My 23-year-old daughter Chloe has a little saltwater fish tank store she started in Des Moines Iowa called “Salty Blues”. She sells fish and live corals. The tanks and displays are mesmerizing.
During this crisis, she had to close her store down. However, she has built such a reputation for quality that customers call in orders and she delivers curbside to their car.
Now let’s unpack that a bit. Each industry has its own wrinkles and customer concerns. In her business, other stores often have diseased fish and corals. If you buy one and put it in your tank it could ruin everything in your tank. But Chloe and Ben have worked very hard to maintain quality. They simply do not sell questionable animals and they demand high quality from their suppliers.
They’ve developed such a reputation, that their customers trust them to give them healthy fish and coral WITHOUT SEEING THEM FIRST. Now that’s great preparation for a crisis like this!
Chloe said to me – Animals first, Customers second, and Profit third. If you take care of the animals 100%, the customers will be happy; and if they are happy, sales and profits will follow.
Great job Chloe!
Great job Chloe and Larry you did a great job raising your daughter to be just like you in business.
Kudos to both of you for being people of excellence and not let greed and profitability take over. You both put humans and people first and profits after.
Meant to say humans a d anumals first sorry for typo
Great Story and Great Job Chloe and Ben!!! A great model for all.
Good thinking
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. She had good raisin’. : )
I ask customers that I have a chance to get to know and develop a relationship with if they teach their children what they do? Most of them say they don’t want their kids to do what they do because it’s too hard or too much of a struggle and that their kids are going to be smarter…. I wished more parents passed down their knowledge and learning to their kids instead of leaving it up to the university or someone else. Thanks for all you do Larry!
Your pride is showing!! Very nice.
That’s SO true Larry. Great lesson there.
“Be undeniably GOOD and serve your customers with EXCELLENCE!
No marketing or social media effort can be a substitute for that” – Great Job Chloe!
I’ve seen Chloe’s sales video on FB. It’s obvious she is confident and passionate about what she provides her customers. Very nice work!
Great story! My company puts profits first, customers second, employees third. It’s a sad culture.