Berry Cool Yogurt, Cedar Park TX
Service – I’ve often thought that it doesn’t matter what the business is, every business is capable of bettering their relationship with their customers. What matters is just that – the relationship. An honest, caring relationship with your customers is an absolute key to success.
My wife and I have a long term relationship with froyo – frozen yogurt. More than twenty years ago, we used to go to Country Culture yogurt in San Luis Obispo in college – that store is still there, a testament to good business… but that’s not what this is about – We live 2500 miles away now, but our love for good frozen yogurt is still there. The trend these days is the self serve, pay by weight frozen yogurt “bar.” There are a number of them in the local area. We had been frequenting one of the more popular ones in a trendy multi-use apartment/restaurant/retail space for a while when our daughter found a new one opening up in Cedar Park TX, just a few miles away via the blessing and curse that is our local toll road. We figured it would be a fun little family dessert to go try… The rest is funny family history, as we have never been back to the other one… Berry Cool is where we get our yogurt. Our daughter had found a gem.
Berry Cool Frozen Yogurt is a franchise – well, sort of. There are two stores (there is another one in California.) Aside from that, the store is what I would call “All Jay.” Jay is the owner/proprietor of Berry Cool. He has a great story about being an unfulfilled corporate attorney looking for meaning in life… and finding it as the owner of a frozen yogurt shop. I firmly believe that is part of the key here – he loves doing what he’s doing.
The thing that really sets Berry Cool apart from other froyo shops locally is Jay’s enthusiasm and absolute genuine care and concern for his customers’ satisfaction, fun, and even their personal lives. Jay is constantly mingling with customers, handing out sample cups, sitting down and chatting, just being and interacting with the people that are buying his yogurt. You go in, and you are greeted, and if he’s there and in the store proper, you will have a conversation with Jay – don’t try to avoid it, you can’t. He’s been known to follow people out of the store just to chat and ask them how it was, because, well, he cares.
To me, that is the real key here – Jay cares. Service is, at a very primal level, nothing more than caring about your customers as people. That care shines through and permeates this little shop, and you can tell that his employees are treated with the same care and compassion as the customers, so of course, they also provide great levels of service with good attitudes and real enthusiasm.
A great example of this caring was shown a couple weeks ago when we were in there – it was our youngest daughter’s birthday the day before, and Jay found this out in his normal conversation with us – he immediately asked her what her favorite flaver was, and disappeared. A couple minutes later, he comes out with a cup of yogurt, complete with a candle, and shuts the lights off in the busy store, and has everyone sing to her for her birthday.
You want to make a six year old’s day? Give her a cup of dessert with a candle and then get your patrons to sing Happy Birthday to her. You want to make a parent’s day? Same deal. You want to bring people back to your store? You got it… same deal. It’s all about caring.
Don’t just take my word for this one – seriously. I was looking for the address to the store and came across the Yelp reviews… read them for yourself.
Caring service will bring me back to a store. Sometimes two or three times a week in this case…
Why is it so easy for the Jays of the business world to create customer experience and loyalty through caring, and so difficult for others to behave this way? If we could bottle the caring and enthusiasm of people like this, your business would improve. I believe that while it’s not bottleable, it IS trainable. Train your customer facing employees to be empathetic, show genuine caring, and your business will get it’s just desserts – while I am getting mine, at Berry Cool Frozen Yogurt in Cedar Park TX.
Tags: Berry Cool, Caring, Frozen Yogurt, Great Service, personal
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