I recently got back from visiting a friend who lives in Cincinnati. The trip was very enjoyable, with the exception of the return flight back to Newark. On that flight, I accidentally spilled my complimentary soda on Roy, a very well dressed business man sitting next to me. I was extremely embarrassed to find out that he had to go directly to a meeting after landing at the airport. I felt so bad about the incident that I offered to give him some money to cover the cost of dry cleaning. What was even more embarrassing was that I was all out of cash when I opened my wallet! So I took down his full name and address, promising that I would send him the dry cleaning money in the mail once I got home.
When I returned home, I immediately opened up a box of business thank you cards. I enclosed $25 in the card and wrote a note thanking Roy for his patience and understanding. A few months later, I received a greeting card in the mail. Apparently Roy had pulled my address off the return label of the original envelope and decided to send me a thank you card. Inside he wrote a note saying that he was impressed with my honesty in sending him the dry cleaning money. In addition to this, Roy was intrigued with the concept of using corporate greeting cards and started sending them to his business clients. He noted that he has already gotten positive feedback on the cards, which he feels will lead to customer loyalty.
The best part of this story was that Roy enclosed a small envelope inside the card. It contained $8.73…the leftover change from his dry cleaning bill.