Hey,
I need your input on the 2 BBQ related SMALL companies with the best customer service. There is no exact definition of 'small', but I'd say under 10 employees.
The company has to sell things that could be ordered from anywhere in the US, but that's the only restriction. Sauce maker, rub maker, pit maker, accessory maker, whoever.
This is for the next issue of Smoke Signals.
Thanks!
Eric
I would have to say that I would like to nominate
OakRidge BBQ Rubs...
I know, a manufacturer, distributer, and supplier ... what can be so special about customer service with a rub???
Well, my son is stationed at a remote base in South Korea, travel to a town with stores is a 4 hour trip one-way. Needless to say he cannot go very often as his assignment has him working 6 and sometimes 7 days a week.
My son learned on November 17th that the mess hall would be closed on Thanksgiving day and it would be up to the individual to take extra food the day before or to procure local food for the holiday breakfast. lunch, and dinner. He contacted me and asked for some specific rubs as he was going to buy some local chicken to cook for his unit on Thanksgiving.
Not having enough rub on hand for his cook, I contacted several suppliers some which are listed above. Most of them sat on their hands and did nothing when trying to place an order, while other tried to charge me outrageous international shipping rates to a San Francisco zipcode. It goes to San Francisco and the military takes possession and delivers the items with their normal supply and administrative dispatch deliveries.
With less than a week left where shipping normally takes about 10 days, I found myself waiting for some of these suppliers to accept my order and ship some rub to him.
After waiting and waiting until the last possible moment I contacted Mike from OakRidge who shipped the order the same day priority mail at less than the actual cost of the USPS Priority shipping to San Francisco. The items arrived in less than 5 days and made their Thanksgiving cook a total success.
While OakRidge was not the brand my son requested, he said he actually likes it better than what he was expecting to receive.
I'd like to point out that while many of the others may hide behind a facade of good customer service, they are not willing to do something out of the ordinary to satisfy their customers like Mike did.
In my opinion nothing beats the customer service of making sure a group of deployed soldiers can enjoy their holiday with food reminding them of the BBQ back home.
I cannot thank Mike enough for his actions where others had lacked to respond or made excuses. My way of thanking Mike is to change the rubs I have been using and to support his business. While I may miss using the other rubs from time to time, it is a small price for supporting him when he stepped forward to deliver his product in a time of need.
If anyone has ever had one of their children deployed, they know that as a parent we would all try to move mountains to make things more bearable for them.
Humphrey's Smokers would be second on my list... Kevin was great giving me what I wanted in a smoker..
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