Blog post: Service before the sale turns a prospect into a customer

In any marketplace, an effective way to stand out is with service before the sale. That can convert prospects to long-term customers.

Something as simple as answering an email can make a real difference, as one brewer experienced with Birko, the chemical supplier.

“When we were building the brewery, I was very interested in Birko’s acid cleaner for bright tanks,” says Joey Laluk, head brewer at Ludlam Island Brewery in southern New Jersey. “I knew Birko had a good reputation. But I had never used their products and was unfamiliar with them.”

Laluk explains that cleaning in place with sodium hydroxide-based “caustic” cleaners is the traditional method to remove surface residue and break down beer stone to get the stainless clean before sanitizing.

But caustic doesn’t play well with carbon dioxide. “CO2 in the tank environment neutralizes the alkaline cleaners making them less effective,” he says. Using caustic requires purging the tank of CO2. And it’s best used hot. Between the investment of heat energy, hours spent and loss of CO2, it adds up in both time and money.

Laluk was intrigued by Birko’s acid-based clean-under-pressure (CUP) system. It promised to do the job at cold-water temperature and without purging the tank, since it’s unaffected by CO2. One of his malt suppliers, Country Malt Group, added Birko products to its catalog, making them easier to purchase. That’s when Laluk took the next step.

But he wasn’t quite ready to pull the trigger. Acid CUP is handled differently than caustic and demands a rigorous measuring and dilution protocol. “I didn’t quite understand the process and had a lot of questions, so I sent an email to Dana,” Laluk recalls, targeted to Dana Johnson, Birko’s craft brewing technical director.

Johnson replied in record time. “He got back to me almost immediately and answered all my questions,” Laluk says. After a few emails back and forth, Laluk decided to give it a try and it’s become a valuable asset in his brewery. “I saved the email chain. It’s a great reference that I’ve shared with other brewers learning the process,” he says.

With Birko since 1977, Johnson spearheaded the company’s entry into the craft brewery industry, adapting their food processing products into powerful tools for brewers. He is an award-winning home brewer, BJCP beer judge and an chemistry innovator who pioneered non-caustic brewery cleaning. “He’s a celebrity in the industry,” Laluk says.

But that doesn’t make him inaccessible. Quite the contrary. Johnson says it’s all in a day’s work. “I help brewers like Joey every day, that’s my job!” Johnson says. “I spend most of my time helping small breweries getting off the ground with their cleaning and sanitation. Almost every day I get a call or email saying, ‘hey, Dana, I hear you’re the guy to talk to,’ especially from those coming out of home brewing and used to home brewing chemicals,” he explains.

He’s definitely the guy to talk to!

content marketingWork SamplesWriting