In our private world this week, we have been locked in a duel with a twerp company who sold us a faulty ice-bath. It’s been a lot of back-and-forth, take and no give, questioned evidence, gaslighting, loopholes, and all sorts of tomfoolery - it’s been a painful week.

We’re reminded at times like this of what it means to run a customer-facing business. Almost every customer we have comes to us in good faith, looking for a good experience. Very few people want to have problems. But no one ever likes to feel ripped off. Above all other things, customers want to feel that they can trust you.

There’s no trick to customer service - it’s more an ethos than a performance. We think you can sum up that ethos in three words: Always Be Generous. That doesn’t mean you have no boundaries, and it doesn’t mean you give in to every request; what it means is that you shift the focus of your business from the moment a customer pays you (like a greedy guts) to the moment the customer uses your product (like a generous friend). For us at Soma, the goal is not selling bags of cacao; the goal is that every customer who buys from Soma Cacao sit on their porch in the morning (or evening), tasting the cacao in their mouth, feeling the happy hormones flooding through their bodies, saying, “Golly! Today is a good day!”

This is not commercial martyrdom; it’s actually intelligent business. Because if customers have amazing experiences with your product, they’re going to continue buying it. At Soma we couldn’t survive if we didn’t convert first-time buyers into long-term customers - if Somis like you didn’t keep coming back for more, our business (and our dream) would simply cease to be.

The most important characteristic we look for in the people we work with is generosity. We meet some people who give us much more than we ask, which we love, because then we can give them more than they ask of us. Such a relationship becomes one of good-will and generosity. On the other hand, some people give exactly as much as is asked of them (less if they can manage it), then demand that we give what they are owed. With such people, no relationship is really possible, because everything is a transaction.

A few years ago we had some fermentation problems with a batch of our Mexican cacao. We tested all of it and took some of it off our shelves (we spent the next six months drinking the over-fermented Mexican cacao, which we actually found quite delicious!) When we told Farmer Josué about it, he was horrified, and offered to cover much of the cost we incurred. Because of that, we know we can trust Josué, and we will do anything we can to repay his trust.

Being generous also forces us to be intelligent. Because we know we will try to fix any problems customers have, we are proactive in trying to solve those problems before they arise. We’re very stringent with our quality control, and always seeking to improve our products and service. We’ve found that people who take pride in their work (like Farmer Josué) tend to be generous with what they do, while people who are just in it for a quick buck tend to be closed-fisted. In the long term, the generous rise to the top.

Of course that’s not the case everywhere, and we all know (and unfortunately deal with) people in industries that do not have to build long-term relationships, and so can get away with being callous and extractive. Gratefully, Soma is not in one of those industries. We work in an industry where quality, dedication, and good relationships are rewarded. It makes us proud to do what we do.

For better or worse (almost always for better), we enter into a human relationship with every one of our customers. The same rules ought to apply in a business relationship as to a relationship between lovers, family members, or friends. I would hate to be married to someone who rips people off at work, because how would they treat you at home? If you offered them feedback and they were accustomed to arguing against feedback, could you really expect them to listen to you? If something went wrong in your relationship, what evidence do you have that they would take care of anyone but themselves? It would be like trying to love the father from Matilda. Or like taking Ms Trunchbull on a date.

We, on the other hand, hope to be pure Ms Honey.

With vanilla and spices,

Rose, Alistair, and the team at Soma Cacao