Oh Corporate America.

Three Stories. Before I proceed, I will state that I totally love small businesses, hope to officially start one this year, and frequent them as much as possible. One of the many things Albuquerque and Austin have in common is embracing the small business owner and having a populace that is conscious about where they buy their goods. That being said, I have had 3 really awesome experiences with Corporate America lately, and had to share how one can learn from these peeps, too. Case 1: Starbucks. Ok, I'm a bit of a fangirl. I consume a lot of my Austin caffiene at the indie shops, where great people hang out and work, but when I want a cup to go with a predictable taste, I head for the Bucks. Plus, my sister lives in Seattle and I have visited both their headquarters and the first Starbucks store ever (on the Pier, check it out), so I feel an affinity. Plus their people are generally pleasant to talk to and get health benefits, so I respect that. Anyway, apparently a while back some of us registered Starbucks card holders (I know, nerd alert) had a day or so where our points were not available. This did not affect me in any way because I didn't try to use my card at that time. Lo and behold one day I get a package from Starbucks, and in it is an apology note for the card issue and a POUND OF ESPRESSO ROAST. Huzzah! That's how to treat a customer...one who didn't even know anything had gone wrong. Lesson: Go the extra mile without question and without exception. Case 2: Southwest Airlines. I usually fly Southwest because they're usually the cheapest and fly to cities I frequent. Their in-flight jokes are a welcome break from the generic safety lecture (I swear one flight attendant said, "If you are flying with more than one child and must choose which one to put an oxygen mask on first, please for the good of us all, choose the child with the most potential." Mwaha). So I was a little delayed getting out of Seattle this week because they had to fix a problem on the aircraft. Didn't bug me at all. In fact, I posted on Twitter: "made it back to austin with only one delay getting out of seattle. plane doodad fixing. good for them fixing the plane. i love southwest." It did not occur to me that I was Twitter friends with Southwest. It also did not occur to me that they would ever track Tweets about them. But they do, and Southwest wrote back: "We LUV you too. And glad to hear we have our doodads in order. Sorry for the inconvenience." Shucks. Lesson: the personal touch goes a long way to making a lifelong fan. Case 3...Oasis Disc Manufacturing. To be continued tomorrow because It's 3 AM. Right.