C.S.T.S.Y.B. – Reconsidering Tom Ah Chee’s Operating Credo
When I joined Foodtown in the latter part of the last century (don’t you just love the way that sounds?), prior to the eighties’ share market boom and subsequent crash, company founder Tom Ah Chee had already retired. The business was however still adhering to the principles he had fashioned and insisted upon, with his presence still very much in evidence.
In those days, prior to emails and computers, when letters were still being produced on a typewriter, every internal memo was concluded with the initials C.S.T.S.Y.B. underneath the signature of the writer.
I tried for a while without success to figure out what these letters stood for and eventually asked one of the old-timers, who was absolutely horrified that this topic had not been covered during my induction phase into the company. Listening to his dismay, one would have been forgiven for thinking that the world had ended.
C.S.T.S.Y.B., I was told, stood for Constantly Striving To Serve You Better.
It summed up the operating credo of the fledgling Foodtown chain as Tom Ah Chee and his collaborators expanded from their first Otahuhu store, to what had become a 27-store empire by the time I joined.
C.S.T.S.Y.B. was a brilliant way of enshrining some very fundamental truths, namely: that the job is never done, there is always room for improvement, providing good service has to be part of the underlying business philosophy and acknowledgement of the fact that the customer has a choice when it comes to quality and service. Businesses today could do a lot worse than adopting Tom Ah Chee’s philosophy. The customer often misses out these days.
Quality and Service mean different things to different people. Within a fresh produce quality context, I suggest that attention to detail in the following areas constitutes good service:
- Only produce ready to be harvested is taken from the tree or vine, plucked from the bush or dug from the ground.
- The packaging complements the product and causes no damage.
- The PLU sticker on the fruit, the weight on the punnet, or the barcode on the pack or sleeve are accurately matched to the product.
- Whoever sends the produce onto its journey into a retail outlet, and ultimately to the consumer, understands the vagrancies of this journey. Consumers are typically looking for produce that is either ready to eat or can survive three days in fruit bowl, fridge or pantry with grace. Anything outside these parameters, with the odd exception (e.g. potatoes, onions and kumara), and customers believe that someone is playing Russian Roulette with produce quality. Not good for repeat business.
- If in doubt – grade it out!
Whether you stick to my list or use your own – it pays to remember that customers do have choices and that, particularly in the case of fresh produce quality, there is always someone around the corner who offers an alternative.
Dr Hans Maurer