Sam Elliott, as seen on Landman
Q: What do actors Billy Bob Thornton and Sam Elliott have in common with me?
A: We have all dined at Mary’s Café in Strawn, Texas.
Q: Why do people line up to eat at Mary’s, a restaurant located 84 miles west of Ft. Worth, TX in a small town with a population of 589 people?
Billy Bob Thornton, taking a call, filmed in front of Mary’s Cafe, during this Landman episode.
A: Mary’s Café promises the best chicken fried steak in Texas, according to Mary. Texas Monthly Magazine and Taylor Sheridan, producer of the hit series Yellowstone and Landman, agree!
On Mary’s Menu ➡
We have our own little saying around here:
- Our customers are the most important people in our business.
On one side of Mary’s menu. The other side has all the fried stuff options!You are not dependent on us. We are dependent on you!
- You are not an interruption of our work. You are the purpose of it!
- Our service is not a favor, you favor us by letting us serve you!
- We try to please our customers, and are so glad that you are our customer, no matter who you are, or what you order!
- Sometimes there might be a day when we cannot please everyone. Therefore, if there is a problem with your food, service etc. please let us know.
- Please tell us, not a friend, so that we can get the problem corrected.
- We seat nearly 200 people and it is hard to get your food out first.
- Our food is cooked to order. Some items take longer to prepare than others.
- Therefore, someone who comes in after you may get their food first.
- If you are in a hurry, call in your order, we will have your table reserved for you when you get here.
- Thank you for being our customer!
And that’s how Mary’s Café got free advertising when Billy Bob and Sam Elliott ate there during a Landman episode.
FYI – Taylor Sheridan has a ranch about an hour away from Mary’s Café.
OK… Mary is better at customer service than punctuation!
Bottom Line For You
It’s not about the chicken fried steak (fill in the blank with your product/service) no matter how good it is.
It’s about communicating a customer-service centric culture.
If you run your business like Mary runs hers, you’ll be just as successful.
My handsome cowboy husband, Jim, and I ate at Mary’s Cafe last week. 🤠
Mary’s Cafe “knows their customers”. What does this mean? I believe every business needs to know two things before all else. Who is the customer and what to they want/need. My grandmother, we called her, Ma Katie was a smart woman. She and her husband had little formal education, they were married when he was 16 and she was 14, this being the custom in “the old country.” They sold chickens in a farmers market for many years one by one. Slowly, they built their business in to the largest wholesalers of poultry in the Midwest. How? They decided that their customer was the producer of the chickens on various farms throughout the country. They visited them regularly and found out what each one needed. This one needed 60 days credit rather than 30 days. This one needed a slightly higher price but would get paid immediately. They “knew” their customers and personalized their business so that they made it easy to do business with them. We recently took our children and grandchildren on a Disney Cruise. Who is the customer on this ship? Certainly it is not the parents or grandparents who are paying for cruise. The customer is a small child (specifically a seven year old girl). EVERYTHING is planning to the nth degree to make their experience “magical.” Whatever they want/need is provided and encouraged. At Mary’s Cafe, the customer is the patron, not the staff or owners. They are there to serve their “customer.” Many businesses fail because they try to be everything to everybody. It rarely works.
Good morning Elliot – Your story about your grandparents exemplifies the same brilliance shown by Mary. You write, “they made it easy to do business with them.” BINGO. For your Ma Katie, it was one chicken at a time. For Mary, it is one chicken fried steak at a time.
Your example about Disney is also excellent. Those Disney cruises cost a lot, but Disney knows their customer and it makes it easy to do business with them.
Thanks so much for your comments.