Thank You, Denny
A few weeks ago my boss passed away. Now to be honest, Denny of Denny’s Central Park Bicycles had taken on an emeritus role at the shop. He came in 2 days a week, mostly to be available for the men’s Thursday night ride. What he did those 2 days was bring a presence that has been sorely missed, a kind of humanity to the job. We’re selling bikes to people, and those people are workers, students, seniors, children=all needing bikes for fun and recreation and as a mode for travel. He encouraged our service department, our bike builders. All bikes sold from Denny’s had his name on them, a decal on the seat tube down near the crank.
Monday, August 7 we’ll have a celebration of life for Denny.
One thing I’d like to pay tribute to is something he said that can extend to all areas. Always let the last word be thank you. Sometimes a boss can say something that seems obvious. In fact I’d just gotten done saying thank you to the customer at the till, yet as he was going out the door Denny shouted again, thank you. He turned to me and said the last thing they should hear before leaving is thank you. I wanted to say to Denny that’s redundant or I already said thank you, but to his point—he wanted the thanks to be in their ears as they are leaving. To know how grateful we are that they chose us, to shop here.
Too many customers these days are habituated by Amazon to not expect human interaction. Just looking. I actually have to convince people to test ride a bike. I tell them, You don’t have to guess or scroll—you can know if a bike fits you, if you fit the bike. How it feels. We are so used to hitting buy without assurance, just guessing.
Saying thank you might seem like a throw-away, something to
be taken for granted, yet it is what’s missing from online transactions. A real
person thankful that you have taken the time, that you thought about them when
you could have gone anywhere. It’s what has made Denny of Denny’s Central Park
Bicycles a standout person, a great boss, and a true friend to many of his
customers.
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