The other day I was visiting a Columbus high school. This school is not one you hear about a ton. It is not particularly large, is an older building in a modest neighborhood, and doesn't boast incredibly high standardized test scores. In many ways, it is a typical public high school. I was not there on business really, but rather to deliver a small holiday gift and to thank the assistant principal for all the help he gave us during the school year. It's a yearly ritual I really enjoy. Just dropping in and saying thank you.When I walked into the assistant principal's office I was a little surprised to see him there in his alma mater's sweatshirt, sitting behind his desk and sharing lunch with three students. He is usually a pretty buttoned up guy, serious enough to have just pushed himself to get his PhD. Turns out, it was college spirit day at this school and he was chatting with three seniors about their plans for the next year.
This might sound odd, but in the school picture business it is easy to forget about the people we are serving. The sheer number of kids we photograph each year makes it necessary to clump them into large groups in order to logistically deal with what we're doing. Conveniently, that happens naturally with schools and leagues; they are, by definition, groups. Each group is a customer and each one is different.
In my case, I constantly make quick business judgments and evaluations about potential clients based upon all kinds of factors -- the school grounds, the neighborhood, the demographics, academic performance, the cleanliness of the building, how the teachers and students interact, and on and on. Some of these judgments are based on hard economic or academic data, and others are just gut feelings and quick observations. The judgments I make lead me to decide whether MPS Foto wants to do business with a school or league. In other words, I ask myself, "Can MPS Foto create a school picture experience here that the client likes and can afford and can we, in turn, be profitable and happy too?" Basically, I'm grading our customers. It may seem coarse, but it's a necessary first step to understanding the environment in which we may be working.
Which brings me back to the three seniors in the assistant principal's office.
These three kids were just exceptional. Two of the three had already chosen colleges, the third was leaving for Europe that summer to go backpacking. One was accepted into a fast track pre-med program at a university in Michigan where she would study to become a doctor. The other was headed to a prestigious university on the east coast. All were funny, obviously smart, confident, and engaging. They are undoubtedly going to succeed beyond everyone's expectations but their own.
I walked out of the school that day smiling to myself, renewed by the simple fact that these young women were reaching so far beyond the measurements I or someone was assigning to their school, and thus to them. It was a great reminder to take the time to look beyond the metrics and data and to try to learn about and understand the character of the kids we interact with every day. The surprises are often a lot of fun to discover.
Have a great holiday, everybody.
