Think Customer

“Think Customer.” This was a corporate value that I used to spout as a leader, but it’s more than just a phrase to motivate a team to behave a certain way. It means prioritizing someone else’s needs above your own. It means proactively thinking about ways to make a difference in someone else’s day. It means going above and beyond in unnecessary ways.

This bottle of soap is how my local dry cleaner thought customer over the holidays. My family has been going to the same dry cleaner for about 20.

(My loyalty to this particular dry cleaner probably comes from the fact that the first time I went, they gave me one of those branded dry cleaning bags for my dirty clothes and it reminded me of my very first job. IYKYK 😉)

Over the holidays, we were there a lot. We were either dropping off or picking up just about every other day for several weeks. It was so bad that one I pulled in to the dry cleaner with my pick up ticket and honestly had no idea what it was for or if it had already been picked up.

As I handed him the ticket, I admitted that was quite possible that someone else in my family had already collected whatever was on that ticket and if he told me there was nothing there I would believe him. As it turns out, there was one last dress shirt to be picked up but beyond that, the manager also brought me this little token of gratitude saying, “Thank you so much for letting us take care of all of your clothes. Happy Holidays.”

Did he have to give something to retain my business? No, he knew I’d be back (I always come back) but every time I’ve washed my hands in the last few weeks, I’ve thought of him and smiled.

That’s what think customer looks like to me 😎