I admit it, I get emotionally attached to our customers… okay, it’s not just me, we all tend to make bonds with our clients and become such a close part of their dream that we can’t help but root for them. Today, one of the gals in the OBT office tells me that between girls in Sanford and OBT, everyone’s planning a girls and kids weekend trip to one of our old favorite BBQ clients Vince. This made me smile, in fact when we mention his name we smile because he was such a pleasure to work for and with.
Today I had the pleasure of spending some time with another of my favorite clients who is a coffee roaster. He has sooo much knowledge about coffees, acidity and roasting- just amazing. He toured me his roasting facility and showed me the art of roasting… truly I think it’s an art. This was pretty exciting to me since we have some pretty great customers on the East Coast and in Colorado who are roasters that I talk to, but you know talking coffee over the phone and net sure is different then really enveloping all of your senses in the different aromas and textures a real coffee bean roastery offers.
Also had another great client from Fernandina Beach who owns a c-store up there come in today. We’ve seen him so much over the past few weeks that I think we might have to invite him to my daughter’s wedding. But you know what, I love it. I love the small town feeling. Sure, we’re a larger business with several employees … okay more than a few employees… if you wanna count us by kids we have more than 23 Frog kids whose mom’s and dads work here. A lot of us have known each other and worked together for over a decade. There’s another group of us that really are family. But I guess since we’ve all worked together there’s a kindred spirit in that we never say something just to get the sale.
I’m a little heartbroken today. Someone called to sell us a piece of equipment they bought from another dealer for $1250… we regularly sell them for $850 and therefore you can understand why we go through them in a high volume turn over style. Customer told the other dealer, well I was just at the Frog and they don’t have any today and the other dealer said… drumroll… well if the Frog’s out you better buy this one I have because it’s the last one in town. I’m choking here that he took advantage of this woman to charge a very high price for what she could have gotten a few days later from us. Then, this client got the piece of equipment moved in and her landlord wouldn’t allow her to use it so she was trying to sell it at a loss but even higher than what we would sell it at.
Thing is we truly are high volume dealers and as we have several restaurants that open a day we might start the day with several stainless refrigerators, flat griddles or ranges in stock, by the end of the day we are often waiting on the next truck to roll in. Our floors might be a little dirty… okay a lot… we might have phones rolling and rocking… it might take us more than five minutes to catch up with your phone call if we’re visiting with a client who is in the warehouse and showroom but this is the Frog. One of our office folks was talking to a friend who was getting laid off about the potential of working at the Frog. Their friend said they didn’t like being at a workplace and twiddling their fingers… we laughed… that’s not the case here. Not at all.
I wish I’d started a comprehensive list years ago with every restaurant, bar, deli, concessions trailer, school, daycare, adult living facility and bakeries with a picture of their facility. Thinking about this I remember a guy named Dana years ago who opened an soft serve concessions truck. We shipped a lot of his equipment out state… and I think Dana’s equipment went to North Dakota or roundabout. What a pleasure it was to talk to Dana, we used to talk Sturgis and Bike Week when he’d call and discuss his business plan and buildout plans on the trailer. What a guy! If you’re out there stumbling on us in the internet nethers, Dana, I’m smiling your way.
Well, that’s it… it’s nearly seven and they’re kicking me out of work. At least I’m leaving with a smile on my face.