Have you had your Jimmy Johns lately?

Near our office in Columbia, MD we have a sandwich shop called Jimmy Johns.  At first glance you see that they are nothing special. They look like any other chain shop – Quizno’s, Subway, etc.  However, that is simply where the comparison stops.  First, you place your order (mayI suggest a number 9 with no hots, and a bag of Jalapeno chips). Before you are even finished paying and receiving your change, the sandwich is handed to you in less than sixty seconds. Next, you begin to eat it, realizing that the sandwich is absolutely amazing – high end meats, fresh in-store baked bread… mmmm! When you are finished, you realize that your lunch experience has been all of 15 minutes. You think to yourself “WOW WHAT A GREAT EXPERIENCE.”

Upon further review, you need to dig deeper to see why their process works so well.  Let’s take a look. Jimmy Johns is a Culture and a way of doing business. Jimmy Johns success lies in the preparation to take care of the customer through proper planning and staffing. When you enter the store you are greeted immediately.  The cashier asks to take your order. Next to the cashier is the “breadman” who listens to the customer and begins to prepare the bread by cutting and garnishing the sandwich. He/She passes the sandwich to their teammate who puts the required meat on the sandwich, and then passes it to a third teammate who wraps it up for the customer. Meanwhile, the “breadman” is listening for the next order. This is all performed in sixty seconds or less.

How is it performed consistently? Two breads, seven meats, one cheese, and freshly prepared tuna.  No soups, no salads, no toasting of the bread, no hot foods. If you want cross selling, you can get chips, pickles, cookies, fountain sodas and bottled water.  That’s it! Jimmy Johns will not even offer you a bag or napkins for one sandwich.  They want you to go around to the end to get it yourself (but you would never notice that unless someone pointed it out for you).  Most people walk out the door with the sandwich in hand, no bag or napkins – paper product savings adds up! The process is so seamless that you don’t care about napkins or a bag. Your meal is delivered to you fast and it tastes great.

Why does this model work so well? SIMPLICITY! They are not spending millions of dollars trying to develop the next great bottled fruit spritzer with extra virgin pomegranate juices to try and capture 1/10th of 1% of market share.  They take the approach from Field of Dreams: “If you build it, he will come.”

Now, you might be asking yourself -”how does this relate to my business model?”  Have you spent so much time trying to invent, market and sell the next latest and greatest thing to come along, or are you focusing on your core competencies that establish and still run you business profitability today?  Are you lean and mean so that as the economy turns, you are poised for growth?

Our company is like the Jimmy Johns of the world in that we provide a simplistic approach to your technology. We focus on one thing and one thing only – we make sure your IT works, and works well.  We don’t do websites, we don’t do SEO, we don’t sell software! But, we will take care of your IT so you don’t have to. We deliver it fast, seamless, and I promise your meals will taste better as a result if IT!

Mike Gillett, Account Executive, GoBeyond IT