When I saw its name, I thought of Seth Godin. It was a small ice cream shop in Hilton Head Island called The Frozen Moo. They had almost 100 flavors, creative decor and a life-size cow statue.

If you didn’t know, Seth is author of Purple Cow, The Big Moo and many other business/marketing best-selling books. So the naming couldn’t be more Godinesque. I thought maybe the proprietor was a big Godin fan and followed the Moo train all the way. However, I quickly found Seth would never run this store.

As I went to place my order, I saw this yellow sign on the counter (click to see all). No credit cards with the sorriest excuse… “sorry no credit card system.” Cash or credit wasn’t the issue. It was an obvious lack of concern for what the customer wants.

I was walking out puzzled. How could a friendly staff with great selection and a well-decorated store have a sign like this? The only bovine connection between this ice cream shop and Godin’s books are in name. If you’re going to steal from Seth’s marketing ideas, the least you can do is try be remarkable in a positive way.

Seth would never take away payment options or turn away pet owners with laptops paying with Visa. He preaches removing all barriers, drawing customers in and stealing a name obviously isn’t enough. While taking only cash was memorable, it’s was far from a purple cow! What roadblocks are you building for your customers and how can you turn a negative into a remarkable positive?

Update: I received a comment from the owner of The Frozen Moo. He misinterpreted my post when I said he was “stealing” from Seth. The title was a play on words since he’s written two books (Purple Cow & The Big Moo) that were so close to Jack’s business name and with the cow decor … it seemed like an obvious fit.

Jack made some pretty good points. It’s tough to give up $0.30 or $0.50 credit card fees when selling $2 cones of ice cream. I understand that as I have a good friend who works for a large ice cream manufacturer.

He also said the health department won’t let him have pets in the store and the neighboring business has a wifi station.

Again, I wish Jack no ill will and there’s no doubt running any business is tough.  He has good rationale for all three items, but I do think the customer just reads what they’re unable to do rather than admiring his store for all the good things it offers.

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