One reader's comment sparked this post:"Just a note on your blog last month re: Jimmy Carter’s. The restaurant is kind of a Mission Hills icon and has been popular with locals for years! It’s close to where my husband and I live so we go pretty often.
Keep up the good work!"
The post she's referring to was called, Does Your Outside Match Your Inside? I wasn't being critical of the restaurant, but commenting on its exterior not adequately or accurately portraying what it had to offer—in this case, a cute interior and great food. Her reply got me thinking, maybe this restaurant has enough business and doesn't "need" new customers the way a younger establishment does. That led me to wonder, who else can afford to ignore customer experience elements? So, I came up with this list. Tell me what you think.
You can afford to ignore the customer experience if:
1. You are a neighborhood icon or institution, like Jimmy Carter's Mexican Cafe.
2. Your location brings you plenty of foot traffic.
3. You are the one place to go in the neighborhood.
4. You own your building and/or your overhead is low.
Here are two examples:
This little grocery store is always busy, as everyone in the neighborhood stops there for odds and ends, videos, a newspaper, etc.
The first impression, pretty much unchanged for eight+ years, is that of a run-down convenience store. Meanwhile, the neighborhood has transformed itself into an up-and-coming place, with homes selling for over $500,000, tons of young families, and well-off professionals. The store has a real butcher counter, rents DVDs, makes keys, and is surprisingly well stocked given its fairly small size. I would LOVE to make over this store, without losing any of its charm or the unique personalities of the friendly owners and staff members. I think they could be making a lot more money by selling (just for starters) flowers, the New York Times, baby food, and copier paper for home offices. Suggestions I've offered are politely ignored. Why, when they could be getting free advice from me? [For starters, he isn't asking for advice, but that's another post entirely.] The store owner owns the building, he likes doing what he's always done, he doesn't want to deal with new suppliers or vendors, and he's making enough money. He doesn't want to spend extra money; he's comfortable with the way things are. Nothing wrong with that, except that it drives me crazy. :)
In another neighborhood, this stationery store has tricky parking, and isn't busy when I visit. The staff members are often cranky, and their items are more expensive than Staples or Office Depot. While they do know their product, they aren't exactly service-oriented. I stop here for minor purchases because I like to support small businesses and it's on one of my regular routes around town. They do sell items like envelopes individually.
The store windows don't draw people in, and often look like they were designed in the 60s. I assume this store owner also owns his building. I'm not sure how they make enough to stay in business (perhaps the wedding invitations?). With this location and their knowledge base, they could be a thriving concern, but seem likely to fade away.
I have been at a loss to explain how businesses like these don't seem to want to change, but clearly the economics of their particular situation indicate that they are doing okay.
What do you think? Do you know of businesses like these that seem to "ignore" the customer experience and still run year after year? Send me an email. Am I off base?
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