Labels:food | baked goods | snack | tableware | coffee cup | bread | serveware | saucer | tea | text | kitchen utensil | dishware | fast food | newspaper | table | mug | dish | cup | breakfast | coffee | indoor | croissant OCR: PAGE 17 MONDAY, MARC TH WALL STR ow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SMALL BUSINESS More Firms Quiz Customers For Clues About Competition By STEVEN P. GALANTE J Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL OHN GRUBB WANTED to distinguish his San Francisco con- struction company, Clearwood Building Inc ., from a host of competitors. So, in early 1983, he and his brother Robert started talking to Clearwood's customers: the architects and designers who hired their services. What, the brothers asked their customers, were the worst fea tures of Clearwood's competitors? The answer. Bad manners workers who tracked dirt across carpets, and beat-up construction trucks, which high-class clients objected to having parked in their drive- ways. Those seemingly small points were the signal for a repositioning. The brothers decided to make Clearwood the contractor of choice among the Bay Area's upper crust. The com- pany bought a new truck and kept It spotless. Its estimators donned jackets and ties. And its work crews, now impeccably polite, began roll- ing protective runners over carpets before they homes. In less than two years, Clearwood's to $1 million from $200,000. Keeping an eye on the running any business. larly for stren
