Does Your Kid’s Store Have the WOW! Factor?

I wasn’t planning on broadcasting to the entire readership of Kids Today that I just ate fast food for lunch, but I had such a good experience, I had to share it with juvenile retailers.

Let me first offer a smidgeon of background: I have 10 years of retail experience, mostly in management, followed by six years as editor of some community newspapers, before joining the Furniture Today/Kids Today crowd in 2005.

With the newspapers, I loved doing feature stories, and most of my interviewees got pretty comfortable with me pretty fast. As I spoke to them, I kept pressing on, kept looking for the hook that would bring in readers… the big crescendo that would make a reader say “WOW!”

I refused to conclude my interview until I personally felt “wowed.” I didn’t tell THEM that, I just continued with questions, trying to get them to talk about emotions, about how it felt waking up at 2 a.m. to stoke the fire under the vat of molasses they were making in the back yard, just as generations of their family had done; what it was like to drive the first car into town; or sit on planks in a church yard for Sunday service.

I figured, I’m a general reader, and if I was reading one of those stories, those are the kind of details that would prompt me to read something out loud to my husband over morning coffee.

So anyway, back to my lunch. I used up most of my lunch break running errands, and planned on grabbing a quick bite and eat in the car on my way back to the office. As I was preparing to get onto the highway, I spotted a Burger King up ahead. Against my better judgment (it was a seedy part of town) I pulled into the drive through lane, wondering what sort of health rating the place had, and keeping an eye out for transients.

I rolled down my window, to be greeted with:

“Hi, welcome to Burger King. What kind of royal treatment would you like today?”

I was speechless. Not just by what she said, but her enthusiasm. My worries about the neighborhood and restaurant cleanliness melted away quicker than cheese on a Whopper. I couldn’t help but smile and chuckle. When I got to the window, the cashier was a delight as well. Her happiness was contagious. As I drove away, all I could think of was, WOW! Between the employees and the awesome greeting, WOW!

I glanced at my two receipts, making sure there was an address where I can send a letter of thanks. The receipt on my bag said my server’s name was Kesha, and my credit card receipt said Latoya. So it wasn’t a fluke. It wasn’t just one happy person there, it wasn’t one person taking my order AND my money. They must have an incredible manager at that Burger King, to not only hire such upbeat employees, but to make it an apparently great place to work.

If I was still in retail management, I would certainly go back in there and try to recruit Kesha and Latoya. They’re the types of employees I would seek out to represent my store and/or my products. They would undoubtedly make my customers say WOW!