I once heard an interview with a man in his eighties who had owned a small butcher shop/delicatessen somewhere in a large East Coast city. The man had put three children through college and graduate school and had two doctors and a lawyer to show for his efforts. He also had a nice retirement stake and had always made a comfortable living, despite the modest size of his retail establishment.

The trick, he confessed, was to always say the same thing after he finished wrapping the item the customer had ordered: "Is there anything else, sir (or ma'am)?"

Apparently, lots of times there was. The time the customer spent waiting for their order enabled him or her to look over the offerings once again. It offered another opportunity to think about what they felt like cooking or eating with their family. And in many cases, they decided that there was, indeed, something else they needed at this time.

It is hard to imagine anything more different from fresh meat and cold cuts than what we sell at IBT. But this wise old man's truth is relevant to our business and I think of his lesson frequently.

We make the effort to ask our customers the same question and do it on a regular basis: "Is there anything else?"

If we are providing the customer with electric motors, are we also talking to them about drives? What about the power transmission components that are down stream from the motors?

For that matter, are we approaching the customer with questions about safety? About tools? About lubricants, paints, fans, floor coverings?

What about pallet rack and employee lockers? Have we inquired about your needs for flu shots and paper towels? Are there MRO supplies and services that would make your life easier?

And in a broader sense from the Integrated Services Group perspective, have we given our customers the opportunity to consider a complete, fully integrated supply approach from IBT?

There is a reason and philosophy behind this thinking and it is one of customer service. If we like who we are and believe in what we do, we know that our customers can achieve even greater benefits from working with us in more, new and better ways.

By the same token, the integrated supply model bundles goods and services in such a way as to allow the customer to get the greatest good from all of what IBT has to offer. And to those customers already allowing us to help them in all the ways that we can, my question of anything else becomes "How can we make it even better?"