A Fulfilling Holiday

Few companies can afford to approach customer service the way Ashford does every day, let alone touch its holiday promise. Even fewer companies have a fulfillment and inventory system on par with Ashford’s. Its 19.1-percent profit margin allowed it to provide an unusually extravagant apology for late deliveries during the 2000 holiday season: The bouquets came from Martha Stewart and cost more than $100 a pop. But more importantly, it didn’t rely on the apology. It relied on a proprietary inventory and fulfillment system to achieve a 99.9 percent on-time delivery rate during the holidays.