Susan Lanier, the owner of Susan's, 457 Highland Ave. in Surrey Center, goes above and beyond to give her customers a dose of Southern hospitality. Employee Sherry Sims has worked at Susan's for 15 years and was a customer first. She says working for owner Susan Lanier "is like working with family."

"It looks like Lucille Ball," declares Susan Lanier, and she smiles approvingly at her longtime customer Marjorie Adams, who models a stylish, sheer black and white polka-dot blouse over a black tank top.

Several employees and customers gather at the dressing room mirror and nod in agreement at the garment patterned after attire worn by the actress. Mrs. Lanier checks the fit of the top and sends Mrs. Adams back to the dressing room to try on a new outfit.

This is the kind of personal service the owner of Susan's, 457 Highland Ave. in Surrey Center, has given her customers for 25 years. The petite Southern belle has dressed many Augusta women from head to toe.

"We consider ourselves a specialty store or boutique. We like to have unique things that they don't carry in department stores or chains," Mrs. Lanier said.

She recalled a buying trip to New York City, where the elevator operator asked what floor she wanted. She replied "Eighteen" in her Southern drawl. She said everyone in the elevator immediately turned around to stare at her when they heard her accent, but Mrs. Lanier didn't mind. This upbeat, friendly Southern flavor is part of her success.

The 68-year-old goes above and beyond to give her customers a dose of Southern hospitality. She takes such care that "she won't sell two good friends the same thing." Mrs. Lanier is so acquainted with her clientele that when an outfit comes into the store, she calls customers if the garment fits their style.

Before the start of each season, she sends out care packages to loyal customers who live outside the metro area so they can preview the latest fashions. They can purchase what they like and send the rest back, Mrs. Lanier explained.

To further accommodate her customers, Susan's has a "liberal approval policy," which allows shoppers to take merchandise home to try on with their accessories for two nights.

Over the years, more than 3,700 customers have visited Susan's, according to Mrs. Lanier's database of customer information.

Mrs. Adams has been shopping at the boutique for 25 years. She is the shop's oldest customer and drives from Wrens, Ga., for shopping trips. She was drawn to it because of its personalized service. She wanted some "nice things that aren't like what everybody would have."

She has a unique piece of jewelry that Mrs. Lanier found for her. Mrs. Adams' husband sold cattle, and the couple often attended high-end cattle sales, where they wore Western-style clothing. Mrs. Lanier found a sterling silver necklace with pendants shaped like cows, complete with udders.

"I wore it a great deal. Nobody else would have wanted this, but she knew I would. This was extremely special," Mrs. Adams said.

Mrs. Lanier doesn't allow her three employees to refer to her as "the boss."

"The girls that I work with, we're all friends. I think it's fun to come to work because of the people I work with," she said.

She refers to her team as her "co-workers." Her sales associates, Sherry Sims, Nikki Conzett and Joan Howard, have 75 years of sales experience between them.

"She never treats me like an employee. Even if I said that she's my boss, she says that I'm her co-worker," Ms. Conzett said.

"She's always in a good mood. We laugh and talk about everything, from our work to our home life. It makes it more like coming to have fun than coming to a job. I'm truly lucky. I'm probably one of the few people who doesn't hate their job. I love it," she said.

Eddie Bradley, an independent sales representative with Eddie Bradley & Associates in Atlanta, has known Mrs. Lanier for more than 10 years. She buys clothes from him several times a year at Atlanta Apparel Mart in downtown Atlanta.

"She's one of my favorite buyers, and we always look forward to seeing her. Susan is very professional in how she runs her business and is a hands-on buyer who knows her customers' needs and desires," Mr. Bradley said.

"She also knows how to budget for each category. Susan runs a high-quality fashion boutique which is well-rounded for her customers. That is hard to do, especially during these times."

Chuck Baldwin, the owner of French Market Grille at Surrey Center, said that Mrs. Lanier "is like the big sister'' that he never had.

"She's got a lot of life experiences, being a little older, and she can kind of give me a perspective on things," Mr. Baldwin said.

He believes that Mrs. Lanier's personal connection with her customers is the key to her success.

"She's got longevity with customers. That's important to have. You can't put a dollar figure on it. The only way to create it, like my boss used to say, is one grain of sand at a time builds the mountain," Mr. Baldwin said.

"For some people, the cup is half empty. To her it's always at least half full. She's always looking on the good side of things."

