Trouble on the Farm or The Customer is Always Right (Part 2)

I will admit, I was a bad shopkeeper this morning: I was late opening the store. If there is one characteristic I'd like to change about myself it would have to be my general tardiness. And my lateness is positively correlated with my husband being out of town, i.e. Joel takes the structure of my life with him and I am left to veg on the couch, overeat and watch as many Season 2 episodes of Mad Men as I can fit into one night (only after watching So You Think You Can Dance and feeling really sorry for Evan!) Not to mention that now empty bottle of wine I put in the recycling this morning.

But I digress.

Following on my previous blog, I received an email from the farm owner last night which poked as many holes as it could in my story, did not actually offer an apology, and in essence accused me of lying and trespassing. Aside from being a generally angry person, this guy just doesn't know me and so doesn't see how unlikely it is that I would purposely evade an entry fee to a farm. As my friends know, I'm a big fan of nonprofits, organic farming and animals!! It is also apparent that this fellow is a workaholic whose entrenchment in his own farm has resulted in a myopic view of the world (a lot of us small business owners are guilty of this.) For example, Joel and I have been to numerous farms around New England over the years (albeit smaller farms with less to see) that did not have any formal structure or admission charge. But this fellow seems to think it's a given that we should expect to pay to see his farm. Also, in his favor, the small stairway we walked down apparently normally has a locked gate that reads "no entry," but of course the gate happened to be open when we were there (we don't even remember seeing a gate at this stairway). The "perfect storm" I suppose. In the owner's response, I also see a common tendency to make assumptions about consumer behavior that aren't always valid, like assuming the customer reads all the stuff the owner and his staff write on their websites and signage. I can tell you that I can put a clearance/sale sign right in front of someone who walks into my store and 3 out of 5 people will not even notice it. We all walk around in our own little worlds with our own expectations and agendas, and some of us are more or less observant or inquisitive.

The bottom line and moral of this story continues to be that no matter how annoyed you get with poor behavior from others, you cannot let that create an emotionally charged and negative environment or you will lose customers. I guarantee that most people who've read this blog will think twice before visiting this farm next time they're on the Cape. And it's a shame because it is a really beautiful farm, and a great place for kids! (God forbid I had kids and had brought them with me to the farm to experience this incident, though... how awful it would have been for kids to see their parents treated this way).