Associated Mail & Parcel Centers Blog

A local ice cream store had the glass in their front door made slightly convex.  They then applied a filtering film, generally used to conserve Summer cooling costs, on the inside of the glass, enhancing the mirror effect on the outside of the door.

People seeing themselves in the door as they approached the store saw a much thinner person that what was expected.  This allowed them, not only to feel quite content to purchase more ice cream than they planned, but gave them a general feeling of comfort when looking back at themselves as they walked away from the store enjoying that triple scoop of double chocolate.

The store became a landmark visited by tourists and Luxury Motor-coaches full of plump seniors with discretionary cash.

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I worked for a large corporation that had its own credit union tucked away in an obscure suite just off of the reception area. Employees, ex-employees, retirees and their families were allowed to become Credit Union Members. Wanting to teach our kids the value of saving, I signed up my whole family with accounts. And as members were added to my family, members were added to the credit union.

As credit unions work, each member is a shareholder and has to have a minimum amount in their saving account. Savings was easy and convenient as the designated amount was taken out of the paycheck. Interest paid on the balance was usually greater than banks and the interest on loans was usually less than the banks.

The ladies that worked there got to know us over time and it was just a pleasure doing business there. Occasionally I would ask a loan for a small purchase over the phone and the check would be ready for me to pick in a few hours. Under a preset amount, no approval was necessary. Car loans took 24 hours. The payments, like the saving account deposits were taken out of the paycheck.

As you know, things change. Bigger is better. Over the years our friendly neighborhood credit union became just another faceless bank. Anybody could join, removing the exclusivity and community aspect. The interest rates became closer and closer to the other banks’ rates. A separate building was purchased, checking accounts, safe-deposit boxes, drive up windows, lengthy loan reviews, and on and on.

The ladies that we all knew that worked in that small attached suite retired or got fed up with new bigness and were replaced by young people who radiated the fact that they did not want to work there, nine-to-fiver clock watchers who did not know or care about any of us.

Something happened, I don’t remember what, but a teller who could have a career opportunity at the DMV or the Post Office really made me mad. I felt my “Don’t you know who I am?” arrogance start to percolate, but I remained calm, conducted my business and left.

The next week I closed all of our family accounts – not enough to cause a bank failure by far, but accounts that I would think they would like to keep. After the stone-faced, pod person closed us up, she asked us to sit on the bench while a manager finished closing us out. Beginning to steam at the five-minute wait a corporate suit-type woman summoned us to the cubical.

She told us everything was taken care of and she would like to know if we would share with her the reason we closed the accounts (policy, I’m sure). I referred her to the line of people waiting for a teller. “Look at them. Look at their faces as they arrive.  Look at their faces as they turn to leave.  Just like me, they feel and look worse when they leave here than when they arrived. Your staff has affected your customer’s outlook for the rest of their day.

“Life is too short for a teller to ruin any part of mine.  Life is too short for me to visit here again.”

Social workers and rescue mission people call it compassion fatigue. People behind retail counters suffer from it also. Sometimes there is only so much you can take from that small population of toxic people. But, overall if you can make people feel better for seeing you and visiting your store than they felt when they arrived, the experiences will be stored subconsciously in their psyche as positive rewards.

They store a good feeling about visiting your store.  They may not even be able to put their finger on where it came from, but they know that something good has happened, there is a general sense of well-being.  And that is the source of fortune.  On the other hand, when they know something bad has happened, there is a general sense of discomfort.  And that is a source of failure.

Yes, this is a story about drop-offs.  If you can make the most unpleasant of Frisbee throwers feel as though something good has happened to them, they may return for money-spending reason.  And if you can pierce the psyche of the most hardened of louts, the rest of the world is at your feet.