It makes such a refreshing change when a company a) has a personality and b) feels able to express that personality in their communications with their customers.
I recently ordered the new Thomas Dolby CD and DVD from CDbaby.com and just received this fantastic email to let me know they had shipped.
Subject : CD Baby loves David
Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to make sure they were in the best possible condition before mailing.
Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CDs into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.
We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved ‘Bon Voyage!’ to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Sunday, November 26th.
I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as “Customer of the Year”. We’re all exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!
I’d never heard of or used CDbaby.com before this but just a simple email like this will make me return again.
I’m reading The Cluetrain Manifesto at the moment and CDbaby.com clearly get that markets are conversations.