I want to open my own B&M but im not sure where to start. Any advice?

[ninjavanish]

Originally Posted by cmitch

Remember that your customer comes FIRST, not your business. For those who balk at this line, let me explain. Without customers, you have no business. You can buy all the cigars you want and make the lounge the nicest one in town but if you piss off your customers, you'll lose your business. So, it's not difficult to understand who comes first in your commitment. It's a balancing act you better be good at or you'll end up giving away the store in order to serve your customer. I'm not suggesting that's what you do to serve the customer but businesses are servants to the customer. The sooner business owners recognize this, the more successful they will be. You have to make money to survive and no one is begrudging a businessman making a living. Businesses have to set limits on what they are willing to do for their customer. But, way too many B&M's put their business first and when they do, they will fail, eventually.

Clayton,

Customer Service is whats sets businesses apart from GREAT businesses. However, the customer/business relationship is symbiotic. Especially in the business of Brick and Mortar cigar stores. The old saying that the customer is always right is an often purposefully abused excuse and way for a customer to wring the business for as much as they can.

I have often adopted the term "The patron is always right."

Believe it or not, their is a difference between a patron and a customer. A patron has a genuine interest in the well-being of the store and understands that and supports them with their business and in return the business supports them. I would always go the extra mile to satisfy a true patron.

But a "customer" who always comes in complaining of pricing or what is wrong with the business and how he always gets a raw deal on a perpetual basis... I would have little to no interest in satisfying them for the sheer fact that they have no interest in anything other than themselves... this includes the well-being of the business. Threatening a business-owner with "I'll just go somewhere else with better <insert excuse here>" is a sure-fire way to get yourself uninvited from any level of "above and beyond" that a business owner would have otherwise been willing to provide.

The hardest thing to do is to seperate your personal feelings from the scenario. So in short, yes, there are probably other places a guy could go... but if you find a place that you like, or even simply a place that fills a need/want (in this case that need/want is stogies!) you should always remember it's a 2-Way street... because most B&M's have a life's worth of work and investment poured into them... and if you piss of the guy that own's that life's work... he may simply say "good riddance" and focus that otherwise wasted time and energy that was spent trying to satisfy an abusive customer on another good patron who has earned/deserves that high level of service.

So in a way you are correct, it is a balancing act. However, do not confuse the two as being the same.