Sunday Mālama: The First Time versus the Insider’s Advantage

Preface:
If you are new to MWAC, Sunday Mālama is when we mix it up here. I may offer an extreme tangent to our current value of the month (for January: Pono and the Why of Right), or write about something completely different.

My very first Sunday Mālama was this one: A Beginning

Today, I am reprinting an article I had originally written for Lifehack.org in May of 2006. I thought about it after writing up my Lowes story for you last week.

After you get over your initial surprise that these people actually do exist, there is something very cool about watching someone who has never been in a Starbucks before, come in to one for the very first time.

It is easy to pick them out, for they are the only ones who walk in front of the overhead menu board, step back a few paces to take the whole thing in, and actually begin to read it.

Everyone else who is already in line waiting, or who might be seated at a nearby table, looks at them and smiles to themselves knowingly. It’s that smile of understanding, of recognition, and in remembrance of their own first time.

Next, this insider’s smugness slowly but surely replaces those looks of understanding and recognition on the faces of all the bystanders. They love the thought that they are now veterans and in the know, and that their own rite of passage is over. They feel they’ve paid their dues and have arrived, and it’s a feeling they like way more than that first-timer’s memory.

It is very rare to see anyone help the newcomer with a suggestion. On the contrary, sometimes you actually see the ranks close, and the line gets tighter, so the newcomer can be left with no doubt where that line begins and ends. People actually start to anticipate that funny moment the newcomer will approach the barista and order, saying they want “the medium size I guess” instead of the grande.

Starbucks is but one example. If you are a road warrior, think about those airlines you now frequent and those you don’t, and how class distinction is taken to a whole new level with premier lines and those for “everyone else.” There’s a whole slew of businesses where being the veteran with the insider’s advantage is definitely part of the reason you continue to patronize them. In fact, to not be part of a frequent-something club is considered to be downright foolhardy consumer behavior.

However if you are a business owner, leader, or manager, what I propose to you is this:

Capitalizing on making the first-timer’s experience your competitive advantage, because it is as good as it can possibly be, is where you might be missing the boat for both kinds of business potential.

To continue with the Starbucks example, imagine if the barista doing their turn at wiping down tables were focused on those newcomers first, and the dirty tables second...

Imagine if they walked up to that newcomer and asked if they needed some help making a choice, and offered to explain some of the coffee lingo...

Imagine how the bystanders would now feel, seeing that newcomer get a level of service they don’t recall they’d received their first time...

Imagine everyone craning their necks to hear about offerings they’ve never tried because they had on veteran’s blinders, and they now realize that there’s a lot of things offered at Starbucks that they’ve never bothered to try because they’ve just been too comfortable, and they’ve been too accepting of the level of service they no longer get now that they have been trained so well by the coffeehouse’s so-called “insider’s advantage.”

Interesting to imagine all that, isn’t it?

Flickr photos by powerbooktrance and by greggoconnell.

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These were the comments shared with me at the original article: What do you think?

Great post, Rosa! I can think of at least one thing to apply this to. If more people thought this way, the world would definitely be more pleasant.
~ Bryan Villarin

Just go to any locally-run coffee house if you want this kind of service. The Barista will as likely as not be the owner of the establishment, and will be happy to recommend a favorite coffee drink, explain terms, engage you in conversation about local goings-on, and generally act like a human being rather than a service droid.
I’m actually all in favor of Starbucks, if for no other reason than that the rise of Starbucks has (somewhat counter-intuitively) driven more business to local coffee shops. But seriously, if you want friendly, personal, engaging service, don’t go to the McDonalds of coffee.
~ Avdi

Rosa, this is great. Fascinating, because my small town coffee shop and bakery has a very insider’s feel. You can’t really do *anything* right if you don’t know the drill, and the place is slow as dirt anyway. Thus, newbies feel both annoyed at the wait, *and* alienated by the experience of not knowing what to do.
And hey Avdi, McDonalds has great coffee now. : ) (Newman’s Organic)
~ Chris Brogan

Comments

[Jay Ehret]

Great perspective, Rosa. First impressions are so important in creating loyalty and word of mouth. It may be the most important part of the customer experience.

[Rosa Say]

Thank you Jay. I so agree with you about first impressions and that welcoming experience we get as customers: It sets the tone for everything to follow. If it is great, we expect more great and look for it, and as customers, we will even compliment something that is just okay because we are in the mood to be wowed. I think it is human nature to want our expectations fulfilled whether they are good or bad, for it affirms us and our intuitions.

And by the way Jay, Hau'oli la hanau - happy birthday! What an honor it is for me that you chose to include a visit here to MWAC as part of your celebrating the weekend :)