As part of my bid to become more self-sufficient, I ordered everything I needed to begin making my own cheese.  I read several articles on how easy it was to make your own cheese, so I bought Riki Carrol’s book on the subject (the de-facto bible on cheese-making) and had a go.  Unfortunately, like so many things I try without instruction and without some sort of guidance, it didn’t go too well.

So I called the Riki’s company, New England Cheesemaking Supply Company (www.cheesemaking.com) and asked for customer service.  I explained what had happened and asked for advice.  I got the short answer (which was actually more than I really expected when I made the call) and then spent the next thirty minutes trying to get off the phone with them.  They weren’t hanging up until they were darn sure I knew everything I needed to know to have a good experience next time.  I have to say that was the best customer service experience I have ever had anywhere.  The only other thing they could have done was jump in their car, come to my house and make it for me.  They did everything else.

I wonder how often that happens in their business.  I mean cheesemaking, while not particularly difficult (as near as I can tell) is not widely practiced in the good old USA.  But these people bent over backwards for a first time customer.  Imagine calling Chef Boyardee or the Schilling spice people and telling them your spaghetti sauce didn’t turn out.  What are the odds their customer service staff would spend a half hour on the phone with you explaining how to make better spaghetti sauce?  About zero.  And yet, if you’re going to grow your business (your industry in this case) that’s exactly what you have to do.  

When I see companies doing this sort of thing I think, “There goes a company that’s going to make it big.”  In an economic downturn like we’re experiencing right now, it would have been easy for New England Cheesemaking Supply Co. to reduce the number of customer service people, put in an automated voice mail system, have someone send out a brief email on resolving the problem.  But instead, they ramped up.  They are taking care of people at a time when everyone is stressed out.  They are moving forward while their competitors are languishing.  Really, cheesemaking isn’t something you need to do.  It’s cheaper to go to the store and buy cheese than it is to make it yourself.  You have to want to do this.  Helpful, encouraging customer service people make you want to stay with it.

You know, it’s really refreshing to run across someone who is passionate about what they do.  Someone who will make a small sacrifice in profits on the front end to produce a rainmaker on the back end.  I know that making a profit is important to these people.  It is to every business.  After all it’s profit that allows us to pay our employees, keep our doors open, provide a service in the community, etc.  But when you meet someone who is passionate enough about what they do to take the long view, you get a much better sense for what’s possible.  It’s so easy.  It’s so cheap (relatively speaking.)  Why isn’t everyone doing it?