Tuesday, June 26, 2012

#25 it's worth the extra effort

Sunday was the first day this season that a local farmer sold sweet corn.  The only advertising that he needed to do was to put a handwritten note on a chalkboard by his table that said “Corn available Sunday at 9am.”  Two wagon-fulls sold out in less than an hour.

This farmer is revered because he only sells “picked-today” sweet corn at his stands.  As an Iowa transplant, I needed to be taught that this matters (as the corn has sugar which creates different tastes and textures as it ages).  “Picked-today” truly is better.  So the farmer gets a crew out very early, picks the corn, drives it to the stand and sells it – every single day all season.  It takes extra effort to do this instead of shipping it off weekly to a grocer and letting the store handle logistics. 

It is less convenient for people to make a special trip to the stand to buy the corn.  It costs the same as in the grocery.  And on Sunday, people had to wait an hour in line to buy it!  At 8:15, I was person #43 in line.  By 8:30, there were 93 others.  At 9am when they arrived with the corn, the line weaved around the whole perimeter of the parking lot. 

Why did we wait?  Because it was worth the extra effort to get this corn. 

What are you doing in your organization that adds the kind of value that your customers find worth the extra effort to obtain?

-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots

leadershipdots@gmail.com

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