Surviving 62 years with your only customer
Surviving 62 Years With Your Only Customer
You all know that we have been in the same spot in great Solvay, NY for the last 62 years. Do you wonder how and why? Maybe one or the other? Well, both questions are answered from one of my earliest customer interactions. I was working for my father, and I was still a youngster, learning the ropes.
The story that leads up to the interaction, which brings us to the present day, isn’t worth the length of the ink to paper, so i’ll get to it. I didn’t pay close enough attention to the customers needs. I rushed the job. I was young, new, fresh, and learning. I didn’t think that so many years later that I’d be handing Dad’s business off to my son.
The customer…well, my Dad’s customer, was upset. And, believe me, the customer let me know it. I had let my father down. Not overwhelmingly, as it seemed at the time. I mean after all, it was only one customer…Right?
“They better be treated as your only customer!”
Let me digress. We’ve been in two spots over the last 62 years, not one. My father opened Canetta’s in 1954, while he was working at Val Motors full time. He had not 2 nickels to rub together. So, he opened shop from Grandma’s garage on 112 Caroline ave. ‘Treat every customer as my only customer’…that hit hard.
I expected each customer to come to me. I didn’t expect to hear my customer say to me that they would ‘never come back to me’. Right then I received my ‘Doctorate’ in running a sustainable, and meaningful business. Each customer should be treated, as Dad said, ‘like your only customer’.
Treating every customer as our only customer is what we thrive on. It’s our lifeblood, training, motto, and motivation. It’s the ‘why’ behind 62 years. The ‘why’ behind all of our fantastic clients. The ‘why’ behind our soon to be 3rd generation leader, my son, Justin.
We are more than excited to share our journey dating back decades through the present. In the upcoming months we will be covering topics such as… Entrepreneurship, Family Business, All things Automotive, Growth, Sales(men) and Sales, Culture, Hiring, Keeping up with the times…and so much more.
My son Justin working with a customer
