"Letting your customers set
your standards is a dangerous game, because the race to the bottom is pretty
easy to win. Setting your own standards–and living up to them–is a better way
to profit. Not to mention a better way to make your day worth all the effort
you put into it."
I posted this quote from my favorite business/marketing
guru,
Seth Godin, on my personal
Facebook page a couple of days ago, and it
garnered some interesting comments.
One
commenter noted that he approved the sentiment because “even as a customer, I
know that the customer is not always right”.
It’s his own personal interpretation of this quote, and is right in his
own worldview, but not quite why it resonated with me.
As a shopkeeper, or merchant, if you will, I know deep down
that not everyone is right all the time. Heck, if scores were kept, my own errors
would be off the charts! Publicly,
though, the fact that we must try to please the majority is a paramount and
unbreakable axiom, not to be trifled with. What this quote says to me is that
we should stick to our principles while not losing our customers’ trust. Once you’ve lost that, it’s game over.
Let’s use WFS as an example. When Webster’s, as it used to be, was separated without any prior
notification to its customer base, it broke the trust that had been built up in
all its years of operation. People came
to expect what the store had delivered in the past, and no one warned them of
what was to come. Once the trust was
lost, the two separated stores essentially had to begin as start-up businesses.
In our case, we had to build our own customer base all over again, since we
were unable to communicate directly with the store’s existing customers.
During that often confusing time, as we struggled to get a toe-hold
established, we were told many things by well-meaning people.
I remember clearly one friend of the store
telling me to “just bring in cheap kid’s stuff…..even if you have to bring it
in from
Oriental Trading!
We want a
place where we run in and pick up something cheap for birthdays and
holidays.”
However, we also received
advice from a different faction that wanted quality toys, gifts and stationery
– things made well, made local, and recall free.
What were we to do, and which direction should we follow?
Luckily, we had already written our company’s mission
statement and executive summary (in its first iteration), and we didn’t have to
agonize over which path the store would take.
You can see that mission statement where it’s always been since the
inception of this blog, on the right-hand sidebar. That statement has guided us and allowed us to build trust,
slowly but surely, within our community - the community that had their trust
broken but now is assured that there is still a Webster in the house. We are adhering to our own internal
guidelines – guidelines that have been shaped by almost a century of our
family’s presence in Altadena!
This trust has been rewarded and we are humbled by our
community’s acceptance and approval!
Webster’s Fine Stationers was just this week named as one of two Reader
Recommended Stationery Stores in
Pasadena Weekly's Best Of Pasadena!
We
want to thank all of you for this honor and promise that we will
remain true to our standards of quality, excellent customer service and
community involvement!
Have an excellent week, my friends, and we’ll talk again
next Sunday!
Lori and Scott
