Good Service Is Appreciated

I have a refrigerator magnet that shows a little boy about two years old dressed up in a cowboy outfit with a hat and boots that are way too big for him blubbering, “I just hate it when I don’t get my way.”

To paraphrase that magnet, “Sam and I really hate it when we don’t receive good service.”

I drove to the local Sears store the other day with the intention of buying a new blade for our Sears-brand lawnmower. Inside, I found three young clerks standing around a cash register yakking. I waited for a break in the conversation then asked politely where the mower blades were kept. One of the clerks showed me but left without offering to help me. Of course I couldn’t find the 19-inch blade I needed. So, I went back over to the cash register area where the three clerks had resumed their chat and asked the one who had previously led me to the blades if he could help. He walked me back over to the blade rack, made a half-hearted search for a 19-inch blade and said, “We don’t carry some blades, but you should be able to go online and order the one you need.” He abruptly left me standing there and went back to chat with his compadres. Was I somewhat miffed by his apparent lack of concern? Oh yeah baby! Big time! I left the Sears store thinking, “No wonder they’re having financial problems.”

But then I gassed my truck up, and because it was a rare sunny day, took it through the car wash. As I gassed up I noticed a SameDay Scratch and Dent Repair shop next door. After the truck was washed I wheeled into SameDay and asked the young man there if he could fix a parking-lot dent on my fender. Greg told me how much that would cost so I told him I would probably come back some other time. To my amazement, Greg then noticed a long black mark on my fender, which I thought was a scratch and had tried to hide with touchup paint. He told me to hang on just a minute, ran inside his shop and grabbed a spray bottle full of some magic elixir and proceeded to rub that black mark and touchup paint right out of my hair. Greg didn’t charge me anything for his work. He gave me a big smile and said he had been glad to help me. What a lift that was to my spirit.

Another young man, a clerk at a Safeway store, upon learning that I hadn’t found an item I was looking for, asked permission to leave me at his register a minute and went off and found what I wanted. I wish I had gotten that clerk’s name.

This week two young men, Mike and Nick, came to our house to install our new gas kitchen range. They looked about 19 when they appeared at the door, but they proceeded to hook up a new gas line and install the range with a minimum of fuss and an attitude of service I truly appreciated.

In spite of the bad servants in the world, there are a few good ones still left. When I come across them I am reminded of that biblical line from Matthew 25:23, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Thank you Greg and Mike and Nick and Safeway guy.

Two bags of poop on people with poor service attitudes.