My first trip to a Goorin Brothers hat shop was in Chicago. I was there with family and decided I wanted to commemorate the occasion by getting a nice hat. I took to Yelp, found a hat shop with a good rating (it may have been the only one honestly) and went on the hunt for a souvenir. What I found is more of an obsession.
The hat shop was cool and seemed to be in a trendy part of town, definitely out of my league, but, the employees were nice and explained a lot to me. They also engaged with my wife and kids and made us all feel welcome. Showing up at a hip hat shop with a crew of children and feeling welcome there was unexpected and made an impression. The hat I got was great quality, as are all of their hats, and is still one of my favorite and in regular rotation.
Honestly, I’m not particularly cool and had expected to feel very out of place on that trip first trip to Goorin Brothers, but the opposite was true; that won me over and made me want to go back. So, the next time I traveled to a city with a Goorin Brothers shop, Can you guess what I did there? You bet, found their shop, bought a hat and enjoyed the experience (and hat) again. Now there is a Goorin Brothers shop dangerously close to my house, and I find myself there frequently, looking and planning for what might be added to my collection next.
Thinking about this experience, I have learned a few things that I hope to apply to my business.
- Treat people delightfully and they will come back over and over. I was treated so well by that first experience in Chicago that it drove me back again and again.
- Make sure what you sell is top notch quality. I could buy cheaper hats, and have bought several, but it is the quality hats that make it into my daily rotation the most. People like quality and will come back for it over and over.
- People want to be a part of something. Buying a quality product from a quality brand makes a person feel like they are a part of a larger community. Everyone wants to belong to a team, and if done right, working with a great company can make them feel that way.