I have about negative fifteen minutes to write this, so it’ll be quick.
Last night, I posted an update on Facebook saying:
Dear REI Southcenter staff: If one of you manages to help me remember to buy a KMTT Mountain CD for my mom before I leave your store tomorrow morning, there might be something in it for you.
I don’t really say things online expecting anyone to listen. I say things online because I am amused by doing so, and by connecting with people through words and shared experience. It’s completely selfish. That sometimes people do listen is kinda cool.
And this time, someone was listening.
When I got to work this morning (first stop, a shop visit at Southcenter REI), I buzzed my way in to the not yet open store. I dropped my bags, and headed back toward the back of the store to say my hellos. As I walked through the quiet of the unopened store, the long straight aisle invited me to do a cartwheel and I accepted the invitation.
When I met up with staff for a quick clinic, a staffer named Lisa looked at me a little bit quizzically, and said,
“I’m not sure what this is about… but someone from direct sales just called Heather here, and told her to tell me to make sure that you don’t leave the store without buying a Mountain CD?”
The remark was phrased as a question, most definitely. I was a little confused… then remembered my Facebook update, and then literally jumped up and down with excitement that…
Someone had listened to me.
Not only had someone listened to me… someone listened to me, and then cared enough about what I said, to pick up their phone, and call the Southcenter store, and help create the conditions for me to achieve one of the items on my to do list today.
While I was making my rounds of the store after the clinic (again, having forgotten entirely about the CD), another staffer, Janine, walked up to me and put the CD in my hand. Janine is also, by the way, a hugger like me. Awesome.
At checkout, I asked Rich if I could take a picture of him selling me the CD that I would not have remembered to get for my mother, were it not for a number of people listening and going out of their way to help me, today.
My mother asks very little of me. She accepts this wacky life of mine that keeps me from spending as much time in Port Townsend as she and my dad would like. I routinely miss family meals, and commitments… sometimes at the last minute, because I have to.
For me to walk out of that store today with a $14 CD in hand that my mom asked me to pick up for her is a very little thing in terms of a retail sale.
But that so many people went out of their way to help me do this one little thing for my mom is making my heart very, very warm right now. It helps me love my job. It helps me want to return the favor. To approach each day with the question “What can I do for you today?” on the tip of my tongue.
Are YOU listening?
Filed under: OIBIZ, Social Media
