From Inc Magazine, This Is How It’s Done: Smart Business Moves. Below are the examples that Recess can help further improve (otherwise, I’d just be reading for leisure, an antiquated notion that died with the landed gentry, supplanted by self-improvement. Cf The Evolution of Divorce.).
Direct Tire differentiates itself with a less painful wait time:
5. They are also served who only wait Uncomfortable chairs. Cold coffee. Issues of People magazine older than Cloris Leachman. So go the waiting rooms at most auto service shops. When Barry Steinberg launched Direct Tire and Auto Service in the 1970s, he insisted on bright, clean waiting areas with comfortable chairs and good coffee. To ensure employees would be chipper no matter the time of day, he interviewed applicants on three days at three different times. The myriad service awards still look great on Direct Tire’s pristine walls.
Green Hills Farms runs a loyalty program on steroids:
16. Hey, big spender In 1993, Gary Hawkins, founder of Green Hills Farms in Syracuse, New York, showered gifts on those who loved the store as much as the store loved them. Spend $100 a week, and you got $15 back on your next purchase, a $25 gift certificate for the garden department, coupons for 5 percent off your bill all year, a Christmas tree, and more. Folks who came in sporadically in search of bargains got very little. Green Hills prospered by knowing who its friends were.
Jet Blue tried to specifically address customer complaints. I just realized how ridiculous this is to highlight – in what other industry would it be novel?:
22. Filing a flight plan David Neeleman’s business model for JetBlue, which got off the ground in 2000, explicitly revolved around not twigging customers off. Neeleman’s team assembled a long list of fliers’ bêtes noires, then methodically came up with ways to eliminate them.
On a Jet Blue-related note, check out Dustin Curtis’ quest to visit every Jet Blue-serviced city in 30 days.