I had an interesting experience yesterday that reminded me of how powerful caring about your customer is; how screwed up the State of California is, and how hard they make it for people to do business in the State (and then wonder why tax revenue is down).

I needed some documents notarized yesterday and could not find a notary at lunch in downtown San Jose (that’s another story). So, after finishing work, I went to see if the notary I usually use at the UPS Store in Cupertino might still be available. Turns out the store closes at 6:00pm but it was still open at 6:20pm since the owner told me she tends to stay until 7:00pm and stays open as long as she is there to be of service to her customers.

When I told her I needed documents notarized she sighed and said her license had expired a couple of days before and that after waiting 6 weeks for the renewal certificate from the State she had called to find out what the delay was. (It normally takes about a week to get her renewal processed.) After waiting 45 minutes on the phone for the Secretary of State’s office to answer, she was informed they were backlogged and understaffed so she would just have to keep waiting for her renewal form, which would come at some time in the future and the fact that it was affecting her business was no concern of theirs.

She did call her husband and ask him to come to the store (after hours) because his license was still valid and he could notarize for me. She kept apologizing for the problem, and I’m thinking it’s after closing time and you are getting your husband to make a special trip to help me out. Now that’s what businesses that care about their customers do. Reminds me of what both of my grandfathers did for their customers. But then they were immigrants too and probably hadn’t learned yet that you don’t really have to care about your customers.

Mitch