Goodwill
I wrote a while back about a game called The Journey to Wild Divine(http://www.wilddivine.com/). It was a foo-foo New Age game complete with a custom controller that measured your pulse and fingernail salinity (I made up that fingernail thing, but the controller had clips that fit over each of your fingers and it did measure something or other). If you could stand to wade through the New Age presentation, you would eventually get to some meditation exercises, and they were absolutely excellent. Making things happen onscreen by relaxing and slowing your pulse rate makes things happen in your brain. Good things, and I enjoyed the feeling.
I was thinking about this Monday night when I realized that everything in the house was basically broken and I was feeling very stressed. Not the usual stress that I eat like candy on a regular basis, but the uber-stress that I find very difficult to handle (and fortunately, that I rarely feel). So I decided to pull out the game and do a few relaxation exercises, because I can feel my brain starting to focus when I do them.
Of course, I can’t find the CD. I can find the manuals, the “mystical guide” book, the special controller, even the freaking music CD, but I can’t find the damn game CD.
That was actually pretty stressful.
So I emailed Wild Divine customer service and asked them if I could pay a fee and get a replacement disc. Getting replacement discs can really be a hassle, and I had no idea if these guys would be helpful or bust my, um, New Age b***s about it.
Early the next morning, I received an e-mail from Kathryn in customer service. Here’s what it said:
I received your email inquiring about a set of replacement Passage Disks. We can send you out a set of replacement discs at no cost to you! If you could just send me your mailing address I will be happy to put those PC Passage disks in the mail for you right away.
That was it. No hassles, no charge, no problems. And did they sent it out via mule train? No. They sent it out that same day via second day priority mail. Four dollars and five cents for postage.
Now if someone had a spreadsheet in that company and was crunching numbers, they would have kicked her ass. No way is that a profitable transaction, to send out replacement discs for free.
Except that I was so impressed by their service that I ordered the expansion disc, and I’ll probably order anything they put out from now on just because they were so nice.
Goodwill. It’s hard to create a financial model that values it properly.
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