For the Smuckers, Family is the Formula

The village of Bird-in-Hand has been a stopover for travelers on the Old Philadelphia Pike for hundreds of years. Today, travelers have made the Bird-in-Hand Family Inn & Restaurant their home away from home. For the Smucker family, this is not a cliche. As Jim Smucker told me, “the business is simply an extension of our family kitchen.”

As I talked to Jim, I realized he was giving away the secret to this business’s success, now celebrating its 40th anniversary. But I also realized this secret cannot be easily re-created today. The formula, however, is what makes this enterprise a place that visitors return to year after year because the family and employees give it a unique character. Like any family business, it is a fascinating story....

The picture on our cover shows Jim’s grandmother in the family kitchen. Beside her with his brothers is Jim’s father, Paul. This Amish-Mennonite family was photographed for an article in the March, 1938 edition of National Geographic. According to Jim, his grandfather was the “consummate entrepreneur.” He had roadside stands, went to market, and even traveled to Philadelphia to buy fish and peddle them door-to-door on rainy days. Nevertheless, he still wanted each of his sons to have their own farm.

Sadly, Grandfather died when Jim’s father was just 17, and the young man had the daunting task of running three farms. Farming consumed his life until he decided it was time for a change. He had the idea to build a hotel with a small coffee shop, and mortgaged his farm to do so. Along with the help of his mother and siblings, the hotel opened on April 4, 1968, with 30 rooms at $12 a night, followed by the restaurant two years later.

His father didn’t know how to run a hotel or restaurant, but applied the simple idea of running a friendly, clean hotel and restaurant as if they were an extension of his home and kitchen. In other words, you treat the visitor as if they were a guest in your home. While the restaurant was built mainly for locals, he believed that visitors would like a place that was frequented by residents who enjoyed meeting and eating there. On any given day, you might see a farmer and a building contractor sitting at the counter talking over bacon and eggs, or a gathering of Amish celebrating a birthday. (Indeed, I heard the strains of “Happy Birthday” being sung as I was conducting this interview!)

Grandmother “Grussy” and Jim’s mother worked in the kitchen of the restaurant, using their family recipes. The food was the real deal, from chicken corn soup to vanilla pie. The roast beef is still served today as pot roast, not neatly sliced as in other restaurants, but just the way it was served on the family table years ago. Jim’s brother, John, still “signs off” on recipes and the development of new dishes.

To this day, most everything from dressings to puddings is made from scratch, often from local produce obtained from nearby farms. “It’s the freshness that we emphasize, and that makes us unique, even among other Pennsylvania Dutch restaurants.” Jim talks about the “seasons of Bird-in-Hand” that are reflected in the foods over the year, including strawberries, apples, blueberries, peaches, and even the pumpkins they grow themselves for their famous pumpkin pie. So don’t be surprised if you find fresh corn on the cob as part of the smorgasbord menu this summer!

Growing up, Jim and John had “stints” working at their father’s business off and on as they went through college. While brother Jerry is now a farmer, Jim and John came back and now run a business that has expanded greatly since it opened 40 years ago. The Smuckers built a separate bakery across the street, added a larger hotel building with an indoor swimming pool, and recently remodeled the restaurant with a “grand smorgasbord” and special areas to better accommodate groups. They also purchased three nearby hotels --- Mill Stream, Amish Country, and Travelers’ Rest --- and bought and preserved the historic Bitzer’s Hotel, now the lovely Bird-in-Hand Village Inn, co-owned by the Smuckers with George and Pat Desmond.

But Jim cautioned me not to write so much about the “bricks and mortar.” Indeed, anyone can put up stylish buildings, but how guests are treated in them is what matters. He views the business as “a community of employees who have the opportunity to provide unforgettable experiences, and go out of their way to create special memories.” He feels that today, more than ever, it is important “to provide a place of comfort for folks, where community still exists, where people are genuine and can be trusted, so that visitors return home feeling rejuvenated.” Nothing seems more simple and logical, yet this is something profoundly missing from most formula restaurants and hotels.

This all comes down to the relationships that employees create with guests. You’ll notice that each employee’s nametag shows how many years they have worked for the Smuckers. Many have been there for over 25 years, and at least one, Naomi Glick, has “been here from day one” forty years ago. That means that visitors return and see employees they have grown to know. Christmas cards are exchanged by some, and others have even taken employees out for dinner! Jim tries to hire people who have “genuine care and concern for people, and a joy in being hospitable.” He sees his job as creating an environment for that to happen.

Jim said that when his father turned operations over to him and John, they were given a lot of latitude in running the business, and their father did not try to micro-manage things. Jim feels this was a true gift, and perhaps the key to their success today. He follows the same philosophy, empowering his key employees to provide great, friendly customer service.

Just one example that I find fascinating is his instructions to staff answering the phone at the hotel. Unlike many businesses and chain hotels, the goal is not to get the customer off the phone as quickly as possible. Employees are told to spend time with each caller as needed, even helping them to plan some of their visit, if need be. “We build service upon being an extension of our home, and bank on people appreciating that over time.” So if you see a visitor come into the restaurant and hug a server as if they are old friends, it’s probably because they are!

The Smuckers do not merely give lip service to these ideals. From June through October, they have a get-together with guests once a week to talk about Amish and Mennonite values, how they grew up, the sense of community (from the local volunteer fire company to Amish barn-raisings). Significant connections happen in these discussions, as visitors get an authentic interpretation of the Mennonite experience.

Following the idea of treating guests like visitors to their home, they’ve offered free bus tours since 1987. “After all,” says Jim, “don’t you show people the sites when they come to your house to visit?” In the summer, they devote one night a week to having a free ice cream sundae party for the guests, with Jim, John, and some of their children doing the dipping. “Some people actually call and plan their stay around that!”

The Smuckers like to blend community and family experiences into those of their guests. You might see a bus group enjoying a presentation by an Amish friend followed by an old fashioned taffy pull. You can join in on the hymn sing and other community activities when the big white tent is erected across the street. You might come during Firemen’s Appreciation Week, which honors the volunteers of the Hand-in-Hand Fire Company, of which both Jim’s father and brother, Jerry, have been fire chief. Or you could get up early one morning to watch one of the hot air balloon launches, something new for this year.

As you can see, the Smucker formula is simple, yet not easily duplicated. Like the folks at Disney, they have their own special brand of customer service --- treating their guests like an extension of their family. Perhaps the Smuckers should adopt the old slogan for the State of Pennsylvania and just modify it slightly to “You’ve Got a Friend in Bird-in-Hand.”

Amish Country News,
Brad Igou