It was nearly another perfect day today in North Iowa to where I said to someone who’s nearly always crabby, “How can we not keep from smiling while in the midst of such a beautiful day?” I almost left her speechless until she finally said, “Yeah I guess so but we’ll see how long this weather lasts when we wake up one day and find winter breathing down our necks.” Isn’t it sad to find such souls in our midst who are always taking everything to the negative side?
An extended closing with one of the most charming young couples took place today. If only they could be cloned, I’d planting them all across North Iowa. The husband just recently had his birthday and I almost said to him, “What better a belated birthday present to yourself could you ever get after closing on your very first home?” I just about said it, but then simply congratulated and thanked them for working with me. I believe the seller was also glad about it all after seeing the buyers and their children.
Certainly you’ve all heard that old saying, “Oil and water doesn’t mix.” Well, that thought came back to mind recently when finding myself back in a situation with an individual who seems to get jollies out of making my job all the more difficult. Trying to be a hero at the expense of others is very annoying because it doesn’t just stop with me, because it also fans out and affects others. This person also doesn’t know boundaries to where a conversation with this human always ends up becoming a beadie-eyed in your face encounter. Oh well, that’s part of our job when working with the general public. Right? But one of these days I’m going to say, “Are you hard of hearing?” And if the answer is “No.” I’ll then say, “So why then do you always have to be in someone’s face when your speaking to them?”
One of my customers caused me have a much needed hearty laugh this afternoon. Because he owned his own business here many years ago, we spoke about how so many here in Mason City always seem to expect something extra for nothing. What shocked me was when he mentioned the fact that when he had businesses in other cities, there would rarely if ever be someone who’d say, “So if I buy this, what are you going to give me for free?”
Perhaps that’s why many of the banks, real estate companies, insurance agencies, along with countless other business have learned it’s an expectation to give free stuff to their customers so to keep them happy. My take on it is if you have to give someone something for free, it’s sort of saying, “I didn’t do my absolute best for you, so here, take this pen, calendar, cookies, coffee, cake, door knocker, and whatever else I can think of as an acknowledgement of my failings.” I couldn’t help but bring up my experience when young and helping my mother sell fruits and vegetables to the general public. I said to him, “It didn’t take me long to know who the chiselers were.” I then went on to say, “When selling by the quart or bushel, it wasn’t good enough to have a more than healthy and fresh quart or bushel of whatever was being sold, but rather there were those who expected to be getting heaping quarts or bushels.”
After the chiselers would leave, there’d be not the most pleasant words about them to my mother, just as I’m sure many business people here in our City likely do after their greedy/chiseling customers walk out their doors. I’ve always believed that if a product or service is superior and fairly priced, there should never even be a thought to discount. But on the flip side, if a product or service is inferior, then most certainly it deserves to be discounted.
Not but an hour later after hearing someone squeal about a bad job they’d had done, I said, “Why would you pick a mule or “ass” to win your race when you already knew that a race horse that was in the next stall would’ve done the job?” He looked at me and said, “Mr. Chodur, sometimes you have such clever ways of telling someone they intentionally “funked” up.” Yes, I’m glad I got my much needed belly laugh today.
