My wife and I were out at one of our favorite local bicycle shops on the quest for the perfect bicycle helmet for my wife’s commute.  While perusing the vast selection, several salespeople approached us offering help.  But since we were not ready for help, we politely declined.

As each turned to leave, they mentioned that there was more sizes and colors available in the basement stock area that they would be happy to retrieve for us.

After trying on dozens of helmets, the choice was narrowed down to one.  Unfortunately, the desired helmet in the size and the color we wanted was not on the shelf.  Now instead of approaching us, we went in search of a salesperson.  We quickly found one.

“Can you give us a hand with helmets? my wife queried.

“I would be happy to,” he responded.

“Great.”  Having walked back to the shelf, my wife continued, “Could you check and see if you have the Specialized Tactic, size medium in the green?”

Jotting down the requested product, he answered, “Let me check.  I will be back in three minutes.” Then he trotted off.

Turning to me, my wife said, “Isn’t that great?  He told me how long it will take him to check the basement and get back to me.  I love that.”

So do I.

The salesperson not only told us what he was going to do, he wrote down the request and told us how long we could expect to wait.  Many times, store staff are not willing to check the back stock providing the pat answer, “Everything we have in stock is out.”  Others after much cajoling may begrudgingly look.  But in our case, the salesman was happy to look and while setting reasonable expectations of service.

Another small thing that was well done.  And in this case it did not go unnoticed or unappreciated by the customer.

P.S.  He was back in three minutes with an apology.  Unfortunately, we discovered that the perfect helmet had been discontinued by the manufacturer.