The iStill Way: Education is Key!
Introduction
A tool is only as good as its user, isn't it? And a good tool used by a great user for sure will result in better tool-use and better results on the project one is working on, right?
If you get this, you will automatically understand why we offer education with each and every iStill purchase. But let's dive in deeper anyhow ...
The mistake we made
When we started out making iStills, they already were fully automated and easy to operate. So easy to operate, actually, that we expected anyone that purchased an iStill to be able to work with one. That turned out not to be the case. We were wrong. This is what happened, metaphorically:
Driving and maintaining a car is much easier than raising, training, riding, and maintaining a horse, let alone a horse and carriage. But if you bring a new technology to the market - say: the automobile - to expect anybody that buys one to immediately be a good driver is ... a stretch.
We hadn't realized it yet, but new technology - how easy and however intuitive it may be - always needs to come with education on how that new technology works. Not everybody is an early adopter. Most people have buyer's bias to the older technology they already worked with. This means they need to unlearn before they can learn anew!
How we found out we needed a new way to move forward
We found out that we needed to change our ways the moment that we started selling stills to North America, with its more "do it yourself" and "hands-on" mentality. Here are three examples of what went wrong. Okay, and a fourth bonus story, from the UK.
Our first USA iStill customer was really happy with his iStill, but did let us know that we had forgotten to send the cooling part of the still. Not a biggy, as he already welded a copper line to the top of the iStill that lead into a water filled cask, but anyhow, he wanted to let us know we hadn't delivered perfectly and how he found a work-around.
We explained the customer that the cooling was there. It is a fully integrated part of any iStill. "Do you see the quick-connects? Hook a water hose to them and you are all ready to distill! Oh, and remove the copper line to our vent and air pressure equalization system, please!"
The customer looked at his iStill again and said: "Really!?! Yes, I saw the quick-connects for water and cooling hoses ... but I thought to myself: it cannot be that easy!" It actually was that easy, we just hadn't explained that to him well enough.
In the second example, we find a customer sending us pictures of his electrician sitting in front of the now open PLC. In frustration, he asks where he can connect the power cable, so that they can finally fire up the darn thing!
We tell him to close the PLC again and just follow the cord that comes out of it. Yes, there it is! Follow it, follow it some more. Do you see the plug that's attached to it? Yes? Now plug that into the wall socket, please!
The electrician's reaction was that he had seen the cord and the plug, but he couldn't imagine it would be that easy to set-up an iStill. His previous experience with more traditional stills had taught him, that powering-up a still is an arduous job. It will take the better part of a week and at least the installation of a steam engine, certified steam pressure-pipes, and a manual or electrical control system. Not just a power cord and a plug ...
What we learned, was that even though the power management was all there, and very easy to use ... we probably hadn't explained that well enough to the customer or his electrician. Them, coming from a now outdated technology, they found it very difficult to adjust to our "less is more" and "distilling made easy" way of designing stills and doing things better.
In a third example, we find a craft distiller that wants to make vodka. All the temperatures look great. The vodka should be perfect, but why is no product coming out of the iStill?
As we dive into the issue, we are flabbergasted as well. The still works fine. The numbers look great. Why is no vodka coming out? And what's that big metal thingie next to the iStill? It turns out that the customer is collecting - or rather: trying to collect - vodka, made with an iStill 250 ... in a four meter high, old fermenter.
As we asked the customer if - on their continent - water flows up the stairs rather than down the stairs - we also realized we had to educate our customers. Vodka doesn't flow upstream. It's a liquid. Newton's Laws apply. Liquids, unpressurized and without pumps, do not flow up hill ... but simply flow back into the column.
A final bonus example from the UK. One of the earliest models we exported. The customer calls us and mentions how unhappy he is. "I am trying to make whisky, but the only thing that comes out of the iStill is smoke!" he tells us.
We ask him about his standard operating procedure and he tells us he just threw grains in the iStill, selected the whisky program on the unit, and started it. What happened is that he was now basically heating up grain. He didn't know that cracking the grain, mashing it with water, then fermenting it with yeast were all very much needed steps he should take before you create the distillers beer that can be turned into new make spirit. He told us: "Hey, it is automated! So why doesn't the iStill do that for me!?!"
Yeah, a bit like buying a car, entering a destination in its navigation system, and then expecting to be driven to that location in perfect comfort. The car should even have stopped half-way and tanked gas all by itself, right?
No, of course not. But we did learn - again - that we could only successfully introduce our new technology if we added education to our portfolio. The success of iStill has always been the result of our customers becoming successful. And your success depends on your willingness and ability to learn how to use the amazing tools we offer. Heck, we started training you right away, as we felt your success - and the successful introduction of our new technology - depended not just on the still but also on your ability to use that tool to the best of its capabilities!
What we did to solve it
After the third and fourth example, it became very clear to the iStill MT that we needed to add personal training and education to our portfolio. Simply sharing instructions and educating people via the iStill Blog wasn't enough to make our customers expert tool-users.
Today we offer two educational facilities. The online one is offered for free to all that purchase an iStill. After that comes the hands-on master distillers course at iStill's Technology Center in the Netherlands. With the theory consumed, the second course manually trains you at making whisky, brandy, rum, vodka, gin, and liqueurs.
The trainings we offer have greatly improved the capabilities of our customers. And the trust with which they now assemble, program, and manage their iStills. We think that it was a game-changer that helped us help you appreciate the new technology we introduced to the craft distilling industry even better. Confidence builds positive experience and positive experience creates amazing craft distilleries.
Anything the craft distiller can learn from this?
Well, yes, at least to the extend that education and training are as important as the tools you purchase. Or even better formulated: that you get the most out of a toolkit if you allow yourself to be trained on how to use that toolkit.
But maybe there is a wider, more broadly applicable learning point. How do you sell your bottles? On price? On quality? On an amazing backstory? Do you educate the bartenders that work in the bars you sell to? So that you can teach them how to make the best G&T with your gin? Do you educate visitors to your distillery on how the distillation process works? Do you teach them how to taste? Maybe invest in a set of iStills Nano to let those visitors create their own drinks and become informal brand ambassadors? Do you highlight the beautiful modern, state-of-the-art and environmentally green equipment you invested in? Or do you have a token copper still as an excuse?
Education is what's needed to turn consumers into returning customers. Education establishes communication. Communication establishes connection. You need to be able to connect before you can work on a mutually beneficial longterm relationship. And you need that relationship in order for that visitor or consumer to transform into a returning customer ...
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