Lessons learned

(photo credit)

My holiday-stint at Zingerman's has now come to an end and I'll be starting my new job on Monday. Having the opportunity to work the holiday season at 2003's Coolest Small Comany in America was a really eye-opening experience and I've come away with a better understanding of two elements of successful small business: marketing and customer service.

Marketing: There's no shortage of online purveyors of specialty foods. If all you want is to buy some stinky cheese and a salami, you could go to any number of websites. What Zingerman's excels at is creating an experience for its customers. Obviously, having their own stand-alone stores helps but they also do this effectively with their mail order business. From the hand-drawn illustrations in the catalog and website to the product descriptions written in first-person with a distinctive and consistent voice, I've learned not to underestimate the value of whimsy in a retail business.

Customer Service: You would not be incorrect to say Zingerman's is in the customer service business first and the food business second. These people take their customers seriously, and with good reason. Without customers they wouldn't have a business. I learned valuable customer service skills that I have already been able to utilize for Rifferaff when a few gift wrap packages I sent out didn't arrive to customers in time for the holidays. I sent out replacements/refunds as needed, apologized and made sure that the customer still ended up with a great experience even though things didn't work out in the ideal manner. Customer service and communication counts in a big way, that's probably the biggest lesson learned.

Product-wise, it was interesting to me to see what items sold the most of. At the holidays people love buying pre-made gift sets. I experienced this at a small scale with Rifferaff this year and my hunch was confirmed by the amount of gift sets I took orders for at work. As I think about re-configuring Rifferaff in the new year, I'm excited to incorporate more gift sets and think about clever ways to promote them.

(P.S. I'm kind of glad this stint has come to an end simply because I was surrounded by too many breads and sweets for the tasting and I would have certainly packed on the pounds had I stayed on longer. It's physically impossible for me to turn down free food.)

Comments

[Brittany Noel]

That's the most important thing I learned from my mom's shop, customer service. Absolutely paramount to growing a small business.

[Jenny Kellerhals]

lol - i worked at a cheese shop for about 4 months and was both happy and sad to leave the place, it was SO delicious!