I went out to eat last night on an unusually cold, rainy, and gloomy evening.
The usual desert sunshine has been MIA for the previous 12 hours. Very unusual for southern Arizona.
After being seated. our waitress came over to take our order.
I started with my best attempts to be a jokester and lighten the seemingly darkish mood.
Surprise! My waitress countered every one of my quips with one of her own, and I was instantly smiling. Our little exchange became quite entertaining.
Most surprisingly though was her outward appearance. She was over 70, I learned later, and she was showing her years, short, hunched over, weathered skin, thick old school glasses (not the fashion statement kind), and a thick raspy smoker’s cough.
She mentioned that she had been serving tables for over 50 years.
She returned to our table often to check in and see if we needed anything else. On one of her trips, I mentioned that I would like more sour cream. She quickly returned with not one serving of the sour cream, but two!
On each trip back to the table we learned a little more about her and her life, which was a very interesting story of hard work, discipline, and contribution.
The gloominess of the weather disappeared and the evening turned very pleasant in that restaurant.
I found myself wanting to give her a big tip, which I did.
I thought to myself, you can’t make this stuff up!
Marketing a small business is akin to the small hinges of a door. The huge door depends on the relatively small hinges to operate smoothly, as does business success which swings on the hinges of marketing.
One critical piece of marketing is creating a world-class experience.
Every time I experience a world-class experience as a customer, I find myself recommitted to teaching and preaching to everyone the value of a marketing plan, with a huge emphasis on the world-class experience.
And remember, It’s only a world-class experience when your customers, clients, and members say it is.
It’s a small thing that makes a HUGE difference.
Remember, you only get results when you take immediate action on your ideas.
