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A Priceless Chicken Salad Sandwich

Joe Marconi
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Joe Marconi Grand Master

Joe Marconi

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A Priceless Chicken Salad Sandwich

 

One of our favorite customers came in the other day with a leak from the power steering. She recently moved two towns over, a distance of about 15 miles, but still comes to us faithfully for all the work on her car.

 

She needed a power steering pressure hose. No one locally had the hose, and it would take about 4 hours to get one from the nearest warehouse. We offered to take her home, but she insisted that she would wait, saying that its just too far.

 

Mike, one of my service advisors, asked me if we could buy her a sandwich for lunch. I told him, Absolutely.

 

I walked into the waiting room while she was finishing up her sandwich and bottled water, and she looked at me and I could see a tear in eye. She said, "everyone here is just so nice, you guys are too much."

 

You see, Mike didnt ask her if she wanted anything for lunch, he just went out and got it. It was chicken salad on a bagel.

 

The look on her face was priceless. And I know we all do these things from time to time.

 

The next time someone asks me why I think independent shops are successful; I will tell them its because of a chicken salad sandwich!

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Gonzo Grand Master

Gonzo

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Nothing like helping someone with their car and then fit it a little person to person involvement into it. This is far beyond the little "extra" we all do when we have a car in the shop, you know, like... "I saw your tire was low so I added some air to it." or "That door handle was loose so after I finished the brake job I tightened it up for you... no charge BTW." The "sandwich" represents that we see our customers as more than our next paycheck.

 

Wish we all could offer a chicken sandwich to our customers. Sometimes, it's just the right thing to do.

 

And, to do it...shows we care.

 

Great story Joe

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Gary A Community Regular

Gary A

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Chicken salad for the soul, isn't there a book on that? Great job Mike and great job Joe - when things go bad it reflects on the leadership, when things go good it reflects on the leadership too. I've been to Joe's place a couple of times and Joe walks the talk and has a great group working with him

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Joe Marconi Grand Master

Joe Marconi

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Chicken salad for the soul, isn't there a book on that? Great job Mike and great job Joe - when things go bad it reflects on the leadership, when things go good it reflects on the leadership too. I've been to Joe's place a couple of times and Joe walks the talk and has a great group working with him

 

Thank you Gary for those kind words. It takes great people around you to really have something great. I am blessed to have that. It is just like AutoShopOwner.com, the great people like yourself, who make great content, make this site the Number One Automotive Shop Management Network site on the planet.

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