That’s what happened in one Domino’s restaurant location in Salem, Oregon recently.
Employees became familiar with the customer as he ordered from them on a regular basis. After some time, employees noticed they hadn’t seen an order from him in some time. This prompted them to make a visit to his house and subsequently called 911 when the customer didn’t come to the door. They ultimately saved his life, and he is currently recovering.
This is a great story and shows great compassion in employees for their regular customers. It reminds me of our local pizza place – every Friday for as long as I can remember was “pizza day” at my house. My dad called in around the same time every Friday, and over the years it got to the point where the pizza place had caller ID, so they’d greet him and let him know it’d be ready soon. He didn’t even have to restate the order.
He battled cancer a few years ago, and he died on a Wednesday. The Friday before, he was still determined to go about life as normal as possible, even though he was in a very weakened state. I was at my parents’ house and offered to order for him. He wouldn’t let me, and told me how well they knew him there. He had the biggest smile on his face when he placed that order and said that it made him feel important that they knew him so well.
I went and picked up the order, and the young girls at the counter immediately asked where he was. I shared that he was very ill and was not up to driving. They sent well wishes home with me.
A couple of weeks later, we got a call from one of the employees. They said that they were in the night I picked up the pizza, and haven’t heard from us since, so they were checking in on my Dad. I had to share the bad news, and they felt really bad. My mom received a sympathy card from the restaurant a short while later.
Of course this is not possible for all loyal customers, but it goes to show the importance of customer loyalty and appreciation – while we have not ordered pizza from that restaurant in some time, I will never forget that experience; I’m sure the Domino’s customer and his family feel the same.
