NB: This post was conceived and mostly written some weeks ago. The sequel is based on events that occured last night.

For those of you reading CoFactors from outside of New York City, here’s some background: New Yorkers, as a rule, are busy, picky, demanding and generally cranky as heck. Hang around the deli counter at Zabar’s if you don’t believe me (”I said sliced thin!” “You call this lean?”). Food purveyors and restaurants are a favorite target. It’s no accident that the Zagat survey was born here. In this market, a company that promises online ordering and prompt home delivery of high-quality produce, meats, and other grocery items is either supremely confident or just plain crazy. Enter Fresh Direct. Turns out they’re New Yorkers, too — and perfectly willing to mix it up with the local competition, all the while trumpeting their “core value” to “satisfy and delight their customers.”

Much has already been written about Fresh Direct and their prospects for success, including endless comparisons with home-delivery flops Kozmo.com, Urban Fetch, and Webvan. For my part, I think the company has two things going for it: a great website user interface design and flawless customer service. Anyone who has used the site knows what I mean. The graphic design is distinctive and consistent with Fresh Direct’s emerging brand — familiar, by now, to most of us from the fleet of delivery trucks that swarm the city these days. Navigation and functionality, while certainly not perfect, is solid, straightforward, and includes a variety of helpful features such as the ability to “quick shop” from all my past orders (Note to Fresh Direct: How about a batch editing feature for this list? And the ability to add my own comments to each item?).

But the real key to my continuing use of the service is FD’s 100% satisfaction guarantee and their total willingness to credit my account for products that arrive in anything less than perfect condition. Despite roomy packing boxes and liberal use of styrofoam wrapping and containers of various shapes and sizes, this happens with some regularity. Actually, the frequency of these occurrences would probably be enough for me to ditch the company altogether. However, all I need to do is report the cracked jar, smooshed bananas, or rotten asparagus to customer service and a credit appears on my next order. Easy as that. Not only does this approach keep me as a customer, but it probably makes me more loyal than I would have been in the absence of these customer service interactions. Yes, I am more loyal with the problems than I would have been without them. Fresh Direct is not the first to learn this lesson, but their approach is noteworthy in that it goes straight to one of the primary consumer concerns with a service of this type: I don’t get to sniff the melons or squeeze the avocados before I buy them. With Fresh Direct, you can trust that they will either send you a quality product or take it back. This assurance allows the sheer convenience of the service to shine through. Without it, thousands of exhausted New Yorkers would be facing the queasy prospect of (yet another) order of Ginger Chicken and Cold Sesame Noodles.

NG

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 22nd, 2005 at 4:20 pm and is filed under General, E-commerce.