Customer Service Hero: Trader Joe's

When was the last time an anonymous customer wrote a song
and produced a music video praising your company? This YouTube video,
called "If I Made a Commercial for Trader Joe's," has been viewed over half a
million times.

Trader Joe's, a quirky, southern California-based grocery chain,
appears alongside such companies as BMW, L.L. Bean, Amazon.com, and American
Express on Business
Week's 2009 List Of Customer Service Champs.

Over the years, Trader Joe's outstanding customer service
has been attributed to its hiring choices (in The Supermarket of Struggling
Artists, we learn how the retailer hires in the image of its customers),
its high degree of local flexibility (in this
story, a local store delivers food to a snowed-in octogenarian at no
charge), and a business model that incorporates "...value, rareness,
inimitability, and non-substitutability," according to the Graziadio Business Report.

Fast Company took
note of Trader Joe's organic approach to customer service back in 2004,
praising the company for its listening
skills. The article explores how individual stores and coworkers act
locally to respond to customer requests, ranging from product selection to
store hours. They don't use focus groups, 800 numbers, or online forms - they
just talk to their customers every day.

I think the company's success can be summed up in one word:
Integrity. Trader Joe's knows who it is and who it wants to be. The company put
a stake in the ground at its founding and has stayed true to its vision of
friendly, human interaction. As
my West Coast Asset Management colleagues and I wrote in 2003, "People talk
about a trip to Trader Joe's as an EVENT. A quirky alternative for those who
love to experiment with an ever-changing inventory, Trader Joe's offers gourmet
fare at discount prices, and does so with humor and personality." Because it is
not afraid to have a personality, Trader Joe's does not appeal to everyone, but
its friends are loyal to the company, and the company is loyal to its friends.

Understanding its niche and maintaining its integrity has
grown the company from a single store in Pasadena, California, to 339 stores in
25 states, and over $7 billion in annual sales. To provide outstanding customer
service, it's essential to know who your customers are. Trader Joe's reminds us
that it's also important to know yourself.