Poof, In Real-Time
In two recent posts, Poof and The Alternative to Poof, I discussed the importance of businesses not weaponizing their owner's values. Weaponizing values is the opposite of excellence, and is a great way to destroy the company you spent so much blood, sweat, and tears building. It also robs your customers of the opportunity of simply being served well. Instead, I offered a simple yet profound alternative: Just be excellent. Serve all customers with excellence.....period. If your customers share your values, serve them with excellence. If your customers have values that tremendously contradict yours, serve them with excellence.
I was intentionally vague in my initial post, not wanting to point fingers at the specific business in question. My job wasn't to tear them down, but rather to use that situation as an opportunity to explore these concepts. Today, however, I'm going to highlight one real-time example. Before I do, though, I need to clarify one thing. What I'm about to say is not an indictment of this business owner's values or beliefs. Instead, it's a judgment on this business weaponizing the owner's values. I believe in this concept regardless of which side of any value-based argument you're on.
As reported in The Daily Mail, Kristin Wolter, owner of Everbloom Design, a Memphis-based florist specializing in weddings, recently took to her BUSINESS social media account and proclaimed, "I won't do business with people who support the president-elect."
As expected, the response was fierce and swift. This behavior is anything but excellent. Flowers are supposed to be joyful. Weddings are supposed to be joyful. Yet, here we are talking about half the country not being welcome to patronize this business. She temporarily closed her business in the immediate aftermath to let the dust settle. But what's next? Hope the remaining 50% of Americans will align with her boldness and show even more "support?" Again, that's not excellence.....that's pandering.
This woman has every right to have beliefs - even the strongest of beliefs - regardless of what you, I, or anyone else thinks of them. This is America, and she's free to have them. And she's also free to weaponize them through her business, if she so chooses (and she clearly did). But to what end? What now? Can she survive (nevermind thrive) now that 50% of her customer pool is gone? Will she now rely on the support of customers with similar beliefs (and equally strong convictions) to keep her afloat? How do you focus on joy and excellence with a cloud of anger wafting in the air?
Again, she has every right to do this. But just because you can, it doesn't mean you should. In her haste, she just violated a key principle of business: Serve people with excellence.
I don't fault her for her beliefs. I fault her for deciding the best course of action was to weaponize her values through her business. It stinks (figuratively and literally). There are no winners in this situation, and unfortunately for her, she may end up being the biggest loser of all.
Business owners, please choose excellence. Yes, you have values, but your business does not. Just be excellent.
Consumers, please choose excellence. You have options. Reward excellence. Demand excellence. Benefit from excellence.
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