By Jon Swanson Nancy and I are on a blogger tour in Hampton, Iowa. A bunch of bloggers are in town to learn more about agriculture and the local community. It’s a great idea for the town and for us. On Friday night, there is a wine and cheese, star-gazing, coffee-drinking, meet and greet. With live […]
A mechanic story
Our van broke. More accurately, while taking our daughter to college, our van, loaded with her stuff, began overheating 90 minutes into the two hour drive. After stops for cooling, much fretting, some praying, and smoke coming out of the tailpipe, we got to the college, got her stuff unloaded, and parked it. After catching […]
Why the tire store upgraded their customer coffee
By Jon Swanson Being individually responsive can be challenging. We talk about the idea, but how do you specifically customize things that are not part of your core service but help create the environment? Let me give you a very concrete example. I drink coffee. Often. I like when businesses provide coffee, but shudder when […]
You cannot script enthusiasm
By Jon Swanson Nancy and I went out for supper. Because we had a free birthday burger at Red Robin, that’s where we went. Ryan, our server, was great. He was friendly at a volume which didn’t include other tables. He answered food questions thoughtfully, even providing a caution about what often happens in cooking […]