My wife started a garden last year.  Just your basics like tomatoes, peppers, and a few other little herbs.  We ended up with a killer crop of tomatoes and were giving them away like crazy.  There was an elderly gentlemen, Richard, who lived behind us who sat in his screened in porch most evenings.  One day while my wife was out there she took our daughter over there and gave him a bunch of tomatoes from the garden.

She didn’t think much of it but one day some of his out of town relatives were over and saw us outside.  They came over and introduced themselves and we were talking about the garden.  They mentioned how Richard told them all about the nice girl that gave him tomatoes.

In May we learned that Richard had passed away.  We never knew his last name and honestly do not read the obituaries very often (if at all).  Richard had suffered from some symptoms of Alzheimer’s and many times when we talked to him we were re-introducing ourselves or keeping things to small talk; weather, kids, etc.

Tonight I was out mowing the lawn when I saw someone over working on the house.  There is a fence bordering about 3/4 of our backyard that is starting to fall over.  I went over and talked to Richard’s son-in-law about it.  As we were talking he mentioned how Richard had told him about the tomatoes my wife gave him.

When I told my wife she was really touched by it.  She never realized what an impression that would make.

Day-to-day we never know what little gestures may have a big impact on people we come into contact with.  Things you do that just seem like part of the job (or what you should be doing) can be the difference between a customer and partner or someone who won’t be coming back again anytime soon.  If you are on the front lines you will become that face for your organization and it will be your actions that can make a difference.

A simple lesson, perhaps over-emphasized, but a good reminder I think.

Update – My wife and I talked about this before she went to work out.  When she came up she drafted her post and then went and read mine.  The similarities were a little crazy to her.  Give her post a read.  It’s the same story but her perspective adds to what I posted. (I promise we did not collude on these at all!)