It is quite possible that the cashier actually meant it, but her demeanor seemed to say “my boss makes me say this to everyone”. Granted I was no longer a cheery person myself by that time. I had walked over to Stevens Creek Chrysler to pick up my car which was having a new part installed. They had called me to say my car was ready. Ready did not mean, apparently, that all the paperwork was done because I had to wait 10-15 minutes for someone to walk over my paperwork from the service group.

The curious thing to me is that I have purchased 3 of my last four cars from this dealership. So I have spent over $40,000 in this spot. Now perhaps to them that is not a lot of money (certainly less than one Viper) but to me it is the third largest purchase behind my house and my kids college tuition. Yet every time I come here I get the distinct impression that my time is not valuable. I pre-purchased a service plan for one of my cars so I always take it here. But even thought it would cost me more money I consider if it would be worth going down the street to Jiffy Lube where they seem to understand I am in a hurry.

I still get a Sunset magazine every month from the realtor we bought our house from 21 years ago. It arrives “complements of Enis Hall” as a gentle reminder of what a great jobs she did for us. It is probably not surprising that we have referred her to a number of friends. She is “our realtor” even though we have not bought a house in over two decades.

Last weekend my wife ran into a fellow starting a car hand washing business at a nearby service station. She learned he was an out of work construction worker who had moved here from Texas. She came home knowing his name and some of his history which she learned while she was pumping gas. As she went to wash her windshield he jumped in and did that for her. She came home and told me his story and I suspect has mentioned him to others as well. Here was someone that understands that his business was based on repeat business and repeat business would be helped by having a relationship. He wanted to be “our car wash guy”.

I think the car dealership could learn a bit from the car wash guy. When I get my car back it always still has the trash in it, plastic on the floor, the service numbers on the mirror. That always strikes me as “we could not be bothered to throw these out because you are not that important to us”. I don’t think of them as “my car dealership”. They won’t be the first place I go when I want to buy a new car.

Have a nice day.

Popularity: 21% [?]

What is the minimum connectivity you would require from your company to keep you. Would you work for a company that did not allow you to read personal email? Would you work for a company that did not allow you to brows the web? According to a study coming out of Australia many in the younger generation would not work for a company that did not allow them to access their favorite social network.

Bosses who block access to MySpace and Facebook at work risk losing valuable staff to other companies, new research has found.

Almost half of those who use MySpace and Facebook during work hours say they would refuse a job where they were not allowed access to social networking sites, according to the study by Australian law firm Deacons.

This poses a dilemma for employers who fear the effects of social n etworking sites on productivity and privacy but need to retain staff in today’s tight jobs market.

Popularity: 24% [?]

I finally got around to reading The Long Tail by Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine. If you are not familiar with the “long Tail” concept (which seems unlikely) the basic idea is that while you can make a lot of money selling hit movies, music, books, etc, you can also make a surprising amount of money selling a little of a lot of less popular movies, songs, books, etc.

Amazon.com has been one of the biggest poster children of the Long Tail effect. As they started their business they carried many more books than it was possible to carry in the local Barnes and Noble. Both Amazon and the local book store would carry the latest New York Times best sellers but Amazon would also carry books that were not economically viable in a local store. They might only sell 100 copies of one book a year, but they might have a million books that they sell 100 copies of. The long tail is a graph of a demand curve.

I have been putting off reading this book not because I thought the idea was uninteresting or unimportant but because I had not grasped the depth of the idea and just how much more there was to glean from this simple idea. Anderson no only explains how Amazon.com is a natural progression from previous long tail ideas like the Sears & Roebuck catalog but also how the long tail is not one demand curve but the some of a larger number of niche demand curves. This is made most obvious as he analyzes how the music business sells fewer “hit” Cds any more but has numerous niche hits and an amazing variety of niches. Part of what is driving the long tail is the ability to search and find products of interest.

Anderson’s book should be a must read for anyone who is interested in business or working in a business that is effected by the change in demand curves, which is just about everyone. It is a well-researched and insightful book about a topic that was deeper that I realized.

Popularity: 15% [?]