Read, write and sew

Mrs. Lanier's father, Ralph Willis Lillard, owned an insurance company, and her mother, Phyllis Lillard, was a housewife. Mrs. Lanier, born in Columbia in 1940, has a younger sister, Melinda.

"My mama had me taking everything: tap, ballet, and one year I took acting," Mrs. Lanier said.

She graduated from Richmond Academy in 1959 and attended Augusta College until 1961, when she married William Lanier. The two were friends throughout junior high and high school and fell in love after a college homecoming dance.

"I had a date with someone else, and my date couldn't come so he asked William to pick me up," Mrs. Lanier said.

After they married, the couple moved to Athens, Ga., so Mr. Lanier could finish his degree at the University of Georgia. When they returned to Augusta in 1964, Mrs. Lanier went back to school.

"I was in the first graduating class of Augusta College," she said. She was also the first homecoming queen at the institution, now Augusta State University.

While in college, Mrs. Lanier worked part-time at King Harry's Music Service, where she typed jukebox slips. The owners allowed her to take courses during her lunch hour, and she took additional courses at night.

Mrs. Lanier majored in elementary education, though she wanted to be a history major. History was not offered as a major at the time. She graduated in 1967.

She taught math and science for one year before she left the work force to start her family. She has two children, William and Susan.

Sewing was one of Mrs. Lanier's hobbies. She made her own clothes, and her daughter's clothes, for many years. She learned to sew from her best friend's mother, Jane Tallman Heath, when she was in high school.

"She taught me how to do the finer techniques of sewing. For a good while, I made all my clothes. I even made polyester leisure suits for me and a pair of pants for my husband," Mrs. Lanier said. "I wouldn't have the patience to do it now, but I loved it back then.

In 1970, Mrs. Heath introduced Mrs. Lanier to a sales rep from Kansas City-based Leiter's Designer Fabrics. The company sold fabric that couldn't be found locally, targeting women who sewed at home. Though she was reluctant to sign up, Mrs. Lanier agreed to give sales a try. The job provided the foundation for her to open her clothing store years later.

With Leiter's, she had four or five showings per year and worked her way up to area manager. In 1981, she was named the company's top seller for the United States, with sales of $25,480.

She didn't stop working for the company until she opened her store in January 1984.

On her own

Mrs. Lanier started her clothing business in a ranch-style house on Berckmans Road. Her husband was supportive of the venture and she used their savings to start it.

She named it Susan's after her daughter. The children were 14 and 16 years old at the time.

"I started with a small customer base and grew it," Mrs. Lanier said.

She developed a customer list and called them one week before her in-house fashion shows to make appointments. She eventually added a sunroom to the house to accommodate the growth. Many customers came to her through word of mouth, she said.

"Even though I was successful, I could see the potential in not being a free-standing location," Mrs. Lanier said.

In 1990, she began calling the owner of Surrey Center, Alonso "Bruz" Boardman, to express interest in moving her store to the shopping center. If anybody would be moving out, she wanted to have first choice.

She called for six months and finally received the answer that she wanted: Mr. Boardman told her that he wanted to convert the downstairs portion of the center, which previously housed professional offices, into retail space. Mrs. Lanier moved to Surrey Center on Dec. 19, 1991.

"We were the first retail store (on that level). There was nothing across the street. The parking lot was half the size it is now. My persistence paid off," she said.

Today, Surrey Center has 50 merchants and a third level of shopping space.

"We've had no regrets. This was the best decision that I've ever made. I can't say enough about being in this shopping center. We were a lifestyle center before there were any," Mrs. Lanier said.

She works closely with Augusta Mayor Deke Copenhaver's wife, Malisa Copenhaver, the manager of Surrey Center. Mrs. Copenhaver attended school with Mrs. Lanier's children and said that she is "very positive, upbeat and dedicated."

"She's a very loyal tenant. She's been there for 17 years. She's a very good friend and a great person," Mrs. Copenhaver said.

All the merchants are good friends and support each other. There are six ladies' apparel stores at Surrey Center, and they refer customers to each other, Mrs. Lanier said.

Mrs. Lanier has served as the secretary and treasurer of the Surrey Center Merchants Association for 14 years. The merchants pool their money each month for advertising to promote the shopping center, and she handles the billing and deposits. Mr. Baldwin is the president of the association.

"We complement each other. I'll do some things that she doesn't like, such as confrontations when there is a problem, and she's really good at keeping records, which I don't really care to do. We've always had a lot of fun doing it," he said.

