I love that Ken often brings us insight to other industries and how the same customer centric principles apply. They work across all industries and should be encouraged internally and externally….I have a similar story to Ken’s. There is a corner store a block and a half from my apt and I walk there pretty much every morning with my doggies to get a Red Bull,  a muffin, some dog food or whatever I might need.  The challenge was to try and juggle the dogs and getting in and out of the store fast enough that no one notices….well that was until their flower guy who stands outside to tend to the customers offered to hold the pups while I get what I need. He now does this every time I come and he never expects a tip and in fact, I had to force him to take one.  Then one of the times I went in recently, I only had a little cash on me and didn’t bring my wallet. I was 2 bucks short and the girl, said not to worry and they knew I would be back. Of course I would and when that happened again yesterday (they don’t put prices on things, haha)…she simply smiled and I knew I just will get her next time.  Of course I only go to this corner store now and it wouldn’t matter to me who was next store. I appreciate nice people and that is what good customer service is all about….simply being nice. -Julia

How David Can Beat Goliath

Our family loves Pizza. Our tradition was to order Pizza from a national chain who offered a Monday night special, “large, one topping pizza for $5.99″. Great deal to feed a family of 5. We continued our tradition for several months until one day, I had an epiphany. The pizza we were eating was not very good. To me, it had a rather synthetic taste to it which tended to stay with me for several hours after dinner. I was patronizing this place for one reason; price!

On occasion, we had gone to Brothers Pizza pictured above. The pizza is really good, and our family always commented that this was the best pizza in our area…yet we only went here once every few months or so. I decided to change our tradition and switch our pizza night to Saturday. This change came also with a change of venue, we started going to Brothers once a week. We always order a large cheese and it is $12. Double the price of our previous selection and without a topping to boot. Under the umbrella of full disclosure, I am probably the cheapest man alive but I happily dolled out the money at Brothers. Yes, the pizza is infinitely better but I pledge my allegiance to Brothers mostly for one reason: Patty!

A few weeks ago, the Proctor family spent the afternoon at the community pool. We decided to pick up our pizza on the way home as it was a typical summer day in Houston: Temperature was over 100 and the humidity was over 1000%. I arrived at Brothers but alas, the pizza was not ready. I asked Patty about how long it would be and she told me about another 20 minutes. I grimaced and told Patty that I had car full of hot, tired, chlorine smelling kids who were hungry, and quite cranky (I know all parents know what I am talking about). She apologized for the delay as I headed back towards the car. After about a minute, Patty was knocking on our window with drinks for everyone along with some garlic “knots” (house speciality). She was an angel! We ravaged the food and before we knew it, Patty was at our window again with the pizza. I started to get out of the car to follow her back in to pay and she just turned to me and said “catch you next week”! Bravo Patty, you now have a customer for life. The cost: probably $1.75 for the drinks and snack. Loyalty begets loyalty in my book.

The following week, I sat down with Patty and asked her to what she owes her longevity to, and how does she compete with a Pizza Hut right next store (see above)? In Patty’s words “Early on, my Dad recognized the value of putting your faith in customers. The early 80′s were pretty tough in Houston and he always gave his good customers more than what they asked for: If he knew they loved mushrooms, he would double the mushrooms but not charge the customer for an extra topping. If a regular customers was in a rush, he would say “catch me next time”. If a customer had a pickup and he noticed they had kids in tow..he always threw in some garlic knots to munch on during the ride home. At Christmas, he always gave his customers something extra when they ordered. If they ordered a large cheese pizza, he may throw in a anti pasta salad. He knew this kept people coming back and most of all…loyal”! What I found most interesting, was that in the 30 years Brothers has been in business, they never had a marketing budget. They do not advertise except for supporting the local high school teams(in programs), and they are always the first to volunteer to donate pizza for a local charity event. One other important hallmark of Brothers: Vendors always eat free. When the cheese guy comes for his weekly delivery, he can order what he wants. Same with the veggie guy. When we had a hurricane last year, who do you think was the only restaurant in the area that was able to serve people two days later?

No doubt, people have less disposable income these days but Brothers Pizza has not suffered a downturn. As Patty says “We know people are still ordering pizza. We just want to be certain that they think of us when they do”.

Maybe a store could give away a free pair of socks to a child who has a hole in theirs when they try on a shoe. Maybe a vendor could offer free freight to an especially loyal customer.

Way to go Patty..see you Saturday!

Ken Proctor
Front Man
Twig Footwear, LLC
Ken@twigfootwear.com
www.twigfootwear.com
501-276-0140