Today morning the shower in the bathroom started acting funny. Sometimes it would work and sometimes not. Just like some features in several software products. I am an idiot when it comes to fixing those things. But I am also optimistic. I tried to fiddle with it for a while and actually messed it up even further. I wanted to do something before Kavitha (my wife) comes back home. I took the broken shower head to OSH and was looking for some  “Do-It-Yourself” help on shower head fixtures.

The experience was interesting. When I asked the first employee (who was in a hurry) I met, he promptly directed me to Aisle 16. I was cursing my luck and asked another employee for help. The response I got was very different and interesting. He first asked me why I was looking for another shower head. When I explained what the whole story, he patiently listened and said that while he can easily sell me another shower head, he wants to explain how this particular shower head fixed. I told him that I was indeed interested to learn what could be done to fix what I had in my hand. The person patiently explained the whole thing in complete detail. The rest of the story is not very interesting.

What we need to observe here is that it was easy for the OSH employee to sell me the “right” shower head and I would have been happy. Instead, he went on to show that it was his priority to serve first even if it means not sell at all. That was pure customer delight.

In summary, by not choosing to win the sale, OSH employee won over the customer.