Jim Hinshaw
Contributing Writer
Improvement Professional, President & Sales
I can remember it well. 20 years ago we were at the mortuary, saying our final good farewell to my father. They had prepared a viewing for us, just my wife and i. We walked into a room that was large enough for a couple of hundred, but only May and I were present. The casket was at the front, seems like a mile away. May put her arm in mine. A small gesture, but one that was incredibility comforting at that time. A gesture that I will never forget. We said good bye, made final preparations for the service a day later at my parent’s church. Same incident occurred when my mom passed three years ago, still remember her arm encircling mine.
A second emotional moment occurred at the memorial service for my father; Chas Roberts AC sent over a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Totally unexpected, at that time I worked for Donley Service, a competitor of sorts. So it surprised me that they had remembered my family at this emotional time. Sissie, while I realize you were not the president at that time, your company made an impact on my family at that time, and we thank you.
So it is the little things that can make a lasting impression. My take on this is to try to find those times when your customers are going thru a time of high emotion: a birth, a wedding or the death of a family member. When anyone in your company discovers the customer is going thru one of these times, give them instructions to share with office staff. And then appoint someone to send a card, or remember them in an appropriate way. I want to be clear, this is not some “give to get” concept, we should do this because it is the right thing to do. When you bond with a customer in a time of emotional need, they will remember that for a really long time.
Was just in San Antonio, working with A & E, a great company that has been in place for over 20 years. While there, I talked with the woman at the front desk, she was busy with calls coming in, and yet I noticed she also had a couple of cards she was filling out. These were get well cards and sorry for your loss cards, she was sending them out to their customers. In fact, she does that rather often. Part of her job, to keep the company involved in the community. Which is a good thing.
One more concept that came from my dad’s funeral. He was interred in the Veteran’s Memorial Cemetery in Phoenix. We had asked the pastor of their church to do the grave-side service, he agreed. He agreed even though he was brand new to the church and new to Phoenix. He got lost the day of the funeral. Remember, this was 20 years ago, no GPS, and few had cell phones with navigation on them. We waited, the honor guard (my dad was a Marine) finally asked me what they should do, they had three funerals that morning. So I said, we can do this ourselves, I know how to pray. And pray we did, had the honor guard ceremony, said our final farewell. Got back to home, a message from the church which said the pastor was so sorry, he was torn up. We said not to worry, we got along just fine.
So there is my final thought, don’t try to plan life out to the exact detail, be prepared when life takes a turn you did not expect. Good to have goals, plans and all that. But be aware that things may happen outside of your control. In that regard, May and I just went through a health crisis that we did not see coming. It did come, and took months and months to work through it. I will share more details in a later message, but for now, thanks for listening, we’ll talk later.