Indispensable: How to Become the Company That Your Customers Can't Live Without

Chapter 9. Right Place—Right Time

Eat Here Now

My wife, Annette, and I were walking around the Upper East Side in New York City a few years ago. It was about 7:00 A.M., and I was starving. Here in the middle of the greatest city in the world all I wanted was something to eat, and we were coming up empty. There wasn't a restaurant to be found. As we searched block after block, my patience was wearing thin. It seemed like I was doomed to die of starvation right there on the street.

Like an oasis in the desert, I looked up and, hoping that it wasn't a hallucination, saw a sign hanging over the sidewalk. "Eat Here Now." That's all the sign said. Just "Eat Here Now." I'm assuming it was the actual name of the restaurant. If ever there was a succinct and effective product offering, this had to be it. I wanted to eat. I wanted it here. I wanted it now.

What this little New York restaurant had done for me was crack the code on what you have to do to make yourself indispensable to today's customers. You not only have to give them what they want, but give it to them how they want it, when they want it, and where they want it.

It's in the Right Place

The grocery store where my mom has shopped for years recently closed. I asked her where she was buying groceries now. She named one of the big chain grocery stores and said, "It's not that great a grocery store, but it's in the right place." In this case, you've got a store that really isn't even giving the customer what she wants, but it's where she ...