Can a single interaction make your day? At Sundae Scoop, it’s not just the ice cream that leaves customers smiling. Philip and Sibs Harrell, owners of the mom-and-pop ice cream shop in Virginia Beach, Virginia, strive to connect with customers on a deeper level and create an inviting space for their community.
“I felt like we really connected. It wasn’t just like: ‘Here’s your ice cream. Go,’” said Yelp Elite Aneesa P., who chatted with Phil on her first visit to the scoop shop. He shared the business’s origin story, helped her pick out the perfect gluten-free flavor, and even helped her snap the perfect photos and videos.
“I wasn’t just getting the experience of the ice cream. I was also getting to know the business owner as well, which made me feel a little bit more connected to the business as a whole,” Aneesa said.
You don’t need to be in the ice cream business to leave customers with this sweet feeling. According to Phil, Sundae Scoop’s strategy is simple. “It’s so easy to make someone’s day,” he said. “Just say something nice. Have a genuine, engaging conversation with them. When it’s nothing but two seconds out of your day, it’s so easy.”
Below, Phil and Sibs share five tips for delighting customers on every level of your business, from using positive reviews to train your team to supporting small businesses that strengthen your community.
1. Take every opportunity to engage with customers
Phil: “The greatest resource that any business has is human resources. That’s the people who work for us, work with us, and it’s also the customers walking in the door. At the end of the day, the [best] thing that we can do as a business is say, ‘Hi’—and it means something.
“We found that a lot of businesses automate their generic responses back to someone inquiring online about them. Any kind of touchpoint [where] someone can interact with us—Facebook, Instagram, Google, Yelp—[they’re] to get a [personal] response. If we have an opportunity to engage with our customers, then we’re going to engage.”
2. Delight guests with genuine, engaging customer service
Sibs: “[Customer service is] an important part of us being able to distinguish ourselves as being a small business, a local business, and an owner-operated business. It’s important for us, and for the customers, to feel as though we have our finger in every part of the business so that it feels genuine.
“First impressions make a huge difference, so we place a great emphasis on customer service within the shop. We appreciate every single customer who comes into the shop and spends their hard-earned money, and we want them to feel as though it was worth not just their money, but their time as well… For any small business, it’s the return customer that makes the difference, so we definitely want to make sure that our customers feel valued and that they want to come back.”
3. Empower your employees to be their best selves
Phil: “Our mantra when we hire people is: Be nice, be clean, and be present. The ice cream is going to take care of itself—you don’t have to worry about that. What you do have to worry about is making sure the shop stays clean and making sure you’re presenting the best version of yourself.
“There is no script; I just want them to understand that what they say and who they are matters. Empowering them to be the best version of themselves is what we’re aiming for.”
Sibs: “We also use [our positive reviews] when we’re hiring new scoopers. We tell them, ‘Please read these thoroughly and make notes of what the positive points are because those are the things that we want you to do.’ [For example, when reviewers say,] ‘When I walked in, I was immediately greeted.’ Are you that kind of person who’s going to have that peppy attitude when the door opens? Are you going to say hello immediately? Because if you’re not, this might not be a good fit for you.”
4. Represent the cultures of your community
Phil: “Being in the community is what an ice cream shop is about. It’s one of those places where a family can come and just spend that time together. One of the things [about the shop] I notice on a regular basis is that very few phones are out. People come in, they’ll take their pictures of the ice cream, and then they’ll all sit and chat about what they got.
“A community is nothing more than a collection of different kinds of families and different kinds of cultures and people who are together. In our ice cream shop, we can represent every culture that’s in our area. That’s where the ube ice cream comes from, or a coquito, or rum raisin. Each one of those is gonna respond or touch something in someone that they remember from their childhood.”
5. Support other businesses to build a stronger community
Phil: “We’ve been to every elementary school in our area for ice cream socials. We’ve also been in partnership with a lot of small businesses because they took the risk, too. They took that leap of faith. So if someone like myself or my wife can come along and help them on their journey, that’s all the better because it’s building a stronger community.
“One of the cliches that you hear growing up is, ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ Well, all of our businesses are just children to us. So it’s going to take that village to help strengthen them… At the end of the day, just be good, support each other, and help each other where you can—and I can almost promise you that it’s going to come back your way.”
These lessons come from an episode of Behind the Review, Yelp & Entrepreneur Media’s weekly podcast. Listen below to hear from Phil and Sibs, or visit the episode page to read more, subscribe to the show, and explore other episodes.
Photos by Diana Macaraeg Photography
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