Here is a short and powerful story that could generate some very worthwhile team discussion….. Way Cool customer service is one thing.. Way Cool Customers… can be another thing all-together.  Enjoy!

Texas Mystery Man’s Anonymous Gesture Astonishes Chick-fil-A Employees, Customers:

‘Everyone Was…Totally Stunned’

An anonymous man stunned employees and customers at a central Texas Chick-fil-A when he pulled up to the drive-thru window and handed over $1,000 to pay for the dozens of vehicles behind him.

“Everyone was like totally stunned,” an employee named Hannah told KRBC-TV.

At about 7 p.m. Monday a man who only identified himself as “John” handed over a stack of $100 bills at the Abilene location.

The act of kindness astonished team leader Duste Wolf who was on duty.

“I asked him, did you win the lottery today?!” Wolf recalled. “He said Mondays are tough and wanted everyone to have a good day.”

“Here is ten $100 bills and I would like to pay everybody else in the line,” Brian LaCrois, the franchise owner, told KRBC. “For the next hour, he bought everyone’s meal.”

According to KRBC, the man’s good deed paid for 88 customer’s orders — leaving some stunned. One lady even started crying upon hearing of the mystery man’s gesture.

“She just had an awful day,” LaCroix said. “We told her the story and she just started crying.”

Management told KRBC that “John” ordered an 8-piece chicken nugget meal with a Dr Pepper. The restaurant said they provided it to him at no cost.

One thought I had after reading this story was…  ”I might be driving through behind the wrong people?”  🙂

Another thought I had was – “Maybe the people behind in the drive through are thinking the same thing.”

The story inspired me to be more considerate to those who come behind by paying forward some form kindness.  Maybe not a $1000 but certainly something.

Kirk Out

My family and I are fans of the show “MasterChef” where home cooks compete in a series of high pressure elimination cook offs until finally the last one still cooking in the kitchen is crowned “Master Chef”.

So far I think we have watched 4 complete seasons.  I have noticed that each season it seems that at least 2 and sometimes more contestants are eliminated not because they couldn’t cook but because they were trying so hard to show case some of their specialty skills that they forgot to focus first on the basics.

An example would be a cake that was decorated to the hilt and looked like an easy win when compared to the competition. Except for one small thing.   The wannabe Chef was so excited to showcase their decorating skills that they lost focus on the fundamentals of just baking a good cake.  In the case I just watched they used salt instead of sugar.   If they had just once sampled their batter they might still have had time to catch and correct this mistake.   But even this fundamental taste your creation step was dismissed as seemingly to novice for them.

When Master Chef judge and Gordon Ramsey tasted the cake … it was over. No amount of frosting, and pretty presentation can change salt into sugar. Likewise no amount of excuses, blaming others or good intentions can make up for lack of our own mastering the fundamentals.

As I was looking for a good cake picture for the blog post I came across this one.  It wasn’t from the MasterChef show but it is another good example.  Spelling might not seem like a needed fundamental skill for cake decorating…but hey?

However, After we have mastered the basics and are foolproof with the fundamentals we can and indeed we should begin to add to the mix our very own unique talents and innovative spirit. This is where we truly get to turn mere work into a work of art and sign it with our signature moves.

The following video can serve as a wonderful illustration of this principle. In it we see a man doing some pretty amazing moves on a treadmill. The question we might ask ourselves or our teams as we watch the video is this…. “Do you think this is his first time on the treadmill?” Or “How many hours do you think this person spent mastering the basics of this treadmill before he began to turn his work out into a workout of art?”

— with Amos Tapai.

A woman brought a very limp duck into a veterinary surgeon. As
she laid her pet on the table, the vet pulled out his
stethoscope and listened to the bird’s chest.

After a moment or two, the vet
shook his head and sadly said, “I’m sorry, your duck, Cuddles,
has passed away.”

The distressed woman wailed,
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am sure. Your duck is dead,” replied
the vet..

“How can you be so sure?” she
protested. “I mean you haven’t done any testing on him or anything. He might just be in a coma or
something.”

The vet rolled his eyes, turned
around and left the room. He returned a few minutes later
with a black Labrador Retriever. As the duck’s owner looked on
in amazement, the dog stood on his hind legs, put his
front paws on the examination table and sniffed the duck from
top to bottom. He then looked up at the vet with sad eyes and
shook his head.

The vet patted the dog on the
head and took it out of the room. A few minutes later he
returned with a cat. The cat jumped on the table and also
delicately sniffed the bird from head to foot. The cat sat
back on its haunches, shook its head, meowed softly and
strolled out of the room.

The vet looked at the
woman and said, “I’m sorry, but as I said, this is most
definitely, 100% certifiably, a dead duck.”

The vet turned to his computer terminal, hit a few keys and
produced a bill, which he handed to the woman..

The duck’s owner, still in shock, took the bill. “$150!” she
cried, “$150 just to tell me my duck is dead!”

The vet shrugged, “I’m sorry. If you had just taken my word for it,
the bill would have been $20, but with the Lab Report and the
Cat Scan, it’s now $150.”

Duck Hunters

Thanx Brian H. for sharing.

Praying for Peace and Comfort

to those who lost their love ones!!