The Little Greenhouse

One Sunday afternoon, my dad and I were having a nice chat
together, and we got on the subject of the greenhouse
next door. This is just a little flower shop in a
small town, but it's been there for probably close to
80 years. Years and years ago, long before I was born,
it belonged to my grandfather (my dad's dad, of
course). My dad and his sisters were pretty much
raised in this greenhouse and all of them worked there
at some point in time.

My dad and I have talked about the greenhouse many
many times before, but something he said really caught
my attention. Some 30 or 40 years ago Kmart came into
this small town. They had lower prices, of course, but
never put that little greenhouse out of business. Not
even when Walmart came to town did that greenhouse go
belly up. In fact, with Walmart managed to put Kmart
out of business about 15 years back.

So why is the greenhouse still there even though the prices
might be a little higher? Because of the service! It's locally
owned, and the owners themselves run it and hand
select who they want working there. The greenhouse does
deliveries, and people that know the owners know that
they can call them at home or have things specially ordered.
The greenhouse prides themselves on getting to know their
customers. They don't put out expensive ads, or make
things automated. They work the business every day,
and treat their customers like friends, not like sales.

Just like an autoresponder or ad doesn't
care about the people it's targeting, an employee at
Kmart or Walmart most of the time doesn't care too
much about if a person buys a product or not. The
employee gets paid either way. So this just
reinforces the fact that we need to ditch the
autoresponders and the ads, and talk to
people personally. Treat them as friends, not as
sales. I know all of us already know this, but
sometimes we just need a little reminder that we are
doing the right thing. :)

by Kara Kelso
http://www.momsmarketonline.com