NEWS FLASH – August 29, 2009

 I have a secret: I really like cheeseburgers. So much that I often have them for lunch. And there is one burger place I really like to go to – about 3 times a week! I guess I would be considered a regular customer. I always order a cheeseburger with pickle and onion and a large diet drink. $4.74 per meal. Now if I go there 50 weeks out of the year, that’s $4.74 X 3 X 50 = $711.00 per year I spend at one establishment. If I do this for 10 years it’s over $7,000! So tell me, why does this burger place have someone working the drive-up window with such a bad attitude and poor service skills? Today was the last straw and I doubt I will ever go back. Burger was wrong, drink was wrong, cashier was unfriendly, and to top it all off I had to wait for almost 4 minutes at the drive up window while “whoever” eventually decided to wait on me. Taking the customer for granted in all its glory.

 It just amazes me how simple of a concept plain, old fashioned good service is but how seemingly difficult the execution is for most businesses. Examples of this are so common (to me) that I begin to think that perhaps I am too “sensitized” about getting good service (as my bride of 43+ years often proclaims). But I really don’t think so. I mean, how hard is it for someone at any local service business to treat you with respect, address your needs, and say “thank you” and ask you to come back? Apparently more difficult than it seems.

 Compare a business to an athlete. Think about world’s greatest athlete, how well tuned his or her body must be, how wonderful their physiology is, how efficient their oxygen exchange has to be. Now imagine that person with zero blood running through their body. Dead, right? Same as a 300 pound couch potato would be if that happened. My point? If a business doesn’t always focus on revenue as the primary goal the same fate is inevitable. They will end up dead (we call it bankrupt here in the USA). Poof, out of business. No customers. Maybe plenty of stock, lots of “systems’, pretty showroom, lots of unique furniture and stuff, etc. but still dead because they didn’t focus on generating sales (i.e. revenue). And just how do you generate sales? Aha, now you see just where I am going, don’t you?

 You generate sales by giving your customers great, world-class service, the best products, fair prices, and treating them as the reason for your business being in business. You focus on customers and their needs and make sure you listen to them; they will tell you what you need to do to succeed. It’s so simple that I have never understood why everyone doesn’t get it. But they don’t. Often not even a little bit. More often business see customers as a means to an end and try to dictate what those customers must do to deal with them! Think “airlines” or “banks” or, well, I’m sure you have your own list. How often have you gone in a big retailer perhaps overwhelmed by the obviously huge investment in furniture, fixtures, inventory, and electronics only to find it impossible to find someone to help you? Or found the checkout line interminably long?

 The point of this ramble is that businesses do not have to be like this. But many choose to. We do not. We try to do everything we possibly can to be a company that does listen to our customers and do offer world class service, great products, and fair prices. And as we grow and add additional people I just hope that all of you will let me know if we ever fail to deliver what you expect and then some. Our goal is to never get “too big for our britches” or ever take a single customer for granted. You, my friends, are the reason we are here.

 This newsletter we have some great information, some great products (trade-in rods and reels), and just awesome pictures from all of you. So we hope you will enjoy this issue and forgive me for my ranting!
 
Tight lines,

 Tom Ashby