Whats For Lunch?

As an entrepreneur, I'm always intrigued by small businesses, home-based or not, that exceed the expectations of their customers in a big way.

Let me tell you about one of them.

Recently I spent some time with my daughter in her college town of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We were spending the day getting her apartment ready for her return to school in the fall. When it was time for lunch, she wanted to take me to a restaurant in the small town of Northport, just to the north of Tuscaloosa.

Northport is one of those typical southern small towns whose downtown area has been converted into a delightfully quaint shopping area. Central to it is a restaurant called City Cafe.

What an experience.

We arrived at the location at 11:30 a.m. Typically I like going to restaurants for lunch at that time so that one can "beat the rush." I commented on this to my daughter before we arrived; she just laughed.

When we walked in, I understood why. I faced a room with

  • a lunch counter to the left (full)

  • booths to the right (full) and

  • a line that stretched all the way to the back wall and then circled around.

    Like visitors to Disney World, we automatically took our place at the end of the line. Then I began to look toward the front of the line and realized that it continued on into another room (which I couldn't see). So I asked my daughter, "where is the FRONT of this line?"

    Her response - "you'll see."

    Sheesh!

    So I began to look around at the diners surrounding me. Their plates were piled high with what can only be described as "down home Southern cooking." And the diners themselves? A quick glance around the room told me that this establishment attracted customers from every walk of life. At this moment, however, they all had one thing in common - the serious business of eating.

    Meanwhile, the aroma was making my mouth water. So I turned my attention back to the ultimate end of the line. When would I have my turn?

    About 15 minutes later we made our way to the next room. It was there I discovered that the front of the line ended at the doorway between this room and yet ANOTHER room. Both of these rooms had two rows of booths on either side. I didn't count them, but my estimate is about six on each side of the room, making about 24 booths in total. They could sit as many as four to a booth.

    I looked around for a hostess; there was none. Then I began to understand the system; you waited in line with your party, and when someone got up from one of these booths, you just went and sat down. Period.

    The waitress appeared at our table almost instantaneously, cleared off the previous diners' plates, wiped the table, and took our drink orders. Actually, what she said was, "Tea?" And you're an idiot if you order anything else. It's important to note here that if you order tea anywhere in the Deep South, it is understood that it comes iced and sweetened. If you want it any other way, you'd better tell them that.

    Time to check out the menu. It was at this time I realized that City Cafe operates five days a week only - Monday through Friday. The lunch menu consisted of your choice of entree and/or vegetables which you chose from the list for that particular day of the week. The price of the meal was determined by the number of vegetables and entrees you chose.

    This was Tuesday; my choices included fried green tomatoes. Who was I to pass this up? Beef tips with rice and steamed squash rounded out my meal, but I could just as easily have chosen from a dozen other tempting selections. It was tough to pass up the fried okra and steamed cabbage (my daughter chose the cabbage along with chicken-fried steak), but I was pleased with my meal. Dinner rolls and cornbread were, of course, provided as well.

    And the tea? Try drinking it to the bottom of the glass - won't happen at City Cafe. It's another person's job to make sure of that.

    The price for both our meals? I spent $10.75 - but $3.00 of that was a tip. No kidding. She and I had dined at a well-known restaurant chain the night before and the tip for that meal was the same as the price of the City Cafe meal itself.

    Guess which one I enjoyed the most?

    About The Author

    Cathy Bryant's newsletter, HomeBizJunction Herald, has just entered its fourth year of publication. Subscribe today by visiting her website, http://www.homebizjunction.com, and you will benefit from her practical, no-nonsense information on how YOU can achieve your dream of working from home!



  • Turning Customer Mistakes Into Raving Fans

    When you make a mistake with a customer, should you... Read More

    Making Customer Satisfaction Surveys Work

    Why bother? Good customer service is the life blood of... Read More

    Managing Your Business When One Client Takes Alot of Your Time

    How often has your schedule been thrown out of whack... Read More

    Finding Out Why a Potential Customer is Calling On You

    Our challenge as the business owner/sales person answering the telephone,... Read More

    CRM = Customers (dont) Really Matter

    CRM was supposed to bring companies closer to their clients.... Read More

    Call Center Services - An Ever Increasing Demand

    Are your company's call center services all that they could... Read More

    The Logic of Emotion!

    Homebuyers are an interesting study. Watching people make their home... Read More

    Dont Work with Jerks: How to Recognize a Difficult Client Early

    Five minutes into the call I knew this client was... Read More

    Listening to Customers - 5 Tips

    In a strange juxtapositioning of articles, this month's UK '... Read More

    Accountability

    The Call Center world is an intense pressure-driven environment continually... Read More

    Whats Love Got To Do With It?

    Customer Loyalty, we all want it. Don't we?Some people say... Read More

    Customer Service - A Lost Art?

    Is customer service a lost art? Before you answer that... Read More

    CEM Can Improve Customer Loyalty

    'A 5 percent increase in customer retention increases profits by... Read More

    If Everyone Thinks They Give Good Service, Why Do We As Customers Think Its Poor!

    First of all let's look at what customer service is... Read More

    Is Your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) System Doomed To Fail?

    "Right, People. Let's blast out that mail campaign we've been... Read More

    Dealing with Disgruntled Customers

    No matter how hard you try, in business you simply... Read More

    Stay - Say - Pay

    Would you like to have customers that stay with you... Read More

    The Dissatisfied Customer

    We, as small business people, naturally dislike complaints from our... Read More

    Carpet Cleaning in Surrey

    Like any business, carpet and upholstery cleaning requires excellent customer... Read More

    Does Your Customer Talk Back To You?

    What is your customer saying about you? Do you really... Read More

    Customer Service, Italian Style

    Nowadays, we complain nearly all of the time about how... Read More

    It Is All About Customer Service!

    In this day of terrible customer service, it should come... Read More

    Client Appreciation - It Means Everything!

    Want to know the secret for keeping your clients forever?... Read More

    Are You Satisfying Your Customers?

    The latest report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (Michigan... Read More

    Quality vs. Quantity

    There is a battle in Call Centers. The teams are... Read More

    If you'd like to keep up-to-date,
    please complete the form below and we'll put you on the mailing list
    to receive our twice-yearly newsletter for supporters

    * Your email address:
    * choes your language: