MORE KINDS OF BUSINESSES ARE TAKING SERVICES TO THE CUSTOMER'S FRONT DOOR

In business as in life, delivering the goods is the bottom line. Sometimes the translation is literal.

The family-owned Werner's CGA Grocery on Broadway has made delivery part of its service since opening almost 50 years ago.

"It's helped us through the years," said Kenneth Werner, reflecting on the business his father, Clarence, and uncle, Alvin Werner, started in December 1935. "We used to have two trucks and two drivers," Werner said. "Now we operate one truck."

While competition and customers' buying patterns have changed through the years, the value Werner's Grocery places on the delivery service has not. Werner believes that along with standing as a solid customer service, delivery has helped his business retain customers.

"It's the only service that other places don't have that I do offer," he said.

While society's mobility has increased during the last five decades, there are still times when getting out of the house is difficult.

That's when Milton George of Broadway Prescription Shop Inc. hopes customers will give him a call.

Delivery has "a very important role" in the business that was launched by his father, Homer, in 1934, Milton George said. "I feel it has added an awful lot to our business to have had delivery service through the years," George said. He calls the option an important customer service that is cost effective.

Delivery requests are abundant enough to warrant two full-time delivery persons.

The shop uses the delivery option to attract new customers plus help serve its customer base. "We try to promote it with new people, to let them know it's available," George said.

Lance Keller of Ken's Cape Cleaners began offering delivery service about two years ago at the shop his grandfather started. However, Keller said, "I just went public with it last month."

"I was running out of room," Keller said, describing his initial reason for launching the service. By offering delivery, "I was able to free up my rack space," he said, as well as offer an added customer service. The service became more active "as the word started getting around," he said.

Ken's Cape Cleaners offers both delivery and pickup to residential and commercial customers.

A myriad of businesses in the Cape Girardeau area provide delivery service. Among them, some businesses such as flower shops and some eating establishments, come quickly to mind as potential deliverers.

A few restaurants such as Chow Time, which delivers Chinese dishes, place their entire emphasis on delivery.

It's a service that Richard Smith, gardener at Francine's Flower and Garden Shop, believes can be critical in his line of work.

"You can lose a lot of business if you don't" offer delivery service, he said.

And, there are other rewards.

Making the delivery is fun, Smith said. "Most of the time they're surprised. If you're delivering to a bank, for instance, everyone else sees it. They'll say, `Oh, isn't that nice,' and they'll wish they were the ones receiving it."

Cheryl Merkler, operations director of Craftsman Office Supply Co., agreed that personal interaction is important.

"You can go anywhere for price," she said, but service and friendliness can be a determining factors when customers are deciding where to shop.

Craftsman, an office supply and furniture dealer, makes deliveries in both those product lines.

It's the attention to detail, to going the extra mile -- to customer service -- "that is your lifeblood," Merkler said.