Great customer service

I went shopping for a padlock today at the local Home Depot. It is a giant box store covering several acres with a huge selection of products. The aisles are 20 foot tall racks stuffed full of goods. With 25 aisles, it can be a little intimidating to find small items such as bolts, brushes or locks. To help with that problem, they always have a 'traffic director' standing inside the door to point people to the right aisle.

Today the traffic director missed by a mile, err, aisle. She said "18" and the locks were on 17. Close enough for me to find the padlocks, get a couple of house keys cut, buy a key ring and get a gift card on the way out. Shopping time is usually either a rushed or open-ended experience for me. Today I had 30 minutes to kill before meeting a friend for lunch. Home Depot was an inspired choice for shopping. The clerk that cut my keys told me a couple of jokes, discussed the best local pizza and was both helpful and friendly.

I bought the lock for my mother so she can lock a filing cabinet in her new place. Staff have access to her room when she is not there. Prudence and experience dictate having a locked place to store small valuable items such as her purse or jewelry.

The gift card was the for the Community Relations Director, Sukie Ellis, at my mom's new home—Sunrise Senior living in Bellevue. My mom was discombobulated when she moved into Sunrise and needed someone to help her move out the her old place including packing her clothes, putting things in storage, getting items moved to both the new place & storage, and setting up the new place. Sukie Ellis stepped up to the plate and helped my mom with all that. That was some AWESOME customer service.

The gift card I got at Home Depot was for Sukie. She was busy giving a tour to two local consultants while I was there today that work as advisors (for lack of a better term) helping families find a good match for their aging family members. I knew one of the ladies and told her in no uncertain terms how great I thought Sukie, the rest of the staff and facilities at Sunrise/Bellevue was. Granted, today was only my third trip there. However, after 30 years of paralysis due to a spinal cord injury, I have developed a keen sense of good & bad health care providers.

Sukie did not have time to hear the long version of why I got her a gift card, so I simply gave it to her and told her that I would give her the long version on another day. I have been to Sunrise three times and got four hugs from her. Sukie has played a huge role in helping me develop a better relationship with my mother after not seeing mom for seven years.

I am grateful for great customer service whether it is buying a $4 lock at Home Depot or helping my mother move into an assisted living facility.