The secret weapon of small business
It’s gotta be Customer Service.
I could try to write a pithy blog with supportive documentation and research statistics to back up my hypothesis. I could quote successful entrepreneurs and point out entire businesses that have succeeded solely on the basis of customer service as the backbone of all that they do.
Instead, let me tell you this:
I walked into a new store in my neighborhood on Saturday night on my way home from the studio after the live StartupNation Radio show. I had driven by the store at least twice daily since it opened a month ago but hadn’t stopped. The only reason I stopped Saturday is because my neighbor told me about his good experience in the store earlier in the week.
I wanted a 6 pack of beer. I’m partial to the micro-brews & have a favorite, Burning River Pale Ale from the Great Lakes Brewing Company in my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. I wondered if this new store would come through.
Before I had taken 2 full steps in the door, the proprietor introduced himself as Danny. I told him that I live in the neighborhood & that my neighbor had told me to stop in. He ran out from behind the cash register, warmly & enthusiastically shook my hand with a big smile and summoned his younger brother for an introduction.
He called me by name & when I pointed out the beer that my neighbor had bought for me earlier in the week (I have nice neighbors), Layla from Israel, Danny said,
“Oh, Lee is your neighbor?”
2 things – my neighbor already is on a first name basis with the beer store guy, & my new beer store guy remembered my neighbor’s name! (see, I’m already calling Danny my new beer store guy)
Anyway, Danny gave me a free Godiva chocolate, then gave me a tour of his store. I did find the Burning River Pale Ale (named after the Cuyahoga River catching fire in 1969, just a little hometown nostalgia for me), bought a bottle of wine (Yellow Tail Shiraz - Australian) that I wasn’t planning on purchasing & I finally got out of there to go home, watch baseball & drink my birthday beer after 20 minutes. (I was REALLY getting thirsty by then!)
This experience that I just had with this small business owner? It never happens in the big chain grocery stores just down the street. It’s only Tuesday, but I’m already considering reasons I might want to stop in to see Danny on my way home from StartupNation HQ. Even if it’s just to see that big smile. Yeah, right.
April 12th, 2006 at 11:42 am
OK, Joel. I’m going to play the contrarian.
I’m not disagreeing with the value of customer service, but I would like to speak about the value of a great product.
My hometown pizza shop has tenuous hours, a sometimes(but not always) gruff wait staff, a rather cryptic ordering method, a limited selection, and very long lines.
And they have long lines because they have food that’s SOOOOO good. It’s like crack with pepperoni and mushrooms.
I’ve watched them destroy nice, pleasant, customer-friendly competition.
All because their food is so good.
Now. Because I believe firmly in intellectual honesty, I have to point out that my wife (who the pizza shop waitress called a "foreigner" because she once asked for a turkey sub… not on the menu) believes that if they had great customer service they might be a nationwide chain.
Anyone else have a good story?
Matt
April 12th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
For great pizza or a Philly Cheese Steak, I’ll put up with almost anything.
April 12th, 2006 at 2:03 pm
I’m with you Joel. In these days of "customer-noservice", I understand why you are very impressed with your new beer/wine store. Like they say at Cheers, it’s nice when everyone knows your name.
Matt has a point, too, and I think the businesses that practice the no-service attitude KNOW they must have a killer product to keep ‘em coming in. I believe you can have both and win even bigger. Too bad this is usually not the case these days.
Like Matt, we have an eating establishment in our neighborhood that excels with its food fare but is downright rude with the way they treat customers. It doesn’t bother me - I happened to develop a relationship with the owners through a mutual friendship by being involved in the neighborhood association. So most everyone at the Taqueria knows my name - good for me.
Most new visitors end up calling this place Taco Hell or the Taco Nazis. It is a glorified fast-food place. Get in line, order your food, they bring it to you, then self-serve water, drinks, tea, etc. They serve alcohol and they do bring you these. Simple menu, reasonably priced and the quality can’t be beat.
Not kid-friendly but intown yuppies still insist on bringing the little rascals. The rule is you don’t get a seat until after you order (after standing in a long line and waiting - sometimes for .5 hour). Newbies run get a table to save it for mom/dad/family/group …. WRONG. The Taco Nazis come down on you. YOU CAN’T DO THAT! Of course, newbies get mad, get loud, scream/yell and usually leave - vowing to never return …. EVER!
Owners and help don’t care. Bye-bye and don’t come back - we have plenty of business. And have been doing this for almost 5 years - and they just keep streaming in. It doesn’t get any better than this for a business. No expensive wait staff, people line up for your food, and no little brats running around.
For my taste, they could be nicer - but, hey, it works for them. Besides, I know the trick … no waiting for the 10 seats at the bar - quicker service and you get to talk to the friendly "tarbenders."
R@
April 12th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
You all bring up great points, but I’m with Joel on this…customer service is the most important thing to anybusiness, even if you are a hotdog vendor in NYC.
I have walked out of restaurants if the waitstaff or bartenders take more than 5 minutes to acknowledge my presence…not because I’m queen of the world, but because it’s just rude.
Let me decide if the product is worth coming back for, it’s presumptuous for an establishment to give crap service…
April 13th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
[p][/p]I agree with Kim, don’t take your potential customer for granted. Customer service seems to be a lost art these days. Even the big stores that think their employees are giving it, are falling way short of what it means. This coming from someone trained in Customer Service, with the certification to match. I attend every need my customers present. From first listening to the need and desire, timely service and then standing behind every peice I produce. Even if I can’t give them what they want, I will make the attempt to satisfy thier concerns. They will not feel invisible, those are the one’s who can damage you to someone who has no idea of who you are.
April 13th, 2006 at 5:04 pm
What is boils down to is each business has at least one area that must use to distinguish itself from it’s competetion. In the example about the beer, any place with a license can stock the same beer since it all comes from distributors. So you can either sell cheap, and be "that place with the cheap beer" or have outstanding service and be what I call a "cheers place", where everyone knows your name.
If your business serves food, obviously that opens up an option where you can let your product speak for it’self. To tie this back to beer, look at Stone. Their entire marketing stance is that you wimpy little knuckle dragging neanderthals aren’t WORTHY of our beer. They just had to move into a bigger facility this year.
The only edge good customer service has it that it’s always there when everything else goes to hell. What does the pizza/taco nazi’s have when their oven goes on the blink. They have a room full of people that barely put up with their attitude when getting great food. Would you want to step in and ask those people to leave empty handed. If it was up to me, I’d rather have to asked people I was on a first name basis with to come back another time.
-Ralph