The Best Buns in Town

In college I was a deckhand. I’m not talking Deadliest Catch or anything like that, just a kid who needed a job that was taken in by a guy who needed some help on his boat. He taught me so much about the world during my time with him that I feel forever indebted for his knowledge and generosity.

During our time together I was impressed with the amount of quality people that surrounded him and there’s no doubt as to why. He literally has the story of a Hollywood movie.

As a Greek immigrant, his family worked the potato fields of Idaho after coming over in the 20s. Making their way to Los Angeles, he started working at 14 in the Navy shipyards of Long Beach and then moved in the bakery business on the factory floor at 19. Growing up in San Pedro he lived down the street from a little girl, more than 3 years his junior, who would walk the streets clutching a doll telling everyone who would listen that she was going to marry him when she grew up. Just a few years later, but I digress…

All this time he saved his money and waited. Soon he came across a troubled bakery and approached the owners about a partnership where he would take his experience, invest his nest egg, and attempt to turn the business around.

Hamburger Bun Success

Fast forward decades and now he bakes more hamburger buns for some of the most famous hamburger stands in the country than just about any other commercial bakery in the United States.

John loved boats and loved baking bread, so much so that he was able to combine them. When he saw the fluctuations in flour prices he built a silo on his property, bought wheat on the open market, crushed it into flour, then devised a way to use boat propellers to knead the flour into dough in one elegant industrial chain, devised sitting on the boat, fishing pole in hand and cigarette dangling from his mustached mouth (it was more acceptable back then).

The Importance of the Bun

One of the most important lessons he taught me was the importance of the bun. You see the bun is one of, if not THE most important part of a burger for one simple reason: The bun is the first thing to touch your taste buds. If you bite into a sandwich and the bread is poor quality, you’re going to have a negative experience and be disappointed in the whole sandwich.

That was the brilliance of John, he understood how to create a great experience. Understanding the importance of those seemingly minute and oft overlooked details is what separates the good from the great and creates that stickiness we’re all seeking with our customers. How many examples do we have of the waiter that impressed, the doctor that follows up, or the kid at the coffee shop who always remembers your name and says good morning?

Details Matter in Customer Experience

When you break it down, what John knew was customers are not seeking the bun or the byte, but the experience. Fine-tuning your products and services with an eye on the seemingly small details delivers that experience that impresses upon people your unique difference.

John baked “The Best Buns in Town” and because he paid such close attention to quality he created the impression that you were eating a great sandwich because you tasted his commitment to quality before anything else.

So when you look at your business, and the art of differentiating yourself in a crowded and competitive landscape where “all IT companies are the same”, how do you deliver a unique and memorable experience? What details are you paying attention to, and do those details translate to a better experience for the customer?

At Celestix we’ve come up with a way for you to offer something that’s not currently available in the market — combination of application and appliance that sits in the background that delivers a unique and improved Remote Access experience. A tool for you to bake your own version of “The Best Buns in Town” and deliver a truly unique offering to anyone on a domain and using Windows 7 Enterprise or above. A way to seamlessly connect the remote user to the corporate network in exactly the same way your phone or laptop connects to Wi-Fi. No VPNs, no logins, reduced help desk calls, and, most importantly, the best user experience available for Remote Access.

I’m craving In-n-Out. Anyone else?

Sean McDonald is U.S. Director of Sales at Celestix.