The New Age of Distillery Promotional EMails

We have our own email notification list here at K&L. There's the general one that everyone goes onto when they register an account with K&L. Then there are more specific ones that customers can add themselves to depending on their interests. There are, of course, secret lists like our insider whiskey email list that customers cannot find out about, but must be discovered through their own leg work (those are fun ones). These are all ways that we help to keep our customers informed about what's coming into stock and what's new.

These days, however, the distilleries are helping us out by sending their own notifications. For example, St. George sent out an email this week letting consumers know their new Lot 14 single malt had been released. We promptly sold through all our inventory within five minutes of that email being sent (before we even got a chance to tell anyone ourselves). Today we had Ardbeg send out an email telling customers to call their local retailers about the new Supernova, which has had our phone ringing off the hook all morning. There's only one problem: we don't have any yet.

I'm not sure what to tell people when this happens. 

"Can I get a bottle of Supernova?"

"No, sorry we don't have any yet."

"Well, can I reserve one?"

"No, I'm sorry we can't reserve these in advance."

"Well, can you call me when it comes in?"

"Even if I could the bottles would be sold out by the time I got around to doing so."

"So how do I get a bottle?"

"Unfortunately you'll have to just check back with us next week and keep monitoring the site. We have a waitlist function, but I have a feeling the Supernova is going to sell so fast the waitlist might not send the email before it sells through."

"So you're basically telling me that you can't do anything and you don't know if I'll be able to get a bottle?"

"I can add you to the insider whiskey list and do my best to notify you, but you'll need to respond within minutes of that email if you want to get a bottle."

"So I have to sit around all day waiting for an email and cancel all my plans once that email hits?"

"Yes."

That's a fun conversation to have for both parties.

-David Driscoll