Friday afternoons at Loyalty & Reward Co HQ inevitably involve some form of celebratory drinking after a week of grueling loyalty program design, with our preferred tipple being champagne. Of course we only drink Taittinger, which is why we were so delighted to receive an offer recently from Woolworths Rewards with a $15 discount on Taittinger Brut Reserve at BWS. How did they know?

The challenge we faced was getting chilled bottles to the office when it was 3pm already. We have millennials in the office, for goodness sake, and they are not accustomed to waiting. Someone mentioned BWS has recently introduced one hour delivery, and suggested we give it a whirl.

We jumped into our BWS account and placed our order; two bottles of Taitts, chilled, now. With the cost over $100, BWS online flashed a very friendly ‘Delivery Is On Us’ message (For orders less than $100 it’s a $10 charge). With our Woolworths Rewards card and credit card already stored, the order was completed with two clicks, and we even earned Woolworths Points.

While we would have survived delivery in one hour (even the millennials), we were told estimated delivery time was only 40 minutes. We received an email 10 minutes later informing us our order had been picked and packed and was ready for collection. A few minutes later we received a text message informing us the order had been collected, with a link so we could track the driver. The tracking process was slick and Uber-like, with the driver’s name and photo clearly displayed, and an icon showing his progress from store to office.

He arrived in a BMW, but of course how else should one receive Taittinger champagne? The time from order to delivery was just 35 minutes, a classic under-promise, over-deliver play. With such rapid delivery we all doubted the order would be chilled, but it was, and not too much, allowing the delicate fruit flavours and subtle toasty yeast characters to release in perfect unison.

Some of you are thinking, ‘But there’s other companies out there who already offer a similar service, like Jimmy Brings, Tipple, and QuickBottle‘. That’s true, but what’s different here is the sheer scale of BWS operations. With over 1,200 stores Australia-wide, with one account you’ll soon be able to order any bottle and have it delivered pretty much anywhere within an hour. That makes it perfect for self-consumption, but just as convenient for gifting. Forget your anniversary? No, you didn’t. The chilled champagne is on its way, darling.

We raise a glass to BWS for an outstanding, flawless service we will certainly use again.

Philip Shelper is a specialist loyalty consultant based in Sydney, Australia who obsesses about everything to do with loyalty and rewards. His company Loyalty & Reward Co are a leading loyalty consulting firm.

Let’s connect! https://au.linkedin.com/in/philipshelper