I
was at a Mass at the Catholic Church my
family and I regularly attend in and in
the homily it was suggested that sometimes
we find ourselves getting in touch with
the Lord only when there is something
that is troubling us. It’s almost
treating the Lord like “Customer
Service”. Calling only when we have
a problem, so-to-speak.
When
we go to the store to shop or go to pick
up take-out we expect good customer service
in our society. When we get bad customer
service we get irritated, irate, and some
of us will get verbally abusive. It is
a natural thing for a business to make
sure that they have good if not excellent
customer service as part of their business
plan. If they don’t, there is a
good chance the business won’t last
very long.
This
past weekend, we took off for Arlington,
Texas to perform Saturday evening at Reflections
and about 40 minutes into the trip Bill
remembered that he forgot his briefcase.
When asked if we needed to turn around
to retrieve it Bill said “No, I
will do without it.” What was in
there was a guitar slide, guitar picks,
etc… Also inside were guitar strings.
We didn’t think there was a big
problem until we arrived at the gig and
found that there were no spare strings
at all. Bill informed me and said “I
hope I don’t break a string.”
All I thought about was exactly that and
what would we do if he did break a string.
I asked if Bill thought we should try
to get to a music store. His response
was predictable and accurate. “I’m
sure they are all closed by now…”
as it was 8:45 p.m. on a Saturday.
As
the band’s manager it is my responsibility
to anticipate trouble and resolve it before
it becomes just that – trouble.
I placed a call to 411 information and
asked for
the number of the nearest Guitar Center.
It happened to be located in Arlington
and I had been there before and knew
exactly where it was. With little or know
hope of the store being open I called
anyway. Just when I was about to hang
up a voice answered. “Thank you
for calling to Guitar Center
…”
(thinking this was an automated message
when the rest of the statement was made)
“…this is Josh. How can I
help you?” Trying to curtail my
exuberance that there was someone actually
there to take the call I quickly explained
our situation to Josh and even though
they were closed he said “Come on
by, we will take care of you.” That
is exactly what they did. Even though
they were closed and had been for over
45 minutes, they 
unlocked
their doors and sold us guitar strings.
That
my friends – “is” customer
service and very good customer service
at that.
Thanks
go out to the staff of Guitar Center in
Arlington, Texas.
Guitar
Center
721 Ryan Plaza Dr.
Arlington, Texas
76011
Phone:
817-277-3510
Fax: 817-795-9596
http://gc.guitarcenter.com/locations/store.cfm?store=441
