Growing a business is one challenge. Earning the trust of customers for nearly three decades is another.
For the family behind Emsud’s Clothiers in Lincoln, the answer isn’t found in marketing campaigns or complicated business strategies. It’s found in the way they treat every person who walks through the front door.
Part two of Building Nebraska shifts the conversation away from how the Deumic family built their business and instead explores the values that have sustained it for nearly 30 years.
“When my customers come to our store, I always change place with customer,” founder Emsud Deumic said. “I do for them the best… They must be happy. Everything must be perfect. When I see smile on their face, I know they are very happy.”
That customer-first mindset has become the foundation of the family business, according to Emsud’s son Salko.
“Our job is to provide that solution,” he said. “It’s not to sell you more than you want. It’s not to sell you something that I want to get rid of.”
Instead, the family believes customers should leave feeling confident—not pressured.
“We can spend two hours with you here,” Salko said. “If you don’t want to buy it, that’s fine… At the end of the day, it’s about you being comfortable.”
For Emsud’s daughter Alma, that philosophy changes the entire customer experience.
“We don’t feel like you’re walking in as someone who’s looking to spend money,” she said. “We feel like you’re a guest to us, like you’re walking into our home.”
Rather than treating every interaction as a transaction, the family focuses on building long-term relationships. They learn about customers’ families, careers and milestones, helping them find clothing for weddings, job interviews and other important moments throughout life.
“It’s not a one-time transaction for us,” Alma said. “It’s creating that relationship with the customer.”
Salko says people often ask about the secret behind the company’s longevity, expecting an elaborate business plan.
Instead, the answer is much simpler.
“It wasn’t some grand plan that we wrote on a napkin,” he said. “Dad’s always said, ‘Be honest and be fair.’ That’s all you have to do.”
The episode concludes with Emsud reflecting on the kindness his family received after arriving in Lincoln from Bosnia in 1993. Volunteers from First Plymouth Church helped furnish their apartment, stocked their refrigerator and welcomed them into a new community.
“This is the American heart,” Emsud said. “American people… are the best people in the world.”
Today, the Deumic family says that same generosity continues to shape the way they serve every customer who walks through the doors of Emsud’s Clothiers.
Part two of the conversation is available now on Building Nebraska, presented by the Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.