> Dee Harkness: A Snapshot of Topeka's Chief Geek

DeWitt “De” Harkness has been a passionate retailer since he was nine years old. Anyone who has worked in retail for any length of time knows that staying passionate about retail is tough to do considering the ridiculous hours and the perpetual chore of keeping customers happy day-in and day-out. Yet after all these years of starting early and working late, Harkness eagerly arrives at Wolfe’s Camera before most people have stumbled out of bed. He watches downtown come alive from his corner office overlooking 7th and Kansas as he anxiously looks forward to another great day in the store.
Surrounded by gadgets galore, we spoke to Topeka’s Chief Geek about what it takes to be a successful retailer in the age of online shopping.

Q: Tell us about your background and what first got you into the retail business?

A: I started working in my parent’s drug store, The Harkness Pharmacy, here in Topeka when I was nine years old. I came from a line of retailers. My great grandfather and grandfather were in the Dry Goods business, Harkness Dry Goods Co., a multi-store operation which sold necessities like work clothes, shoes, pots, pans, and even bulk candy.
I have always loved all aspects of being a merchant. Starting in my parent’s drug store as a young boy right up to now, 49 years later, the passion has never left. I am just as excited to get to Wolfe’s at 6AM every morning Monday through Saturday as I was getting the opportunity to go to the drug store then. Retailing is my life. It’s my identity.

Q: How did you get your start at Wolfe’s Camera and what is your current role with the company?

A: I married into the business in 1971. I joined Wolfe’s in my present capacity in 1980. Harold and Mike Worswick and I ran Wolfe’s as a team until Harold’s retirement in 1990. Mike and I have run it since. I am the president of Wolfe’s and I mostly handle sales and personnel functions. My passion is being on the sales floor greeting and serving the fine people who honor us with their business and interacting with our fabulous staff.
All aspects of our business have really worked well for Mike and me. We have different skills and passions, and we successfully cover the parts of the business that we enjoy which may not be quite as exciting to the other guy. We try not to cross those boundaries. He loves being behind the scenes—taking care of inventory, buying, and running our prestigious photo buying group PRO. I want to be more like the old merchant-- out in front with the staff-- greeting customers and being the salesman that I am.
We all have to be on the top of our game at all times. We meet with our fine staff every morning Monday through Saturday at 8AM. That’s how we keep it together. That’s why people come to Wolfe’s. A big part of managing is being sensitive to what the staff wants since they are closest to the situations they deal with. We need to be there to listen to what they say and give them the freedom to do what they do best. The customer experience is the ‘holy grail’ of retail, and an excited, well- informed and well-respected sales staff is the ambience our customers have been coming to Wolfe’s to experience for 83 years.

Q: What is your philosophy of customer service?

A: In a nut shell, I have to say that I have maintained my great grandfather’s, grandfather’s, and my dad’s teachings and philosophy—and I certainly do not want to leave out Harold Worswick’s wisdom and teachings--and that is, Mike and I must serve our customers one at a time. There are really no one-size-fits-all businesses—never has been, never will be.
Look at it this way, in today’s retail market if a business is going to succeed it hits an immediate customer service crossroads. A business must either give the utmost in customer service or none at all. Anything in between either short sheets the customer and/or costs the business more than the mediocre benefit it gets by hiring a staff that gives substandard customer service.
As a business, you either pull it off or you don’t. You give it all or you give none, anything else, “good-bye.”

Q: How has Wolfe’s managed to evolve with the move toward digital photography?

A: When you take something like the tried and true film camera, which had been a part of our lives since before the turn of the century, and completely re-engineer it into a similar yet totally different product, one must face the challenge of redefining oneself both in how we think of ourselves and how we think of and communicate with our customers. And what about some of the cool stuff we have always done with film that might just fall through the cracks with the shift to digital. The interesting part is I have seen no aspect of our past dealings with film that has not actually been enhanced by the digital processes.
A case-in-point is making a color prints from slides. The last Kodak Carousel slide projector came off the assembly line in 2004 yet there are literally millions of slides in closets out there. People want prints from slides and have for years. Before digital, making a print from a slide was a technically tedious process that didn’t yield a great end product. Now we now can take a color slide, scan it into a computer and produce beautiful low contrast prints. We can even restore color from a faded slide, and produce an image that will knock your socks off. This is an example of how digital has enhanced our business.

Q: What advice would you give other downtown merchants, or those considering opening a business in downtown, to make a successful business here?

A: There are 30,000 to 35,000 people coming into Downtown Topeka every day to work. Our 7th St. door opens at 7:30 AM. People who come into downtown to work can drop off their photo finishing at Wolfe’s on their way to work so they can pick it up during their break or lunch hour. You need to be available when your customers are there and when it is convenient for them to do business with you.
People who work and spend their days downtown normally leave the area by 5:00 PM. Businesses, even restaurants, have found it difficult to get people back downtown in the evenings. We have stayed open on Thursdays until 8:00 PM for 40+ years. We do this to serve customers, especially those from out of town who want an evening to shop in Topeka. It’s important to know the buying habits and schedules of the people you plan to serve with your business. You must keep your business hours, merchandise selection and quantities, and staffing geared to match your goals and the expectations of your customers.

Q: Which is the bigger threat to your business, Wanamaker or Dot-Com, and what’s the best way to overcome those threats?

A: I don’t consider any of them to be a threat. I consider them to be a reason to look very carefully at what we do to remain successful.
We are, for that matter, a Dot-Com and have a full time webmaster. If you go to www.wolfes.com, you will see that our website is world-class, and the large amount of business we do on it proves it. Our website makes us a nationwide business, and had we not done what we did with the website when we did it (17 years ago), we would not be in nearly as good a shape as we are now.
Wolfe’s is a “destination” business. Other stores, especially those on Wanamaker, are very important to our business. We consider them partners. No one can be everything to everybody. We come close.
To be successful in getting traffic in our retail store, we always have to stay on top of the “cool new thing” – whatever that may be at the time. We give ourselves a very liberal ad budget. We have to be out there. No resting. We want people to see us and hear us in our ads. We can’t slow down. We won’t slow down. Right now the cool new thing is flat panel High Definition TV, and we are very successful in selling these products. Our long-time staff takes the burden of comparison shopping off the shoulders of our customers. Our very experienced buyers filter out the “me too” models which allows Wolfe’s to have a superior selection of merchandise without all the confusing models that are all pretty much alike.
Wolfe’s is not just a Topeka store, but a regional destination. Simply put, the only photography superstore for hundreds of miles in any direction. Customers expect the best of everything when they come to Wolfe’s, and I am here to see that they get it.

Q: You have said that your employees are key to the success of Wolfe’s. How do you foster an environment in which your employees have stayed so long and contributed to that success?

A: Working at Wolfe’s is not just a job, it’s a career. Most of my staff have their own loyal customer bases. Our staff members have built a loyal following of customers – they are very proactive in their jobs and are much more experienced than to just stand around thinking “Gee, maybe somebody will happen in so I can sell somethin’ to ‘em.”
We used to have separate departments and staff for cameras, computers, home video, and photo finishing, but today’s market is more homogenous due to the proliferation of digital technology. The highly successful sales person in today’s specialty retail store is a generalist. A person who is able to effectively communicate with customers on a variety of product fronts. We don’t talk tech unless the customer asks us to. Cameras, video, computers, photofinishing services, and all aspects of the sales floor must be dealt with equally if you are going to effectively and completely serve your customers needs.