in customer service and our belief in continuous improvement.
Scott Bateman: President and C.E.O. First Air
Eleven days ago we had a food mail order from Northern Fancy Meats in Yellowknife delivered to First Air Cargo there. As we've yet to receive the order, and we have a rather interesting history with First Air and food mail I tried to track it down today.
My first call was to Northern Fancy Meats, to get a shipping reference number and confirm that the order had been shipped. The second was to our local First Air cargo office, which was unfortunately closed for the day, as I reached them after business hours. My next call was to First Air Cargo in Iqaluit.
Excellence
This is essentially how my call there went:
Cargo: Its not here.
Me: I haven't given you the reference number yet.
Cargo: It doesn't matter. Its not here, as soon as we get food mail its sent out on the next flight. Its not here.
Me: Do you want the number.
Cargo: Its not here! We ship it out on the next plane when we get it.
Me: Then why did it take one of my orders three months to arrive.
Cargo: Its not here.
Me: Never mind, I'll call down to Ottawa.
Continuous Improvement
A short time later Northern Fancy Meats called back to let me know that a check with First Air in Yellowknife confirmed that it had been sent, that it wasn't in the freezer there, and the system showed it was sent to Iqaluit. I related the above to her.
Having reached the voice mail of the First Air office in Ottawa I was trying to reach, I left an angry message and then set about putting the details in an email to them. The phone rang again and Shiloh from Northern Fancy Meats again greeted me, this time with the good news that she had found our order in Iqaluit.
She had apparently spoken to the same person I had, who told her the order was there in Iqaluit, and that he had missed seeing it when I had called (which apparently was why he was able to answer me so quickly on my call, I had reached him on the phone in the freezer). He had overlooked our four boxes of frozen meat initially but would ensure they would be put on tomorrows plane to Arctic Bay.
He was also under the impression she was calling from First Air in Ottawa.
Yep, excellence and continuous improvement.
If you are looking for excellence in customer service however I will highly recommend Northern Fancy Meats in Yellowknife. I have used them for food mail for a number of years now and have yet to be disappointed. Their products are first rate, they package exactly how I ask, and Shiloh, who handles the food mail orders for me is incredibly cheery, and always extremely helpful. Make your next meat order through them, and tell Shiloh that Clare sent you.
Comments
10 responses
They also make great jerky. It’s Mich’s favourite.
If they’re already excellent, how could they possibly improve?
Thanks for recommending Northern Fancy Meats in Yellowknife for food orders.
Do they have regular deliveries to Heidelberg?
When I read or hear Yellowknife, I always think of the band “Northern Pikes”. They had an album out in 1987/88 during my stay in Canada that was very successful and incidentally pretty good as well. I wonder if they’re still around.
I just googled “The Pikes” and hey, hey, hey: they are still around. Nice.
In their bio it sais that they are from Saskatoon though – not from Yellowknife.
Dang, another childhood dream turned into another childhood misconception.
We’ve ordered their jerky Megan. It is good, although it doesn’t last long enough to justify our ordering. Anyway, since I’ve started making our own we prefer it to almost any other jerky.
You can improve on excellence can’t you John? Can’t the best even be better? I’m not talking the airline but in general.
I’m sure NFM would do up an order for you Jochen, although you are outside the area that qualifies for food mail, so freight might be a little prohibitive. And I’ve not thought about the Northern Pikes in years and years.
Another band out of Saskatoon that was pretty good was Wide Mouth Mason
Ha!
Last night, we had our own episode of “excellence”. We had ordered an online train ticked from the German Railway DB but our printer is down, so my wife called:
My Wife: “Excuse me, we ordered an online ticked but cannot print it, can you please send it to us by mail?”
The Lady at DB: “Oh, but you see, all you have to do is print your online ticket and you’re all set.”
My Wife: “Well, but that’s the problem, we can’t print it.”
The lady at DB: “No, no, that’s fine, just print it. That’s what you do with online tickets: print them at home and take them along.”
My Wife: “Can we talk to someone else, please?”
You have to love it when people listen intently to what you are saying Jochen.
Customer service isn’t what it use to be. I’m glad it is at Fancy Meats. I went to Alaska Airlines the other day to check on an eagle being shipped from the bush. I told the clerk when and where it was coming from. She looked at me and said it’s too soon, have a seat. I looked at her and said no, check the arrival of the flight. Her supervisor heard my voice raise and hurried on over. She went out into the hanger and found the kennel and I was on my way in about 10 minutes. No telling how long I would have been there with a sick bird sitting in a cargo hangar if I had listen to the first clerk.
Amazing Dave, you think in this economic climate airlines would be bending over backward for their customers.