Customer Compliment

Today, I had a pleasurable moment at work. As a multiple business owner, I am not at each location all the time - plus - I have "princess tendencies" that bring me in late (hahaha). A customer came in for a repeat visit. He had been to our shop once before, but I had never met him. Today, I had the pleasure to wait on him when he picked up his vehicle and pay his bill. At first, he did not know I was the owner, just thought I was the secretary I think :) He asked me, "Do you know why I came back here and love you guys?" I said No, but I'd sure like to hear. He remembered from his past repair, that an error had been made and we made it right. I then remembered that job, but had never met the actual man. The last time he was in - we inadvertently billed him for a part that ended up not actually being needed on his truck. We returned the part, but did not remove it from his bill. I caught the error in my daily duties a few weeks later, and sent the man a check for $40 something dollars and apologized for the error. He told me today when I met him that NOBODY from ANY company had ever sent him money BACK! He knew that I could have easily kept that $40 and no one would have ever been the wiser. I remembered doing that - it was just the right thing to do. I didn't realize at the time that others might not. It made me feel really GOOD to know that doing the right thing made a real impact on my company's reputation, and brought a smile to the heart of a now loyal customer. I was just embarrassed at the time that we let an error like that slip by us! I told him I appreciated his comments, introduced myself as the business owner, and told him - no worries. We try hard to do what we say we will do, with quality and timely performance. I also mentioned that I too must look into a mirror each day - and why would I keep $40 that didn't rightfully belong to me? We smiled and shook hands. Ahhh - the little things in life that make your day :) It was a true pleasure serving this customer, and I hope many more feel the same way. It just feels so good to make someone else happy. I want us all to strive for more of that in our daily lives, our business lives, and just in general. God Bless America and the people that live here and co-mingle from time to time with each other in happy ways :)