Front Men

May 24, 2023

A retailer may not realize what a big difference one employee can make.

Some towns I only shop in occasionally. This particular day I had an item to return, so I headed to the service desk. I was stunned that all the lights were turned down. Is the service department closed? I had driven half an hour to get my money refunded for this item. This did not compute. I’ve never been in this store when it was open and the service desk was closed.

I stood there with a stupid look on my face. An employee walked up and said, “The service desk is closed.”

I said, “You mean I can’t return this?”

She frowned. “Just a minute.” She left, and returned in less than a minute. “I can get you a gift card for the price of the returned item. Will that be okay?”

“Yes, thank you very much!”

In another store, I was using one of the self-checkouts. I had an item that I’d searched all over town for, and had found one, the last one, here. I had a coupon for a dollar off, and the machine kept telling me the coupon had expired. I raised my hand, and the employee supervising the ten self-checkouts came over. “It won’t take my coupon.”

She tried the coupon. “It’s expired.”

I said, “The coupon says it has two more years.” I pointed to the expiration date. She got out a key and did an override. I got my dollar off.

One person can make a big difference. In your church, you can be that person. We’re selling Jesus. We don’t want anybody to turn away. How is your smile, your helpfulness, your welcome?

“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to Gob.” II Corinthians 5:20