And it will alienate customers in the cluster of towns that voted for Trump, such as Ludlow and Agawam, home to two of Ratner’s seven stores, who would have been inclined to rally around him in the face of a liberal backlash. Ratner’s response to the threats of boycotts and vicious things being said about him on social media has been to repudiate the Trump White House.Īgain, that’s not necessarily the most savvy thing to do, because it won’t win back anybody on the left who has a political litmus test for where they buy dog food. And now his repudiation of Trump has angered conservative customers. His appearance wiped out business from liberals. Ratner has hired a PR firm to manage the crisis, and he's got one now, Globe columnist Kevin Cullen writes.
“I absolutely abhor what he did, and I would not have been there had I known what was happening,” Ratner said. Trump’s order was swiftly followed Thursday by a second move, halting a subsidy that makes health coverage affordable for many low-income citizens - an action that drew a lawsuit from Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. He said he had no idea about the scope of the rollback of the ACA included in the executive order. He didn't think long or hard about whether to attend. “My first reaction was ‘Holy smokes, he’s doing something good,’ ” Ratner said. Ratner received a call from the federation, inviting him to a ceremony in which Trump would sign an order restoring that power to small businesses. Since then, he has trekked to Washington, D.C., annually, talking to anyone who will listen about how unfair that is.įast-forward to two weeks ago. With the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act, this negotiating power vanished. For years through this federation, his company and others negotiated for cheaper group insurance rates, giving them some of the advantages large companies have. Now he's finding out is they don't do business with people they don't.įor those willing to hear it, here’s the back story: Ratner is an active member of the National Retail Federation, a trade association supportive of small businesses. “My theory on doing business is that all things being equal, people do business with people they like,” he said. A social media campaign is organizing a boycott of his business. His customers have been calling his store to complain. “I feel like I walked into a room, and somebody shot somebody when I was in the room, and so people are looking at me,” he tells the Boston Globe today. The associate was told he could work the overnight shift, but was not to have any further contact with customers - because it is not the customer’s fault, even if it is.US President Donald Trump shows an executive order which he just signed on health insurance on Octoin the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC. Ratner told a story about a six-year-old’s turtle dying and an associate telling the child it was his fault. If they are all good, everything is fine, but just one being down causes a big problem, and too much attention gets paid to that cylinder.īottom line: Treat your customers right - and it’s never the customer’s fault. Make sure all employees are working as a team.Be an expert resource for your customers.Ratner: "Thanks for trusting me with the health of the creature you love more than anything in the world." Dave’s has its own brand of dog food, and on the back of the can is a message from Mr. Dave’s focuses on having minimal out of stocks because its biggest competitor, Petco, has plenty of those.
Do best what your competition does worst.Dave writes personal thank you notes on many occasions. At Dave’s, if you aren’t nice, you can’t work there. It’s not about metrics - it’s about being nice.Dave’s gives gift cards to pet shelters who refer customers, for example, and publicizes it. Develop emotional ties with your customers. Connect with your customers - it’s all about storytelling.Make returns easy, solve customer problems in a nanosecond, and enable your employees to say, "What can we do to make it right?" When there is a problem, make it no problem.Ratner has built a customer-first business, and here are a few tips he offers other retailers: (You can watch the video below or read the transcript to find out why.) Starting in 1975, Mr. Ninety-eight percent of the business is pet and two percent is soda. Ratner is the owner of Dave’s Soda & Pet City, a seven-store chain based in Agawam, Massachusetts. At the recent eTail West conference, Dave Ratner gave a terrific presentation on how small retailers can win against big chains - real world examples from somebody who worked his way up from the bottom.įirst, a little background: Mr.
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