m*- w - Clpdigital.org

THE ESSENTIALS OF BUSINESS SUCCESS 227
schools himself carefully to overlook
them.
So far I have touched on one phase
only of the study of human nature: the
employer's relation towards his assistants.
Three men start grocery shops. One
remains all his life a one-shop grocer;
the second comes to own several establishments
in the same town; a third
develops to the ownership of a chain of
shops scattered over the whole country.
The latter sits in his central office in the
metropolis, and by his knowledge of
human nature in general, directs the policy
of hundreds of shops which he may
only visit in person once in several years.
This is made possible because human
nature in one town is much the same as
human nature in another.
I have in mind
one such instance of
a multiple- shopowner.
The general
policy of the business
is to secure
only a cash trade.
No credit is given.
Therefore a definite
class of customer is
obtained. A selling
scheme, a plan for
window display, a
simple advertisement
with an appeal
to that definite grade
of customer—these
are devised in New
York and applied
b r oa d c a s t with a
sure faith in the law
of average.
But while the
business man can in
private regard his
customers as so
much average human
nature, in his
public relation toward
them he must
'real them as individual
units. Thev
are persons of importance; their prejudices
of taste are matters to be noted and
remembered; even their hobbies are of
moment. A manager of a large wholesale
house keeps a card-index record of the
personal affairs of each of his customers,
and to this are added clippings from local
papers made by an assistant who searches
for items affecting the trade of different
towns. When a retailer comes to the city
and enters the establishment, his name is
at once 'phoned up to the manager. A
glance at the card-index file then gives all
the essentials for a personal chat where
the manager can convey the impression
that the customer has been constantly in
his memory ever since the last meeting.
Another business man keeps a special
note of his customers' hobbies, and makes
a point of posting to them any newspaper