Extra efforts for service dealers don't go unnoticed

Once upon a time, I wrote a piece for the service industry entitled “Catch Me Being Good.” The goal was to have motorists everywhere catch someone in the service industry doing something great, something wonderful, something totally unexpected, and then to share that with us so we could give them the recognition and appreciation they deserved.

It didn’t work, but not for a lack of great service dealers doing good stuff every day. There was and still is an abundance of great deeds going on in the service industry all over the country. Nor was there a lack of recognition or appreciation on the part of the motorists on the receiving end of all these good deeds. In fact, I just finished snacking on a homemade peanut butter cookie — still too hot to eat. Someone just brought us a batch of them as a thank you for getting her vehicle back under the estimate and earlier than promised.

The problem was time. No one had the time to share these great stories or wonderful deeds with us unless we forced them to stop what they were doing long enough to tell us how much they loved their service provider or technician.

I can’t tell you how frustrating that was, but maybe you already know. You do great stuff for the service industry every day, and I’ll bet there are plenty of times you feel that, at best, it goes unnoticed.

Well, I know how far a simple “Attaboy!” can go, so I’d like to take this opportunity to let you know that going the extra mile has not gone unnoticed, even if it has gone unheralded.

Thank you for the simple stuff, like asking the right questions and sending the right part the first time.

Thank you for having that part in stock when I need it. After all, I couldn’t do my job if you didn’t do yours.

Thank you for getting that part for me even when you didn’t have it in stock. Not every service dealer in the country may know or understand what it takes to make that happen, but I do!

And, while we are at it, thank you for the returns and credits on all the parts that you didn’t get reimbursed for: the ones you had to “eat.” I know you don’t have to do that and really appreciate the fact that you do.

I’d like to say thank you for staying late and opening early, for coming in when you should have been closed just because I had my back against the wall and needed, really needed, to get that car or truck finished no matter what it took.

I’d like to say thank you for that extra delivery, the one that wasn’t scheduled, or for diverting a driver so I could get my order because timing on a job was crucial. I know you caught hell for that from some other service dealer, but I need you to know that it didn’t go unnoticed or unappreciated at my end.

Thank you for doing a great job under difficult circumstances and for doing it with a special kind of grace despite our sometimes unreasonable expectations.

You parts distributors make an impossible task look easy and you do it every day.