Service

What a tough business. Running a hardware store, that is.

Think about it:

• You have a ton of inventory with which to deal (including lots of tiny things like nuts and washers);
• You need to be open all weekend when folks need you the most;
• You need folks in sales positions who are knowledgable, and hopefully friendly;
• But you probably have high turnover in those positions because it's not necessarily a great long term career;
• A lot of what you sell is seasonal (snowblowers in the winter, grass seed in the spring, lawn mowers in the summer, rakes in the fall)...

It all adds up to a very tough business. And if you want to compete with the big box stores (Lowes, Home Despot, etc) you need to have razor thin margins on top of everything else.

So how do you survive in this business?

I can tell you from personal experience that not only can you survive, but even in a recession you can thrive. The family owned hardware store at the end of my block is an example. And I have come to realize that the way they do it is they get people coming back. And how do they do that?

Great service.

They are friendly and knowledgable. You can return anything (no receipt required) with no hassle and no questions asked. Despite their extensive inventory and their good prices, I am convinced that the single biggest factor in their success is their great customer service.

I think if more folks focused on service, that they would find that even in the toughest of economic times, you can run a successful business.

And perhaps there's a lesson here for the rest of us, that regular citizens should keep in mind as we go through our day and deal with people. And that is the importance of how you interact with and treat people.

It matters.