VIETRI Does Business with Heart

By: Jan Bolick
February 10, 2010

blue heartIf you are Serious About Service then you probably already  do business with heart.   And you probably already know that one of the best ways to establish, grow and nurture such a culture is by reading and sharing stories about people inside and outside of your organization who do business with heart. 

If you have seen their products in the stores or have spent any time on their website, you probably already have the feeling that  VIETRI, wholesaler of handcrafted Italian home products, does business with heart.  After having had the pleasure of spending some time with their management team, I can tell you that it’s more than just a feeling.   Doing business with heart  seems to be part of the VIETRI culture – running deep and wide throughout their organization.  Here are two stories to demonstrate. 

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One Friday after closing time,  the last three employees  were shutting off the last lights in the VIETRI reception area, when the phone rang.

It was a store owner in Georgia who said she had a top customer standing beside her who desperately needed four place settings of dinnerware shipped to her overnight.  Her husband’s bosses were coming to dinner Saturday night(the very next day). Could they help her? She was desperate!

“A husband in need?  We can do it!” exclaimed the three customer service ladies.

They turned on the lights to the warehouse which had been empty since 3:00 p.m., hand picked the products from the shelves, packed the boxes and hand-wrote labels. Then one of the women drove the boxes to the UPS central shipping warehouse (about 30 miles)  and shipped the boxes for overnight priority delivery, before driving to her home (another 30 miles) for the weekend!  

The store owner and her customer were  so happy that night!    And everyone at VIETRI is hoping the husband got a raise!

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Another husband story – this time it was husbands to the rescue!

A  store owner in a small town in Georgia was about to have the biggest event in her history.  The purpose of the event was to show her customers that she was now carrying VIETRI and its handcrafted Italian products.  She had started displaying them three weeks before the event and at an all-day store party.  In the four days right before the event, she had almost sold out!  

Sounding rather frazzled (understandably so), she called VIETRI, desperate to receive many more products.  And she needed them in just 24 hours.

When VIETRI called her back  with information on the cost of shipping twelve large cartons to Georgia overnight, she burst into tears on the phone. “We are a small store, just expanded a bit more, without the money to pay for such an enormous freight charge. Isn’t there ANYONE at VIETRI who could drive the boxes to us? I could even send someone from the store to meet you half way.”

The Customer Service Director who was helping the store owner, put the customer on hold and walked into the warehouse to ask the pickers and packers if anyone could drive toward Georgia. No one was free the next day, a Saturday. She asked in the other offices of VIETRI. No one was free.

She then called her husband.  “Honey, could you help VIETRI tomorrow?”  After explaining the situation, her husband agreed to pick up the boxes from VIETRI that very day and drive into the night to the designated McDonald’s at a specified exit off I-40, where he met the store owner’s husband. The two husbands moved the boxes from one RV to the other and the store owner’s husband drove back to central Georgia and a happy wife.

All of the products were opened and arranged on the store’s shelves the next morning an hour before the store’s Big Event.

Husbands to the rescue – doing business with heart.

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Wonderful stories!   Thank you VIETRI, thanks to these store owners in Georgia and thanks to these husbands for doing business with heart.

copyright 2010 – Business Class Inc

Other Resources to Help Establish, Grow & Nurture a Culture of Doing Business with Heart :

order heart cards here

Filed Under Be a Better Manager, Serious About Service 

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One Response to “VIETRI Does Business with Heart”

  1. Don't You Love It? | Business Class Inc on February 12th, 2010 1:08 pm

    [...] VIETRI Does Business with Heart [...]

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