Norm!

Many of us can remember this being yelled at the entrance to a beloved character on the old “Cheers” sitcom.  It reminds me that we really do like it when we are recognized and appreciated for just being somewhere, even if just as a customer.

A story from my past:  When we lived in Lees Summit, Mo, a new coffee shop opened in a direct line between where I lived and where I worked.  This was simply more than one could expect out of life.  The name of the shop was JP Coffee, and as I looked for them on the Internet, it looks as though they have closed.  That truly saddens me.  But, anyway, the story is great.  I started stopping for coffee and after several months passed, the person who had been taking my orders cautiously asked if there was any chance that I would ever order anything different.  I answered that I would always order the same thing.  From that point forward, no matter how full the place was, my coffee would always be sitting and waiting for me.  Over time, I found that the person who served me my coffee in those early days was Linda, the owner.  And, also over time, every so often, Linda would just tell me that I had paid for enough cups of coffee for the week and that the one in front of me was “on the house.”  What a great way to interact with a vendor.

In my life, and probably even more so as I begin to age, I have gravitated to this type of a business relationship.   This is not only with the people that provide goods and services to my family, but actually to those that I buy from at work.  Whether it is a family doctor, the person who works on my car, or the person I buy coffee from, I seek this type of relationship.  I know there are times I could probably save some money by shopping around and comparing prices, I find comfort in the familiarity of people I know. I believe that if something goes wrong, they will take care of me.  In the business world, this has worked out for me on several occasions as I have been able to explain to a vendor that I really need help on an order.  In the past, I even had one vendor who gave me the spreadsheet he used to calculate his cost, and told me what his target margin was.  That way, if I needed to price something, I had everything that I needed in front of me.

This all seems to come down to trust in the business relationships we are involved in every day.  When I take my vehicle to Jack at Freedom Tire, I know that the work he suggests will be the right thing to do, and not just a bunch of extras to drive the fees up.  I also know that he will tell me what I need to do to make sure our vehicles are safe, because the last thing Jack would ever want to have happen is for someone to be hurt because of work they did or didn't do.

So, how does this happen?  How do we replicate this in the rest of our business lives or if we are trying to launch a new idea or business?  I think that it happens with repetition and time, but, if JP Coffee is really gone, there is something else.  I think that it is really about the “folks,” but honestly, that is kind of the place I always go first.  When I look back at my experience at JP Coffee, after the place started getting busier, I was always taken care of, but when it was no longer Linda at the counter, the experience was different.

Does this mean that we can’t grow business to be big?  I remember the owner of a BBQ joint in Kansas City (Hayward’s) telling me that when he had attempted to run multiple locations all that happened was that the food was not as good, and neither was the profitability.  On the other hand, my friend Jim Bradrick has developed this type of a relationship with a monster, Starbucks.  He has their app on his phone, and only pays there by reloading the app.  He walks into any Starbucks in the UNIVERSE with utter confidence, knowing exactly what he is going to experience.  Sometimes, when we're together, I expect him to address the person at the counter by their first name, even though he has never been in that location before.  Simply amazing.

There will always be a place for the giants in the economic landscape, but I also think that there also will always be a place for the little shops.  We need both.  We need to be able to go to a place that has the buying power of hundreds, or thousands, of locations to hold our costs down.  But, we also need a place to go where they know our name, and who we are, and will take care of us as individuals.  And although we may pay a little more there - we will probably feel better about it.