Customer Service and Family History

 Detroit, Michigan, 1933.  25-year old merchant Irving Belinsky (standing in center with rolled shirt sleeves) in his Film Exhange Drug Store.  

June 29, 2009

I spoke today with my UK based nephew Bruce who heads our newest headwear venture, www.VillageHats.co.uk in London. I encouraged him to hire another employee as our business is doing well and the current staff is maxed out. His reply made me smile because it fit so neatly into our family lore. "The next person I hire would have to help me with customer service," he said. "That could be a problem because nobody in the history of the world has done customer service as well as me." I didn’t say it, but in fact I thought, "no way, no one could be better at customer service than me." My wife Tina – who heads this department at VillageHatShop.com – thinks the same about herself. I know that my now retired brother Arnold, a wildly successful retailer, thinks the same about himself. His three children – all retailers – ditto. Our entire clan was raised on the belief that this customer service impulse was in our blood. We come by this idea courtesy of my father Irving, Bruce’s grandfather, and the now apocryphal stories of the style and manner with which he ran his stores.

Here’s an exemplar: My dad, a pharmacist, was in the drug store business. Though, you would never see him trapped all day behind the pharmacy counter. He was a merchant, not a pill counter. One mid-1940s summer, my brother was working, as usual, at my dad’s store. He observed a customer-let’s call her Mrs. Kowalski-come up to the counter and ask my dad for a particular over-the-counter (non-prescription) preparation. "I’m sorry Mrs. K," my dad replied, "we don’t carry that product." As Mrs. Kowalski began to sag, my dad didn’t miss a beat, ". . . but I will have that for you tomorrow; come back in the morning. " She smiled and with my dad wishing her a good day, she left the store. The following morning, my father roused my brother a half-hour earlier than normal announcing that they had a stop to make on the way to work. Heading in a direction away from the store, my dad stopped at the warehouse of one of his wholesale suppliers. My brother waited in the car while my dad went inside, returning ten minutes later. Off they went to open the store. By and by, Mrs. Kowalski appeared at the counter. My father greeted her, "Good afternoon Mrs. Kowalski." He then reached around the corner and with both his thumbs and index fingers gingerly holding a small tube on each side, slowly presented the product on the counter in front of his customer. "That will be 49-cents please."

Bruce (and all the rest), beat that! We all learned from the master.

Fred Belinsky
www.VillageHatShop.com

Comments

[Brent]

You can always count on great stories and great customer service from VillagehatShop.com. Keep up the good work and the great blog posts.

[SunBody Hats]

We are very happy to work with Village Hat Shop! Everyone on staff is a pleasure to work with!

Kindest regards,
SunBody Hats
http://blog.sunbody.com