Giving Without Expectation

Giving Without Expectation. One of my favorite stories from the Wine Library days is when I went out of my way in the middle of a snowstorm to deliver a case of low-end wine during the holidays. Now, did I have to do it? Did I really need that one-bottle sale? From a profit standpoint, no. But I valued my customer, wanted to show my appreciation, and also wanted to show my employees how we should be approaching our customer relations. And so, that’s what I decided to do.

Turns out a few weeks later that same customer’s seemingly wealthy son gave me a call and placed a MASSIVE order with us. Did I know that was going to happen? Of course not. And would it have happened regardless? Maybe. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that I went out of my way to put my customer first and, in the end, it ended up working out in my favor too. Regardless of what she did after or who she told, I felt good about myself. Sometimes there’s a dividend and many times there’s not, but that should never stop you from doing the right thing first.