The Table Valet

A ninety-minute tire wait is usually just a delay. At Costco Wholesale, it may also be an overlooked part of the membership experience. Most of what is needed to improve it is already nearby.

A member drops her car at the tire center and hears, “About ninety minutes.” She wanders the warehouse, checks her phone, buys things she did not come for, then circles back to the tire desk to see if there is any news. She is waiting, but she never quite gets to settle.

Costco already has two strengths sitting a few hundred feet apart: the tire center and the food court. Both are familiar parts of the member experience. The opportunity I see is that a member waiting on one is not yet being served by the other.

At tire check-in, hand her a coffee and cookie ticket with the paperwork. “This is on us while you wait. Take that table at the corner. When your car is ready, I will bring your keys to you. By the way, do you need a secure Wi-Fi Code?” No pager. No circling back. The tire desk becomes a valet stand and the food court becomes a waiting room.

The feeling is ‘being expected and seen’. Somebody thought about her ninety minutes before she had to live them. When the keys come to her instead of her hunting for the counter, waiting becomes being served.

The business return is not the coffee, cookie and the free Wi-Fi. It is what the gesture says about the membership. A small act of service could make a routine tire appointment feel more considered and add one more piece of value to the renewal decision.

People already search for Costco tire center wait times before deciding how to spend those ninety minutes. The opportunity is to make the answer feel less like a delay and more like part of the membership.

Costco has spent decades proving that membership can make ordinary purchases feel unusually valuable. The Table Valet simply extends that promise to the time between the purchase and the finished job.

Sometimes the next customer experience is not a new idea. It is two things your business already does well that have never been introduced.

Which two strengths inside your business are sitting close together but still operating as strangers?

Take that question to the leader who owns your customer journey. Then pick one location and see what happens when those two strengths finally meet.