On Service: I tend to agree with the comments about red state/blue state divisions, though clearly it is often a matter of rural/urban and mompop/corporate. Engagement takes energy and minimal intelligence, but most of all it takes an attitude. Tailoring service to customers is generally best done by widely distributed responsibility and encouragement of innovation. Shannon’s observations are good. Establishing a relationship requires some time – a large turnover of either customers or workers means that the relationship can’t grow. Knowing customers, we soon expect that customer to add the extra change that keeps his pockets cleared – though such an exchange was surprising the first time it happened. After a while, a customer knows what the business can do and a business knows what the customer is likely to like. In the old days, clerks at stores would put aside certain dresses they knew their customers would like; clerks would step into the dressing room and discuss exactly how a bra should fit. But the temporary nature of workers, the shifting clientele – all these make such interactions impossible.
