I just returned from a week-long road trip to Illinois and Michigan. Lines at the airports were better than expected, service on the airlines worse, and shopping experiences a mixture of both....


How can one walk into a cafe and be ignored for 10 minutes while the cashier stares blankly into space and then writes notes on a pad, while next door I am treated as if I am the store's only customer and the most important person ever to enter the establishment?
All I wanted was to pay my buck and a half for cup of coffee from the self-serve bar at the cafe, and you would think that I was robbing the place. Next door, I didn't want anything but ended up spending more than $20.
At the first, I really wanted -- nay needed -- the coffee. At the second, the last thing I needed was several layers of chocolate candy. Yet, I never purchased my cup of Joe, instead went across street to the Chamber for a free cup, and savored the chocolate I bought.
The point here is that if we don't meet our customers' needs and wants (i.e., I wanted a good experience, so I didn't fill my need at the cafe), we slowly kill the brand and sales. Neither a good thing.