The Transparent Company
Here is the TRUTH about the Wine School of Philadelphia: we are a school and we teach folks about wine. This apparently obvious concept was tested recently by a student of ours.
The fellow in question attended a cooking class at the school. He was shocked SHOCKED to discover that he was attending a class and NOT a four-course dinner with linen and a sommelier in a tuxedo. Strange, but true.
A series of emails went back and forth between him and myself. Rather than do the usual customer service thing, I opted for something a bit radical: I posted the email exchange on our blog and asked for suggestions. Boy, did I get them!
The original post and the comments are right here: The Student X Letters
Many people wondered why I did this, especially since Student X said some rather nasty things about the Wine School. Some folks suggested that I was either making things worse or just wasting my time. I must disagree with these assessments.
An organization used to be able to handle such problems quietly, but no longer. Today, information is not just free flowing, but also immediate. Criticisms that once remained in the private arena are now part of the public record, thanks to websites such as Yelp.com and services such as Twitter. This is a great benefit for the public at large, but it means that organizations must change how they deal with complaints.
By opening up the conversation, I gave the public full control, and they quickly dismissed Student X’s complaints as baseless. Moreover, I turned a negative into a positive. By asking the public for their input, we were showered with goodwill and support from the community at large.
Several people were concerned that opening up the discussion would antagonize Student X into disparaging the school to his friends and colleagues… or worse. What would happen in that case? He would have pointed his friends and family to our posting of his original letters, which do not flatter him. Instead of the wrath of Student X, we got silence.
Some folks criticized me for was not refunding the gentleman’s money right away. The reason given –besides thwarting negative word of mouth– was that it was good policy to do so.
That would be good advice if the Wine School was a retail company. Such companies make their profit from the sale of tangible goods, be they widgets or wine. Refunds and returns the name of the game for retail companies, and they price their wares accordingly.
On the other hand, schools are a cultural or educational entity: they sell knowledge and experience. The concept of a refund does not exist in this marketplace: there is no such thing as a return of knowledge, and there is no way to resell that knowledge or get a refund from the manufacturer.
This is an essential distinction. The Wine School has earned its reputation because it offers unbiased education. If we throw all that away for the quick retail dollar –which would mean accepting gifts or money to promote certain wines– we would be giving up our greatest asset: our honesty. That is not the kind of company I want to run, even though I would make much more money doing so: I am happy running a school, thank you very much.
I want to thank everyone for their input. There were over a dozen intelligent and well thought out responses to the original posting. They are greatly appreciated, and I am honored to be apart of this great community.
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