I had the opportunity to visit Vortex Optics’ headquarters in Wisconsin and sit down with Joe Hamilton for an episode of All Connected.
The conversation was a masterclass in building a business on principles.
Walking through their facility, reading customer letters on the walls, and watching their team operate, one thing became clear: Vortex didn't stumble into becoming the largest sport optics brand in the world. They got there by consistently choosing the harder right over the easier wrong, even when that choice looked inefficient on a spreadsheet.
Most company websites have an "About Us" section. Vortex has an "About You" section.
Joe's father, a Vietnam veteran turned dentist turned Wild Birds Unlimited franchisee turned optics entrepreneur, built the company on the golden rule. But not the version we gloss over. The version where you actually remove yourself from the equation and ask: What does this person need? What's their experience?
Joe shared his dad's take on restaurants displaying their first dollar on the wall: "Does that make my burger taste good? Does it make the service faster?" The point was that customers don't care about your origin story when they're trying to solve their problem. They care about whether you're making their life better.
The lesson: Every policy, process, and product feature should be audited against one question: Does this serve us or does this serve them?
Here's where most companies get stuck. Someone proposes a generous customer service gesture, and immediately someone else says: "But we can't scale that. What if everyone does it?"
Joe calls this "the boogeyman." His dad's story from the Wild Birds Unlimited days illustrates it perfectly: A customer brought in a mangled bird feeder they'd never even sold. His staff protested. His dad handed the customer a new feeder immediately. The staff objected: "We didn't even sell that feeder."
His response changed how I think about customer service: "You're right, you can't scale that. But you're wrong, you won't get a sea of people doing it."
Here's what you can scale: the story.
People are still talking about Nordstrom accepting snow tire returns decades later. USAA's legendary service creates loyalty that spans generations. Vortex customers become walking billboards.
The lesson: Don't scale the individual gesture. Scale the story the gesture creates.
One of Joe's best insights came when discussing order forms. Most companies design systems that serve themselves, then convince themselves they're serving customers. The order form that feeds directly into your ERP system with no room for error? That's efficient for you.
But the dealer who's doing $2 million in revenue with part-time staff and mail exploding across their office for the past decade? They want to write an order on a napkin.
Joe's approach: Take the napkin order. Make it work. If there's a mistake, fix it without arguing. Don't make the customer or dealer conform to your process just because it's more efficient for your operations.
He distinguishes between efficiency and effectiveness with a great example: When a customer's rifle scope breaks 45 minutes before their hunt (a $7,500 trip & possibly their father's last hunt), figuring out how to get them a replacement from the nearest dealer isn't efficient. But it's extraordinarily effective.
The lesson: Audit your touchpoints. Be efficient where it doesn't matter (lights turning on, shipping). Be effective where it does (human interactions, problem resolution, memorable moments).
Near the end of our conversation, Joe shared a story about managing a struggling employee.
As a young manager, he went to his father for advice on how to have a difficult conversation while showing he cared about the person.
His dad told him to postpone the meeting for a week. Then: "Every free moment (driving to work, at lunch, walking around) think about Jim. Think about what he's going through. When you get to a place where you deeply, authentically care about Jim, then have the meeting."
Joe was confused. "But what do I say? What's the tactic?"
"It's not about tactics," his dad replied. "When you authentically care about somebody, it just comes through naturally."
This is the fork in the road Joe described. You have to decide: Do you really care about these principles? Do you really care about people? Because you can't fake it. The tactics without authentic care ring hollow. But authentic care doesn't need tactics, it manifests naturally in how you show up.
The lesson: The secret to making people know you care is to actually care. Everything else is tactics without foundation.
Vortex's C.A.R.E. initiative (Creating A Rare Experience) is built on a simple principle: connection creates momentum. When employees authentically connect with customers, dealers, and each other, it generates momentum- for the individual, for the team, and eventually for the bottom line.
But it requires a longer-term lens. You can't optimize for quarterly results and simultaneously optimize for compound human connections. The flywheel effect Joe described (where you push and push and push until suddenly you have unstoppable momentum) only works if you don't stop pushing to check the quarterly numbers.
The lesson: The compound returns of authentic relationships takes time to pay off, but when it does, the momentum becomes nearly impossible to stop.
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