Customer service

In 2003 Inc magazine called the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses the “coolest small business in America.”

Step inside the Zingerman’s Deli or any of its other businesses, and you’ll quickly see why. There is a buzz in the air. An aliveness. Customers and employees alike seem genuinely happy to be there. It’s as though there are secret air ducts bringing dopamine (the “feel good” neurotransmitter”) into the building and taking cortisol (a stress hormone) out.

And the food? Well, it is amazing. And world famous. In 2007 Bon Appetit gave its Lifetime Achievement award (an honor rarely bestowed—past winners include Alice Waters and Julia Child) to Zingerman’s cofounders, Ari Weinzweig and Paul Saginaw.

From a financial perspective, Zingerman’s pulls in $50 million a year. As my father would say, “not too shabby!”

Zingerman’s has a special meaning to me. It’s in my hometown, Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Deli opened during my teenage years when trying to fit an overstuffed roast beef sandwich into the mouth became a thrilling challenge. Today, every time we go back to Ann Arbor to visit, I take my sons there two or three times–even if the visit is only a few days long!

As a customer, I’m satisfied. As a student of leadership, I’m curious: what goes on behind the scenes to make this business so special? How do the leaders treat employees? How do employees interact with each other? What are the rules of the game that make the outcomes so extraordinary?

Cofounder Ari Weinzweig has explored these questions in a series of books called Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading. The latest just came out and is called A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to the Power of Beliefs in Business.

In this week’s episode, Ari and I talk widely and deeply about all of this–and share some laughs along the way.

I think you’ll enjoy Ari’s clarity, energy, and Chicago accent. Please do the show a favor and share with friends who love food, care about leadership, and/or enjoy feeling alive.

Highlights

• 18:00 Treating staff like customers – each one is different!
• 23:00 Ari pours water for thirsty employees
• 27:00 Peer-to-peer versus parental relationships
• 34:00 Anarcho-capitalism
• 40:00 Energizing the workplace
• 46:30 Front-line employees know the numbers and manage the business
• 52:00 Determining who will manage is a peer-to-peer decision
• 1:00:00 Ari uses daily journaling to stop ruminating
• 1:02:30 The Three Good Things exercise

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The more we use authority, the less effective it is.

–Ari Weinzweig, Co-founder of Zingerman’s  Tweet this quote

Explore Additional Resources

• Zingerman’s Community of Businesses
• ZingTrain
• Ari’s new book, Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading, Part 4: A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to the Power of Beliefs in Business
• Servant Leadership and Robert Greenleaf
• Stewardship by Peter Block
• Contagious Culture by Anese Cavanaugh
• The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack and Bo Burlingham
• Martin Seligman and positive psychology
• Emma Goldman
• Camp Bacon, an annual foodlovers’ camp
• Ari and Paul’s 2015 commencement address at the University of Michigan

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