Making Money
As I mentioned in the intro to this module, Uncle Ray’s Dairyland is first and foremost a small, local, family-owned business. From the beginning Uncle Ray’s was never intended to be a hobby or a side-line. Even before he retired from teaching, he was setting it up to be a money-maker, a for-profit business.
So yes, we’re in the business to make money. It’s our livelihood. Over the past 40 years, We have been amazingly successful at it. It is now a multi-million dollar business with expenses, overhead, sales and profits, marketing, payroll, licenses, and compliance with regulations.
There’s a reason for making this disclosure up front. Making a profit is the rationale behind all of the details relating to what we do and how we do them. Especially in Module Four, Our Product, you’ll see it over and over. You’ll learn about portion control and scaling and it’s direct connection with pricing and profit.
Building the Brand
Even back in the 70s, he had vision for Uncle Ray’s. He wanted it to be our business. He wasn’t interested in a franchise or a cookie cutter version of someone else’s store. Uncle Ray had a sense of what is known as brand identity. And he set out to clearly define his vision for his ice cream business and from that point on he worked 24/7 to build recognition of that brand.
When you talk about brand recognition, most people think Marketing 101. However we’re not talking logo, slogans, catch-phrases, advertising. Yes, marketing is a key part of promoting our brand.
Brilliant Insight
More importantly, Ray would built his brand on a simple, obvious fact and everything else, including the promotion and marketing, would flow from it. And this fact is so simple that it’s often overlooked and forgotten. Here’s the fact.
Ice Cream is a Luxury Item
Fact: ice cream has been around for ages and always recognized by most people as a luxury item. People simply don’t need us for survival. It’s a treat.
There is a big difference between needs and wants. You need basic food, clothing and shelter. However, you want diamond rings. You want fancy cars. You want technology. And you want ice cream cones – you certainly don’t need them. Having said that, oh how our loyal customers want us.
So we don’t think of Uncle Ray’s as a have-to-have kind of store.
Clearly we are a want-to-have kind of store and our customers come to us because they want to come here. We built our reputation on giving them an attractive and irresistible reason for wanting … wanting to come for a treat.
Building the Brand One Contact at a Time
And we’re not talking just once and “been there done that.” Each day we are strategically interacting with our customers to give them confidence so that they’ll want to come back … soon.
First impressions are lasting. So everything we do for the first-time customer is critical. If we manage to dazzle them, we know they’ll be back. And if we wow them the second time, we are proving to them that our product, our service, our fun was not just a happy accident, a one-time shot in the dark. And if it happens on their third and fourth visit, we begin to build our reputation with them. One customer, one experience at a time.
Repeat Business
In the back of their mind, they think treat, they think ice cream, they think great time, and they think Uncle Ray’s. 80% of our sales is based on repeat business – loyal fans who come back again and again, who tell their family and friends, who have their favorite treats and who write nice things about Uncle Ray’s on Facebook, Yelp, Twitter. Nothing like a selfie in front of Uncle Ray’s canopy.
For the past almost 40 years, this has been our trade secret and it’s what distinguishes us from the competition. This is our brand. It’s our reputation.
Huge Expectations
However, there is a downside to this, if you want to call it a down-side … each time we cultivate a new, loyal customer, we also add to a growing treasure trove of expectations.
Our customers’ expectations are high, very high, and perhaps a little too high.
For more than three generations, men, women, young and old, children and grandparents, teachers, coaches, and workers have been enjoying our premium ice cream and our amazing service! And by design, we’ve absolutely spoiled them.
Our customers are the most demanding you’ll find anywhere. And they have every right to be. Today’s customers have more options than ever before. If we don’t offer what they want, if you don’t interact with them in a manner that exceeds their expectations, they will drive down the street and get their treats from our wanna-be competitors. And if we don’t have customers, we don’t have a store and sadly for all of us, we’re out of our gainful employment!
Yes, customer expectations are loud and clear: Look good. Be responsive. Be reassuring through courtesy and competence. Be empathetic. But most of all, be reliable. That means greeting and treating each and every customer with enthusiasm and energy and excitement – everytime!
Our customers bring additional expectations with them. Based on their previous experiences with us, they make assumptions about what we can and can’t do for them. Failing to meet their expectations, whether you knew about it or not has the same impact as breaking a promise. And if this happens again and again, those cumulative negative experiences will chip away at our reputation.
