It's the Little Things

I just had a book delivered by our local UPS guy. He's been the driver for this neighborhood nearly as long as I've lived here. When I worked for someone else eons ago and we did a lot of shipping, UPS was not the preferred venue. They had no tracking capabilities unless you shipped overnight, the people I dealt with on the phone were less than friendly and didn't really seem to care much about making me happy. Now, years later, they seem to have turned themselves around.

When I (rarely) go to ship something now, I do think of UPS--primarily because of this driver. He's always got a smile, got to know my dog and asked about him when he hadn't seen him in a while, and always takes time to say something, even it's just "How are you doing today?" I get stuff from other companies and barely get any eye contact from the drivers, let alone a hello. Now, if the stuff wasn't getting here on time or was damaged, obviously his enthusiasm and attitude wouldn't make me want to use the company. But when everything else is equal and I have a choice between using a company with a guy that smiles and connects--guess which one I'm going to use!

One of our local grocery stores has the reverse problem for me. First, they never have enough checkers on duty so no matter how low their prices, shopping there becomes a burden. They waste my time and time IS money when you're self-employed. Second, their checkers typically are chatting with one another or the bagger and it's usually not happy positive stuff, but gripes about working conditions, gripes about not having enough checkers or baggers on duty, and stuff like that. I compare that to the checkers at the other store, where frequently they ask what I'm going to do with some unusual ingredient. share a quick tip or recipe for something I'm buying, and generally just connect and pay attention to me, while doing their job efficiently at the same time.