Noah’s Bagels started out as a single bagel store in Berkeley, California in 1989, which eventually expanded to 38 stores before it was sold to Einstein Bros. in 1995 for $100 million. Today, its founder, Noah Alper, 63, is a business consultant and author of Business Mensch: Timeless Wisdom for Today’s Entrepreneur.
Tell us a little bit about your background.
I grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts. As a kid, I operated a lemonade stand, shoveled snow; I had an old-school business mentality. The family business was food brokerage. My dad was totally obsessed with it. He said that sales drive any kind of enterprise, so his philosophy was to do “whatever it takes to make the customer happy.” During the holidays, he would send his salespeople out to their grocery store accounts and tell them to volunteer to do anything the customers wanted them to do, including stocking shelves, bagging groceries, and sweeping the floor. This freed them up to handle their many tasks busiest time of the year. This philosophy also extended to the community: take care of them, the community will take care of you. Employee morale was critical to him. Do whatever is necessary to help your employees and keep them happy.
Noah’s Bagels seems to play into a nostalgia for Old New York.
“Old New York” harkened back to a time where friendly customer service was in vogue, product quality was paramount, and superlative personalized service was an every moment activity. Bakers on the Lower East Side competed with each other for customers, claiming, “My bagels have a few more poppy seeds on them than Moishe’s down the street.” We wanted to evoke that old-world feeling.
Noah’s Bagels always seems to be involved with lots of community projects.
My dad taught me not to throw out anything, so in the beginning I’d take left-over bagels to People’s Park and give them out to homeless people. We also did stuff like “bring in a library book or a voting stub; we’ll give you a bagel.” We tried to hire disabled people. The day before a new store opened we’d do a community service project, coordinated through community leaders, like clean up a park, or paint a poor elderly woman’s house. Then we’d have our grand opening the next day and the employees would have bonded, and the community welcomed us.
What effect do these types of projects have on developing customer loyalty?
We had many, many customers tell us how much they loved Noah’s Bagels and felt loyalty to us because of all the good works we did in the community. That included the donations of both cash and product, and the service projects that our employees performed.
Give us your top three tips for creating and keeping a loyal clientele.
- Always try to look at things from the customers’ standpoint/point of view, and remember that without them you don’t have a business. What do they REALLY want from you?
- Go the extra mile. Don’t just do the bare minimum and think the customer will be pleased.
- Under-promise and over-perform. Real trust is insured this way.
You talk in your book about “cause marketing.” Can you explain what this is and why it’s important?
Here’s an example: At Noah’s we were introducing a new line of cream cheese shmears. We decided to partner with Fresh Start Farms, who had homeless people work on gardening projects, the produce of which was sold to high-end restaurants and food stores and benefited kids from homeless families. We introduced a program where 10 percent of these profits would go to FSF. We’d also buy vegetables from them. The key to a successful execution of cause marketing is to do it on a continuing basis, so that you’re not being seen as “exploitative” or opportunistic by the community.
Your book is titled “Business Mensch…” What is a business mensch?
A “business mensch” is someone who is not only highly successful at business, but also has a strong sense of community involvement. It’s a way of doing business that empowers employees while taking total care of the customer. I think Trader Joes is a place that seems worthy to emulate: the employees seem happy, and the customers are happy that Joe’s is there.
Noah Alper can be contacted through his website, www.noahalperconsulting.com
