Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 8, 1994                   TAG: 9405170002
SECTION: DISCOVER NRV                    PAGE: 28   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long

FRIENDLINESS IS LIKE JAM: IT'S REALLY SPREAD AROUND

Cheryl Ball credits her now-deceased billionaire boss, whom she met once, with the inspiration.

And Mike Rorer, like many, paraphrases the Golden Rule, in explaining how it's done.

Being friendly, that is.

All of the above, and more, had the business they own or work for mentioned by readers who responded to the question, "The friendliest business in the New River Valley is ..."

No one place dominated the answers. There were dozens of nominees: restaurants, car body shops, department stores, hair salons, a funeral home. Maybe that means no one stands out. Maybe it means that, around here, friendliness is like jam; it's spread around.

Whatever the case, fact is, money and smiles don't always mix.

Underneath an amicability that a salesperson might show a client lies the bottom line - the transaction, getting money for a product - and the buyer's questions: How much is too much? or What isn't he telling me?

So it MEANS something when customers name a particular company as the friendliest they know of. It means the company's doing something right.

So the question was put to the businesses: What makes you friendly?

``I think it's just the way we are," said Ware, 18, a senior at Blacksburg High School who greets customers at the front desk of A Cleaner World, a Blacksburg dry-cleaning franchise. In the back, hundreds of plastic-sheathed suits and dresses dangle from racks.

Like many confronted with the open-ended, touchy-feely question, Ware laughed a little and fumbled for an answer of some weight.

"We like our customers," she said. "They keep us going. It's not that hard, really.''

Her boss, Fitzwater, expounded a bit. He's been in business here going on two years, and he uttered a familiar refrain: ``It starts with customer service."

Fitzwater has gotten to know many of his customers by name, and he offers drive-through service for regulars. ``I want my customers to have the feeling that whatever they need, they'll get,'' he said.

In a word, being friendly can be as simple as a name - knowing it.

Down in Pulaski, Beth and C.E. Boyd run Hatcher-Askew & Co., a retail clothing store. They know something of familiarity with customers.

``They like to be called by name," Beth Boyd says. "If you know something of interest in their lives, it helps to mention that.

``It just comes easy to us to talk to people.''

The Boyds have been in the Pulaski store 12 years and grew up around there.

``We're small town and we've lived here all our lives," she says. Customers ``feel at ease ... feel like they can come in and not be pressured. Whether they buy or not."

``Being a people person is the most important thing,'' said Linda Price. She doesn't do clothes; she does hair.

Price owns Creations, a hair salon in Blacksburg.

"I love it when people put it on applications. You basically have to love people to want to do hair," she said.

Shearing and styling for more than seven years, Price said she's had folks comment to her about the friendliness of her workers. Still, when told someone - actually a couple of respondents - had taken the time to mention it to the newspaper, she exclaimed, "Oh how wonderful! That's great."

She, too, gave the "customer service" line, and she said no matter how nice someone may be, there's always some training to be done. A sign hanging in the shop implores workers, "Intimidate with service."

In Christiansburg stands one of the business-world giants. Customer-service training is a daily routine for its workers. And if anyone thinks friendliness happens only at the little mom-and-pop operation down the street, don't tell Wal-Mart employees.

Three people cited the national discount store chain as the friendliest business in the Valley.

Cheryl Ball works in the pet department. She once met Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, a man who "liked to talk to people one on one."

Ball's admiration for Walton's ideals is obvious. She said friendliness is something that's instilled in an employee the first day he or she walks in - and something that never ends. Every morning, customer service is a topic at staff meetings. In the associates' lounge hang sayings on how to treat the customer well. The 10-foot rule is always in effect.

"If a customer is within 10 feet, acknowledge them," Ball said. Smile, greet them, ask them if they need help.

"It's how far you go out of your way," she said. "I'm a firm believer, a firm believer in treating people the way I'd want to be treated."

Perhaps that's all there is to being thought of as friendly by the customer - doing unto them as you'd have done unto to you.

Mike Rorer, funeral director for McCoy Funeral Home in Blacksburg, said, ``We just try to treat people the way we'd want to be treated if we were in their shoes.''

It boils down to being ``caring and thoughtful - maybe just a warm smile, a firm handshake or opening a door,'' he said.

Or it might be as simple as dry cleaner Fitzwater's comment to a customer walking out the door: "Thanks, buddy."