February 2023 - 34

POHMER ON...
IMPROVING
YOUR BUSINESS
Developing an experiential relationship with your existing customers will make your
IGC stand out.
By Stan Pohmer
W
inters get pretty dang cold in my home state of
Minnesota. Whether you're a transplant to the
state as I am, or you're native born, the winters
are long, and you have to make a conscious decision to either
tolerate the season, hibernate for months on end (except
for those rare instances when you absolutely must face
the elements), or embrace the cold, partaking in all of the
winter activities and sports that are available and enjoying a
somewhat normal life.
Two factors are key to which path you choose to take:
1.) Your mental attitude, and 2.) Your attire. Raising three
very active kids in Minnesota, my choice was made for me
by my kids (and my wife!), and my only option was to find
the right clothes to allow me to keep up with them and
their activities.
So, to ensure that I stayed warm (and in my kids' lives),
I invested in a Columbia Sportswear jacket. I say " invested "
because these things don't come cheap! But it was well
worth the money; down to -30° F and in 40 mph blizzard
winds, my torso stayed toasty (my nose and ears, however,
were another story). Now, no one has ever accused me of
34 | LAWN & GARDEN RETAILER | FEBRUARY 2023
being a fashion plate, but as long as it still looked reasonably
good and continued to perform, I had no reason to replace it.
With regular washing and moderate care, the jacket was my
go-to throughout the winters - for over 30 years! Because
I was so impressed with my jacket, my kids got outfitted
in Columbia jackets and fleece, as I believed from my
experience that the high prices were justified by the various
products' outstanding performance.
And then it happened ... the pull tab on the zipper of my
jacket snapped off! A local tailor wanted almost $100 to
replace the entire zipper, a sum I felt was high since the
jacket was over 30 years old and might not have a long life
remaining. So, I went out and invested in another Columba
winter jacket for $220.
While I was comparison shopping on Columbia's website,
I noticed that all of their jackets had a Limited Lifetime
Warranty. On a whim (and without a strong sense of hope),
I called Columbia's customer service department and
explained my situation. The agent suggested that I send the
jacket to their Oregon office (at my expense), and they'd see
if they could replace or repair the zipper under the warranty.
Ten days later I received an email from Columbia
apologizing that they couldn't repair or replace the zipper
on my 30+-year-old jacket, but since they didn't make the
same model as my original jacket, they provided me with a
$236 credit (my original purchase price adjusted for 30 years
of inflation!) that I could apply to any purchase on their
website or in a company store. Because of the performance
of Columbia products, I was already a huge believer in their
February 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2023
