Life At Slow-Mo

This might sound like a crazy idea. Let me tell you a story to explain.

Like many winter days in Seattle, it was an overcast day. After settling down at the hotel, I wanted to call home to Jakarta. In those days twenty years ago, to make overseas call, people commonly use a calling card.  It is a card that kept a certain amount of credit that you could use to make calls. You could call over any land line, by dialing the number on the card, entering a code and then dialing your destination number. The calls you made using that card were cheaper than if you called directly. 

Crossing a park in front of the hotel at the corner of 5th Avenue and Olive, there was a Bartell Drugstore. Entering the store I saw there was only one clerk behind the counter. He was slender built, about 5’10” tall. He, I guessed, was no older than 19. He wore a white polo shirt and the store’s dark apron. A crew cut hair framed his pale complexion. In front of his counter there were a line of customers waiting for his service.

When my turn came, he greeted me with a friendly. “How can I help you?”
“Yeah. Do you sell calling cards?” I said.
Instead of directly giving me a yes or no answer, he replied with another question.
“To what country do you wish to call?”
I lost my thought for a second at the unexpected response. Why does he need to know the country I want to call? Any calling card can call to any country, right?
“Indonesia,” I replied.
“I am sorry, Sir. Unfortunately the calling cards that we have charge high rates for calls to Indonesia,” he said in a matter-of-fact way. “You can find cards with lower rates in the ‘Blue Moon’ store just a few steps from here.”

I was taken aback at his reply for two reasons. One, I never met anyone who was willing to promote a better price in another store. For all I know, a salesperson could earn a termination for sending customers away. Reason number two, how on earth did he know that the cards in the other store had better rates? Did he have a habit to compare calling card rates?

Seattle is one of the gates from Asia into mainland US. If you take a stroll in Southcenter Mall in Tukwila, you can meet many Southeast Asian men and women, young and old. According to demographic data, Asians make up a significant percentage of the population of the city. Probably a couple of Indonesians had come by to buy calling cards, too. It was really not a big surprise if he knew a lot about  the rates of calls to Indonesia.

Or maybe he was simply telling me that they didn’t sell calling cards in a polite and helpful manner. Whichever that was, I was impressed!

He then gave me directions to the ‘Blue Moon’ store. After thanking him, I walked to find the place. It was a bakery owned and run by Asian proprietors, and they did sell calling cards. I never found out whether the rates were better than the ones sold at the General Store. All I knew was that when I left Seattle, there was still some credit left in the card, even after I used it to make calls to a country half a world away for hours. So it was a pretty good buy!

I never forgot this experience because the young man taught me valuable lessons when it comes to serving customers:

1. Always think in the customer’s best interest, even when it means directing the customer to another business who can give a better service. That is the price for gaining customer’s trust, and to build long term relationships.
2. Hoard as much as possible knowledge and information that you know can help you serve customers. It will help you going the extra miles for your customers, and win their  goodwill..

Edited for clarity and easier reading on January 3, 2021