Retro Family Photo

So I found this photo of me from when I was young. Dam! I was hot. BTW, I'm the kid in the middle. My mom hand painted this photo, I think that was the fad back then. I don't think it was to save money. I love my mom's outfit, very Startrek.

Exceeding Expectations in our Trouble Times

Over the holiday I, like many of you went on a road trip to get away and visit family. My trip by car was over 5 hours and involved snow-covered roads. I decided before leaving that I should get the car checked out, oil changed and tires rotated. I setup the appointment and went in. I ended up having to take my 4 year old and 10 year old as I couldn’t find a sitter and I couldn’t get anyone to help me drop off the car. Ah! So here I am headed to the car dealership for the day. Not my idea of fun. I packed a portable DVD player, 4 hours of “SpongeBob”, cheese nibs and apple juice. I was locked and loaded. I pulled up and dropped off the car and went in to the waiting room expecting to be at the dealership for the next 2+ hours… 20 minutes later my name was called and I thought “what am I going to get charged for now…” Nope. My car was done!

From the time I pulled up to the dealership (All hail LHM Dodge), to getting back in the car, I had spent 25 minutes. The 4 year old was actually upset about not being able to watch his SpongeBob!

I am still talking about this great experience 2 weeks later. I was so happy the rest of that day. Not only were my expectations exceeded but I was given something I rarely get – time.

When visiting with the family this holiday, talk always drifted to the economy. Times are tough everywhere and now more than ever we want to be treated well. A good experience is always refreshing and a great experience is treasured. We all have less money and we want more value out of it. Instead of 3 nights out we now have 1 and that means each one is more important.

Now is the time to grab market share with great customer experiences, we all are demanding it. I hope to have my expectations exceeded again. It's really quite fun!