I have the gift of being able to remember people either by their faces, their names for what they ate or drank.
When I worked at a hotdog wagon, I impressed a whole line of people when I remembered two guys from the year before. I remembered exactly what they both had. They felt special. I did too because they gave me a $20 tip!
I’ve always loved it when we go to a bar, and the bartender remembers what we drink; it’s even better when they can remember even if we haven’t been there for a while. They always get a nice tip.
Today while we were on our NY delivery route, we stopped at the Capital District Regional Market. It’s where restaurants and other businesses buy produce in bulk. The produce market is only open from 5:30 – 7:30 am. That’s it on Monday, Wednesday & Friday.
There are retail stalls that are open 6 am – 1 pm. Today I went back to see the same person we bought our hanging petunia baskets from last year. They were gorgeous and looked fantastic until early October.
Last year we were there dropping off a spätzle delivery to a farm to home service, and we found out the market is open to the general public. Luckily we had the place to ourselves just like last year. I don’t particularly appreciate shopping for flowers when it’s wall to wall people snatching plants from each other.
Today we walked around for a bit; then, I picked out two gigantic hanging pink petunia baskets. Here’s the part that I loved, the owner named Lisa remembered us. Of course, our spätzle hoodies and shirts gave us away until she told me what I got from her the year before. She really did remember us, and she remembered my name! She also gave us a nice discount. Guess where I am going back to again next year? Yup, to Lisa.
At our farmer’s markets, customers really like it when I remembered their names, children’s names, or what they made with our spätzle. It’s that same feeling, like being a bar patron from the tv show Cheers, “Where everybody knows your name.” 🎵🍻
After Lisa, the flower lady made my day by remembering me; I now know how special our customers feel when leaving our farmers market booth. Marty can recognize people’s faces, but he’s not good with names. He’s good at faking it sometimes, but I know he is full of crap when I am with him. 😂
My secret to remembering names is to connect first the face; then, I repeat their name 3 times out loud during the course of our conversation. Most times, I will tell people what I am doing so they don’t think I’m off my nut.
After the person walks away, I associate something with their name. When the person comes back another time, in my head, I see the face, then the connection I made, and can get their name right 98% of the time.
After putting the huge hanging baskets into the delivery van, which was almost empty since our big deliveries were done, I went back and got a flat of multicolored petunias to plant in containers on the deck.
I picked out my flowers then I took a selfie with Lisa. I told her I was writing about her; she was pleased. She gave me a break on the flat of flowers too, which really was nice of her. We give many of our loyal, regular customers a special “friends and family discount.” Again…now I know how nice it feels to be treated special.
As I am typing, we are still on the road and have two more delivery stops to make. I can’t wait to hang up my hanging baskets when we get home. I may plant my containers if I have potting soil; if not, it can wait a day. We’ve been up, packed up, and out since 5:30 am; I am not going out again today.
*** I love the hanging baskets on our front porch, and no I didn’t have any potting mix. Tomorrow is another day.
That’s a great strategy. I’m terrible with names. I’ll have to try it.