Recognize & Praise The Heck Out Of Good Service

I went to Home Depot on Brodie Lane in Austin today to buy some steel. Yes, raw chunks of steel. Metal. Grrrrrrrrr.

Not as odd as it sounds when you hear it is for my ten-year-old's 5th grade science project. She needed ten pieces of steel that could be part of an experiment on rust. The problem is that all nails, bolts, washers and other metal products that Home Depot sells are all non-rusting treated metals. Sure, that is what you want when you are building actual things...but when you want to experience rust and decay you can quickly become frustrated by all our modern advances.

Robert in the Tool Rental department was there to help me. I am not sure that every Home Depot employee would have gone to the lengths to help me with my minor problem . His own kid had done a similar science fair project, so he fully knew that I need to get a steel rod and cut it into two inch pieces. Robert quickly assessed my lack of skills in the world of do-it-yourself projects, and asked if I had the proper tools to cut the raw steel pipe that he had located.

Ummmmm, yeah, .... I don't do much work around the house, much less projects that involve needing a vice and a hack saw.

Rather than causing me the pain of trying to do this myself, Robert volunteered to take the metal pipe into the back and cut it himself. In a matter of five minutes he returned with the matching pieces of steel. This is customer service at its finest, and solidified my allegiance to Home Depot over Lowes (which is located a block away).

I am going to visit homedepot.com and send a message to the powers that be in his company making sure they know that they have a great employee. My guess is they already know, as this type of "customer first" actions are not a one time thing. Too often these days in Big Box retailers you find a crew of clock punchers. Not Robert.

When you see good service you need to go out of your way to praise. Our world seems all too eager to let people skate past with accomplishing only the minimum. If we collectively scream out with delight when we encounter an example of "WOW", maybe more people will be motivated to go the extra mile.

Have A Great Day.

thom
thomsinger.com