Customers are no longer kings

Jyme Mariani is managing editor of Garden Center Magazine and group editor--grower for Nursery Management & Production and GMPro.

While in high school and college, I worked in one of the most customer-service-intensive and thankless industries: food service. I worked in cheap dives, ice cream stores, Italian restaurants and -- for a seven-year stint -- at one of the country’s largest amusement park chains.

These experiences taught me a lot and drilled the “Guest Is Always Right” rule into my head. (Yes, customers were “guests” that were to be welcomed into our “home” to spend an insane amount of money.)

Thanks to this intensive training, I usually bristle when I witness or read about bad customer service. Sometimes though, my initial instinct is a little off base.

Amazing, horrifying and true!
I recently read an interesting article in Zagat Buzz (brought to you by those fascinating people who publish the regional dining guides). It made customer service sound not only dead, but stuffed, mounted and placed in a natural history museum.

In the article “Would You Like a Side of Attitude With Those Fries, Sir?” staff editor Randi Gollin details restaurants from across the country that have a downright anti-customer policy. My favorite was The Vortex Bar and Grill’s menu. This Atlanta restaurant has a section on its Web site entitled, “Stuff You Should Know.” Here’s an excerpt:

SPECIAL ORDERS AND EXTRAS
The Vortex is a true short-order kitchen and we will always try to prepare special orders whenever possible. If you order something that is not on the menu and we do make it for you, we will charge you whatever damn price we want to and you will thank us for it. If you request extra stuff, that’s no problem, but you will be charged for it. Hey, we don’t get any of this stuff for free you know. Requested deletions will not reduce the price of any menu item, tightwad.

How far will you bend?
It seems harsh, but I think The Vortex has a point. Basically, if the restaurant does extra work or adds items, customers will pay more. Makes sense, doesn’t it? It’s a basic business model: If it costs you more, you pass on the costs to your customers, whose payments will help offset the incurred costs.

In a time when customers seem (or demand) to be treated like royalty, it’s unusual -- and refreshing -- to see any business that’s not rolling out the red carpet for all potential buyers.

How do you handle add-ons in your business? Do you give away free flats or upsize to more expensive pots without passing along costs? Sure, telling a customer that it’s going to cost him more money is hard to say at first. And, yes, he may go to your competition to get freebies. If so, let him. Allow your competitor to go out of business for not covering costs.

Maybe we should all be on the lookout to see if we are rolling the carpet out too far, too fast and for too little money.

--Jyme Mariani

Comments

[trey]

That mantra is correct, “The customer is always right”. Its just sometimes we try too hard to make everyone our customer. The Vortex has got it right, if you don't like the way they do business, then tough. Apparently what they do they do well enough to make their customers happy and if you don't like their style you won't be a customer anyway.

Find out who it is that make up our best customers, give them the “royal' treatment and forget the rest. It sounds harsh but it improves our focus, and by focusing on the people who are best customers we will naturally appeal to many of those who haven't decided to shop at our store. People are looking for a unique, exciting, and different experience and trying to appeal to everyone makes it less unique, less exciting, and more like every other mediocre experience you get in so much of retail.

The key is that you have to produce a product, service, or experience that is “extraordinary”. How many independent garden centers do? Over the next few years we will see which ones do (still in business) and don't (out of business.)

This is an excellent post and something for all of us in the business to think about.

[earl]

I direct sales for a company that seemed to live by the Vortex's rules for several years. Customers walked away, the company nearly went out of business. Over the last few years we have been able to bring the company back to profitability by treating every one of our customers well.
We sometimes turn down business from certain customers, but we do it with gratitude that they thought of us anyway. We politely tell them that their business does not fit our selling model.
If we took the advice from this column, our company would be out of business. Negative word-of-mouth is the worst advertising of all. It loses not only the "bad" customer, but also every good customer they talk to when they tell all their friends how rotten you are.
You don't have to give away the store to treat people well.
I imagine we are all grateful for a time when we didnt deserve to be treated well but someone was good to us anyway.

[Ed Bemis]

The customer is still queen.

Vortek has apparently just decided who it wants for customers. The homepage of their website features a scantily clad woman and a motorcycle and promotes “kick ass burgers”. It is not the neighborhood diner. It is their shtick.

The world is not “one size fits all”, it is that ubiquitous bell shaped curve. Most of us are not in markets where we can focus solely on the extreme 2-3% on either end. We have to aim for the middle, upper middle, or lower middle. In order to do that treating the customer fairly is essential for a long term relationship. Will customers put up with an attitude for a great deal? Yes, but that is no way to build an ongoing relationship.

As to your statement “Maybe we should all be on the lookout to see if we are rolling the carpet out too far, too fast and for too little money.” Not too far or fast, but definitely for too little money. There are few impediments to entry for small backyard growers who have the attitude “the labor is free, the wife does it”. They are selling cheap, eroding perceived values, and not even covering their costs (but don’t know it). What can we do about them? Not a damn thing. What can we do about us? Continually strive to be better.

Our company’s motto is Successful Gardening Guaranteed. As an industry we need to do this. We need to grow good varieties that will perform well for the customer in their garden (not just in a cell pack). We need to provide the customer with the information and materials they need to be wildly successful with those plants so they keep coming back for more. We need to provide the customer with a pleasurable shopping experience How many of us still have issues with mud and puddles? I know I do. We need to tell the public WHY we are better, and that yes, better does cost more, but it is more than worth it!

As retailers we can not go it alone. We need more growers and suppliers to step up to the plate with products they are willing to put more than advertising dollars behind. Among those taking the lead: Ball is guaranteeing their Snow Angel pansies; Bailey Nurseries is guaranteeing their Easy Elegance roses; Eaton Farms is guaranteeing everything they grow. Other growers need to put their money where their mouth is. Most other industries do already, whether officially or not.

Add-ons. Giving away the occasional freebie is a fact of life. But we need to do it on our terms. It isn’t the value of the freebie; it’s the thought behind it. If you only do it grudgingly, regardless of the value, it turns into a negative.

That’s my two cents, maybe a nickel with inflation.

Ed Bemis
Bemis Farms Nursery