A little whisper in the dark

A book's cover

It was one of those slow late afternoons where I was lounging around the shop, chatting with the boss while working on one of the bikes that was in for repairs and maintenance when a customer stepped in from the oppressive heat.

Dressed in a tatty t-shirt and well-worn jeans torn in several places, he was dark, lean and sinewy. I got up, approached him, and prompted,

"Hi good afternoon, can I help you?"

It turned out he was looking for a few bike parts, but good parts that they were. We had some of those in stock, and so went to the storeroom to find them. My boss muttered discreetly to me,

"Don't bother to serve him too long, don't waste your time, he's not going to buy"

"Uh huh, yup, ok, I got time anyway"

I went back and served him anyway and struck up a conversation. He asked a few questions regarding the parts, and finally asked how much the items on the table were. Pulled the calculator out, totted up the sums and showed him. Nick (by now I already knew his name) pulled out his wallet and counted out about $700 in hundred dollar notes,

"I'll take them"

I shot a somewhat triumphant look at my boss, who looked more than a little surprised; it turns out he'd judged him wrong. The customer's name was Nick Tan, and he was dark because he worked in the sun all the time, as a rope technician slung outside skyscrapers cleaning the windows. By the nature of the job, he's fairly well paid. We'd all assumed that he was the typical low-income dreamer coming in to fondle, ask about prices, but ultimately go somewhere else to buy it at the cheapest price possible (my shop isn't well known for being the cheapest).

For a guy who's background was in the restaurant service industry, and now running a retail storefront, he's doing himself no favours writing off customers.

Maybe because I was young, I was enthusiastic, and I genuinely loved bike gear, and would spend half the day talking about it to anyone who'd listen, but I'm glad that day, I proved a point. But today, I was judged by a bikeshop - on my way to a nearby bike trail, I needed a tool to adjust something for my bike, and dropped in at a bike shop to loan an allen key. The shop was empty of customers, and staff were lounging around, yet they refused to lend the tool.

To be honest, I was trying my luck, for it is their tool that I am asking for.

However, it will be my business that I will be taking elsewhere in the future, just because they didn't go the extra mile in their customer service.

posted by Chung Leong @ 9:06 PM