First of all full disclosure; Cybercellar gave me a R100 discount voucher to try out their website with the aim of writing a blog post about it “if you feel that we are worth mentioning, we believe we are!, it will be appreciated.” Well they gave me R100 to spend on wine; of course I am going to use it!
And I am going to mention my experience because in some ways it was amazing, and in some ways about the worst I have ever experienced. But whatever happened, there are lessons here.
The story in brief.
The downhill experience…
- I ordered 6 bottles of wine on the evening of 9 April, and according to the website I would get next day delivery.
- On the late afternoon of the 10th, I received an email that the order had been shipped and I was given the tracking number.
- Nothing arrived on the 10th or the 11th.
- On the 12th I got a call from the courier saying that they were running late and would deliver to my home in the evening (a Friday).
- Later that day I got another call from the courier saying they would not make Friday, but would deliver by 10am on Saturday (by which time I thought “yeah right”).
- And of course nothing arrived on Saturday.
Rescuing a bad situation…
- On Saturday afternoon I sent a complaint email to Cybercellar, expecting a response on Monday.
- That afternoon the CEO (Johann) called me and offered to personally deliver my order on Sunday (they are in Paarl – 76km away to my house)
- On Sunday morning Johann arrived with my 6 bottles of wine, and a bottle of Springfield Sav Blanc (yummy), and told me that when the courier eventually delivered my actual order it was mine to keep as well.
In summary the courier messed up my delivery (it eventually arrived on Monday – almost a week late), and Cybercellar gave me 7 bottles of wine as an apology personally delivered by the CEO on a Sunday.
And finally the lessons.
- As Johann and I agreed it was the courier that messed up (and not Cyberceller themselves), but we also agreed that as a customer it was not my problem who messed up. He took ownership and fixed the problem.
- You can turn a customer around by turning a negative experience into a positive one.
- Sh*t happens, but it is what you do about it that makes a difference. Service excellence is shown at its best when things go wrong.
Will I purchase from them again? Yes; not because of the order experience, but because of the amazing way they fixed the problem.
Finally, their website is great, they have a massive selection of wine, and you get R50 off your first order.