Service a credit to community

Have you ever heard one of those stories that gives you the warm fuzzies and makes you a tiny bit proud of humanity? I heard one the other day from a friend and I’d really like to share it with you.

My friend’s mother is 81. She’s a tiny wee twig of a thing with a Canadian accent and a smile that makes you grin back at her before you know what you’re doing.

Last weekend while doing her normal loop of the shops, she lost her wallet. Being 81 it was full of all the things you really don’t want to lose — cash, cards, notes from her doctor and photos of her family.

She discovered this at the counter of Bunnings Hastings and after searching high and low through her handbag, promptly burst into tears.

The amazing store staff rallied. To hear her tell the story, she had the whole store helping her. Her husband quietly mentioned with a wink that it was “only three or four staff members”. They brought her tissues and somewhere to sit, they looked up and down the aisles she had been in, they helped her work out which stores she had been in before them and rang around to see if it had been handed in. And when they couldn’t find it, they took her number and promised to call her if it was found.

The next day to her great delight she got a phone call from Spotlight Hastings to say that a customer had found her wallet on a shelf in the store. They had received the phone call from Bunnings and had been passed on her details.

You would think that this was the happy end to the story, but what made me especially proud was the next phone call she received from Bunnings. You see the staff from the day before had remembered my friend’s mum. And they wanted to call and find out if she had found the wallet. They cared enough to follow up with an 81-year-old customer, just to make sure she was okay.

That, my friends, is outstanding customer service, and a credit to our community.