Company Blog

When Customer Service Makes All the Difference: Lessons from Island Life.

by Adam Zack — May 14, 2025

“What was once a lively gathering place is now an empty parking lot.”

When Customer Service Makes All the Difference: Lessons from Island Life.

By Scott, friend of Adam

Hi, it’s me, Adam. I’m off on a 5+ week sabbatical vacation in Europe with my wife. While I’m gone, I’ve volunteered my best friend of 55+ years, Scott Lawhon, to fill in as the guest blogger. If you like his topics and style, you can vote for him to be the new DW Green full-time blogger. If you pine for my style, I’ll be back with some worldly observations that I will no doubt gather on our travels. Until then (or maybe until never, if you choose Scott), cheers to you!

Hello, this is Scott—Adam’s friend from kindergarten. That was 55 years ago, so we’re definitely not in kindergarten anymore! I thought I’d pop in and help Adam out with a blog.

I live on a small island in Washington state, where we have a few local stores that we support. While we don’t have a huge selection, the nearest big-name stores are about a half-hour drive away.

The other day, I overheard a customer at one of our local stores complaining to the manager about not finding a particular brand of sauce. They mentioned that a big chain store carried it, but they didn’t want to drive all that way. Instead of brushing them off, the manager wrote down the brand name and ordered it.

How do I know? Because I spotted it on the shelf yesterday while looking for a good sauce myself. That’s customer service.

In today’s market, customer service is more critical than ever. Many businesses are focused solely on the bottom line, and while profitability is important, ignoring customer experience can make that bottom line harder to reach.

A great example of this shift happened right here on the island. A beloved mom-and-pop store was bought out last year, and since then, it’s lost much of what made it special. It used to be a community hub, hosting weekend music events, local car shows, and offering a great selection of crabbing supplies.

But under the new owners, prices have gone up, customer service has declined, and the sense of community has disappeared. What was once a lively gathering place is now an empty parking lot.

We still stop by occasionally for a last-minute bottle of wine or a loaf of bread, but it’s no longer the welcoming spot it once was. I don’t know what challenges the new owners are facing, but I hope they find a way to bring back that customer-focused approach. It’s something our little community truly misses.

Have a great day—crab season is just a few weeks away!

Scott