This has happened in the business world throughout history. New companies and old established companies have lost their original vision, began cutting corners in the areas of product quality, customer service, reliability, price etc. and eventually the honeymoon was over. The magic, the attraction, gone. Customer and company drifted apart.
For years, K-Mart was the only corporation in the world that sold inexpensive, affordable goods. People flocked to their stores. Over time, K-Mart lost sight of what made them so popular and began taking their customers for granted with poor customer service and cheaply made products. No surprise, their customers went elsewhere and K-mart went bankrupt. They closed thousands of stores across the country. Tens of thousands of their employees across the country lost their jobs and their livelihoods.
We have created high expectations and have been rewarded by tens of thousands loyal Uncle Ray’s customers and fans.
We can’t let them down. We have to take care of the customer like they’re spending a million dollars. Because they are. They come back again and again and again.
Good vs. Great
How do we do this? In order to meet their high expectations, we have set high expectations of ourselves. High standards of performance for ourselves whenever we are on stage. The reason for taking on this extra load, goes back to our core – ice cream is a luxury item. We simply can’t offer just okay, mediocre, C grade product, service and think people will accept it. They can go anywhere for that. They simply won’t pack up and drive from Swartz Creek or Linden or Grand Blanc, or walk from Silver Lake Road, or Owen Road for what might be considered “good” stuff.
High Standards of Performance.
So what’s wrong with being good? It’s not good enough. Thanks to our performance over the years, we’re currently rated as world-class, five stars, and playing to rave reviews on Google, Trip Advisor, Yelp, etc. we are striving to maintain those ratings by being great every time.
We have a lot of history and more than a thousand of Uncle Ray’s team members. They have proven that maintaining these standards has a direct impact on our customers and on our sales. They’ve also shown that this kind of excellence is very do-able, not just pie in the sky idealism. They have given us world-class performances and tough acts to try to follow.
So I’m convinced that there’s no such thing as an acceptable level of plain old “good” service.” Good may be an acceptable norm at McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Arby’s and Dairy Queen and Cold Stone and on and on it goes.
These big chains aren’t trying to be great. They are trying to serve cheap food that is good. Is it good? Not really. They fail. They fall into the category of average. They’re mediocre. They’re everywhere you go. No one has ever left McDonald’s and said “Wow, that’s a great hamburger! Or the Dairy Queen, and said, “Wow that’s a great ice cream cone!” There’s nothing special about a mass-produced product that you can get in a gas station. Not all stores are willing to pay the price and invest the time, energy, sweat, and dedication that greatness requires. And that’s okay with us.
Simply put, good is not good enough. We have to be great and continue to be great.
So you say to yourself, just what’s so wrong with giving customers plain old good service? Once you’ve been treated to the Uncle Ray’s experience, good service is not good enough!”
The customer has to be delighted. “Wow! I just went to Uncle Ray’s and I had the best ice cream. And the people there, they treated me so well. I feel like I want to go back again and again.”
We have to bring the customer back many, many times so that we can pay you guys real good wages. Repeat business is the core of Uncle Ray’s business.
How do we get to be great?
We will be constantly encouraging you to set your expectations high, very high. We actually try for perfection. But we fail also. However, right below perfection is the category, greatness.
The best students are not trying to get good grades, they try to get perfect grades. When they fail, they’re still pretty great. Set your expectations higher. It simply comes down to, ‘How bad do you want to be great?” At Uncle Ray’s, it’s non-negotiable, period.
You’ve heard it before. Good is not good enough. We must be great. Remember you are an actor door. You must act like you’re having a good time even if you’re not. Maybe you don’t feel well and don’t want to go in today. Guys, greatness is hard work.
The best performers, students, athletes do ordinary things better than everybody else. The difference between good and great and the best and the rest is very small. Think back to the YouTube clip, 212 degrees you first watched before you turned in your application for audition. It’s only 1 degree!
Practice, focus and improve every day on the details!
The relentless pursuit of perfection in everything important. And we mean everything.
This is our brand and how we have been able to distinguish ourselves from the competition. Welcome to the challenge of Uncle Ray’s.