Indie Coffee Shop

Because I enjoy living in a diverse and entrepreneurial economy, I try to support independently owned businesses where possible. So it bothered me that this company which seems to be extremely particular about the beans they roast would not take the next logical step and choose fair trade coffee. So I asked them why. And here’s the heartwarming part. I got the following response from Blue Bottle’s Head Roaster:

Social Media and Customer Service for Green Businesses

Leah Edwards — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:07:35 +0000

Last week I had the chance to hear Pete Blackshaw talk about his book “Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends. Angry Customers Tell 3,000″. His message is particularly important for eco-entrepreneurs, so I’m summarizing some of his talk for you green business entrepreneurs.

Green businesses are particularly well-suited for consumer advocacy. Customers who shop from your company due to a shared concern for the environment and/or a desire to avoid toxins are likely to tell their friends about the benefits of your product or service. The flip-side is that they are also likely to be particularly vocal and angry if they feel you have betrayed your green mission.

Social media, primarily blogs, have greatly lowered the barriers for consumers to voice their opinions. They can easily advocate on behalf of a brand or take a company to task for bad service, misleading advertising, products that do not work, and more. And the title of Blackshaw’s book rings true.

The question for green businesses is are you making it easier for 1000 people to advocate on behalf of your business, and are you reacting quickly and authentically when there is a mis-step and a customer is unhappy?

We marketers used to say that a brand is the sum total of all experiences with a company–not just the product or service but the employees, partners, website, collateral, ads, service centers, etc.

Your Google ranking is part of your brand

Well, now, customer service discussions on blogs are now part of your brand experience. Blackshaw says,

Detergent! Argh!

serenity_ii — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:19:53 +0000

As I mentioned, I am not supposed to use citrus products on my silverware. I came to realize that I didn’t actually know for a fact that the Cascade I was using didn’t contain citrus, so I emailed the company to inquire. Here is the actual word-for-word response I got:

Thanks for contacting us. I'm sorry we can't answer your question via email.  Most of the  information we're able to share with consumers is either on our brand or  corporate website (http://www.pg.com).  If you’ve already searched those  sites thoroughly and still can’t find what you’re looking for, please call  us using the toll-free number on our product packages, and we’ll do  whatever we can to help.  We’re open Monday - Friday 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM  EST. Thanks again for writing. P&G Team

I am inclined to think that, in layman's terms, this translates to, "Yes, there is a lot of citrus in our detergent, and there is also a lot of poison.  We are going to let you damage your silverware, and we are dying to replace it for you."