Outlining and Defining Service

Bg Jacft Dionne

I have a very interesting le,tter before me as I write.

It is from the head of a big Southern line yard concern, and he asks a difiHcult ques!i_o.. He says all modern retail l'umbermen are advertising and offering and promising "Service". That his yards are doing the same. He suggests that a yard manager oughi to know just exactly what he means when he promises "service" to the trade, ahd wants suggestions from me to be incorporated into a letter on that subject that he plans to write to his managers.

No easy problem, f assure you. Because the interpretation of Service to each lumber dealer depends ve,ry largely on the local situation of that dealer. It is humanly impossible to lay dow4 a set of rules and'say-"This is what Service means in a retail lumber business." Totally impossible.

Service is an intangible thing. It is that intangible thing which, when applied to and ad{ed to our physical stocks, translates those stocks into the language of buildings, and building functions, and building ideas, and building things.

The average retailer-the gentleman who asks for this assistance being one of them -wants to explain Service in entirely too tangible and physical a manner, and Service, in the best sense of the word, is NOT, a physical thing. It is a mental, spiritual, unnameable thing.

In your yard there is lumber; dimension, boards, flooring, ceiling, roofing, etc. They make no particular appeal, form no attraction to the human mind, as they are.

And the thing that makes them desirable, attractive, popular, is thi SERVICE the dealer puts behind them.

He KNOWS their value in building affairs.

He knows the grades, the items, the qualities that are best suited to the various building purposes. He knows how they should be used, handled, sawn, nailed, dressed, finished, painted, etc., to give them the greatest BUILDING value.

He knows the correct price of everything he has. He is able to give a round figure on a building job composed of these materials.

He advertises, displays and in every way at his command calld the attention of his trade_to these things he has fo1 sa!9. He shows them pictures, plans, suggestions of n""'#"t3;lT5',f;il,i: service that w'r transrate the stocks into building things. Ffe sees that the stocks are properly used, to give the best satisfaction.

He keeps up with the latest thoughts, styles and ideas in building, so that his stocks may !e used in modern fashion and therefore be the more highly priled when in use.

He fulfills all his promises, gives prompt delivery of everything agreed qpon, furnishes the kind of stocks he offers, keeps behind the job ir1 the way tliat he should, is always ready with expert advice and suggestions as the building goes up, and weaves him-. self into the building project.

Tl,t" intangible things that he furnishes are much more important in the finat analysis than the_ physical stockl. And everything that he furnishes outside of the hard, physical stocks themselves, is the sERvlcE-the BUILDING SERVICE.

The lumber and building material is the suit goods in the tailor's stock. The finished, mo9ern, sgtlsflclolyr ^eco_nomical BUILDING is the completed, attrtctive, well-fitting, stylish SUIT OF CLOTHES.

The difference is the SERVICE.