All dressed up

"I've always appreciated the design of the clothes and the fabric," Mrs. Lanier said.

In grammar school, she had a notebook in which she sketched clothing. She even gave each outfit a name.

"I can remember seeing a movie with Joan Crawford in it, and I loved her outfit. I was fascinated with fashion," she said.

Among her merchandise, she carries the Eileen Fisher, Kathleen Sommers and Gerties lines, which have developed a following.

"Some customers come to the Masters in April and shop with us every year. One lady from Mississippi has been shopping with us for 15 years," Mrs. Lanier said.

The wives of professional golfers also have shopped at her store.

Mrs. Lanier used to make shopping trips to New York City and Dallas, but it's really not cost effective now.

"All the good lines from California and New York bring their merchandise to the Atlanta Apparel market. It's not necessary to go other places," she said.

She discovers new lines every time she goes to market, which is five times a year.

Mr. Bradley sells European lines of clothing and said that business owners buy merchandise six months before it hits stores. This month, Mrs. Lanier will visit the market to buy clothes for September and October.

Mrs. Lanier's employees are loyal. Barbara Rozelle, who worked as her bookkeeper when she started the business in 1984, is now retired but still works at the shop occasionally.

Ms. Sims has been Mrs. Lanier's friend and co-worker for 15 years. She joined Susan's after being a customer.

"She's compassionate, a hard worker and has great insight in the business. She's a very smart businesswoman. Working for her is like working with family. We've had our moments where we've laughed and cried together," Ms. Sims said.

Because the store is small, the sales associates don't have sales goals or quotas -- they simply focus on customer service.

"We try to dress them from head to toe, even if it means going someplace to find a piece (shoes or accessories) that we don't have," she explained.

Ms. Conzett started working at Susan's five years ago. Ms. Sims and one of Ms. Conzett's customers from another store called her, saying "what a great person she (Mrs. Lanier) is to work for."

"She was willing to work out any schedule with me. I had two small children at the time," Ms. Conzett said. "I know what she wants before she asks me.

''If I have something going on, she knows something is bothering me. She'll talk it over with me. That comes before the work. Somebody like that is hard to find."

Mrs. Lanier is witty and has given each of her co-workers a nickname, said Ms. Howard, who has worked at the shop for two years.

Ms. Howard often gets cold, so her nickname is "Nanook of the North." Customers often call Ms. Sims "Sandy" rather than "Sherry," and the name stuck.

One day, someone brought Ms. Conzett a gift and jumbled the words "gift" and "Nikki," calling her "Giffy," so that became her nickname.

"She's an absolute riot. Things like that bring us together. If you're sick, she'll call you at home and check on you. She always puts the customer first. The customer is always right. She will just bend over backwards, to her detriment, in order to please a customer," Ms. Howard said.

Mrs. Lanier will come in early and stay late. She works every Saturday so that her employees don't have to.

"You just don't see that very often. That's a real plus for us. That's something that we look forward to," Ms. Howard said.

It's in the details

Many people shy away from detailed tasks, but not Mrs. Lanier.

"I love bookwork. People just don't understand how I love to do paperwork. I just enjoy doing it," she said.

While her husband does crossword puzzles in his spare time, she brings home paperwork every night from the store. She also enjoys doing research on clients' sales histories, Ms. Conzett said.

"She loves to find little details. She's got a mind like a steel trap. She's a great businesswoman. She's very smart. I've learned a lot from her, not only about the business but life in general," she said.

Ms. Howard said Mrs. Lanier "crosses all the t's and dots all the i's."

"She keeps track of her inventory. She knows exactly where she stands at all times, when it comes to finances. She's a combination of things -- she's very businesslike and she can be the life of the party," she said.

Mrs. Lanier said that her business has been through economic ups and downs, and she vividly remembers the sharp stock market decline of 1987.

She said Susan's had a strong year in 2008. In fact, December sales surpassed those for the same month in 2007. Mrs. Lanier believes that her work ethic has helped her business to survive.

"I'm real determined. I always believe everything is going to come back economically," she said.

She has no plans for retirement. Some of her friends, who have already retired, often ask when she is going to leave the work force behind.

"I always say, what would I do?" she said.

"I've never heard her say that she needed an exit strategy. As long as you have fun doing what you're doing, and I think that's the case with Susan. She's still having a good time," Mr. Baldwin said.

Reach LaTina Emerson at (706) 823-3227 or latina.emerson@augustachronicle.com.