The Ice Cream Maker

Just read a really incredible book, "The Ice Cream Maker" by Subir Chowdhury.

A pretty short book, 113 pages, it deals with the owner of an ice cream company trying to sell the local grocery store his brand of ice cream.

Even though he came up with new flavors (copied by competitors, something I know a lot about) and great promotions, he just couldn't get his product into the store.

The gist of the story is simple. Companies that exist for the company's sake are doomed to failure. Those that look at how they can meet the customer's needs will succeed. The problem for most companies is deciding who their customer is.

We have whole sets of customers at School-Pak. We have the girls who sometimes would rather go shopping for school supplies than have it all delivered. Our focus for them is to keep the packs looking fresh, a difficult thing to do for products like crayons and binders.

We also have boys that would rather be home playing on the computer or TV or, hopefully, in some type of outside physical activity. They love the packs because they don't have to be bothered being away from their games.

We then step up to moms who are fighting to balance a budget along with balancing their time, taking the kids to all the various practices and events, cooking, cleaning, etc. Add to that the need to help provide an income to the house and you can see why moms like the service.

Then come the coordinators who have to choose a company. They may have their own ideas on how many services theyir parents might want and how much they should cost. They have to balance their feelings with the feelings of the parents in the school. Should everything be brand name? Should there be generic products? I believe that they stay nervous throughout the summer until all the packs are delivered and no one complains. They might make the final decision and worry that they'll make the wrong one.

Finally come the teachers who are under pressure from school administrations to ask parents to replace those items the school can't afford any longer. Items like tissues, paper towels, Clorox wipes, etc. The list goes on and on. I can't believe that teachers feel comfortable asking parents to spend $60 or more dollars just for school supplies, especially when possible half that cost comes from those grocery store items.

So our goal is to determine who our customers are, their priority to each other and how to serve all of them. It seems like a daunting task, but we've been doing it since 1991.

And now we're looking forwrd to the future. Lots of great ideas out there from parents. Just need to get them thought out enough for the upcoming year.

By the way, "The Ice Cream Maker" is worth the read. It makes you thing about your personal lives and who all your "customers" are. They could be everyone you come in contact with.