In the past ten years, I have never had one bad experience at a Discount Tire. That’s either an unbelievable run of personal good fortune or Discount Tire is really good at treating people well.
Yesterday, Pam hit a curb in my car and blew out the right rear tire. After changing the tire, I took it to a nearby Discount Tire driving past several other tire dealers on the way. Once again, a customer service rep named Israel exceeded my expectations.
He ordered a new tire, gave me a discount, checked my spare to make sure it was safe to drive and told me everything I needed to know without me asking. The Discount Tire streak continues and that’s why I am such a loyal customer.
What does this have to do with church? Well, it would be nice if church could operate like Discount Tire. What if everyone who identified themselves as Christ followers were cordial, helpful and smiled a lot. What if seekers and searchers went to all our churches in the next ten years and had a great experience each time. I’m guessing they would come back.
May 22, 2010 at 1:26 pm
Brady,
Wow, so true. I’m very loyal to discount tire and love how they treat me all the time. I’ve NEVER heard anybody say anything bad about DT.
@AcmePhoto
May 23, 2010 at 8:02 am
“What if everyone who identified themselves as Christ followers were cordial, helpful and smiled a lot.” I find myself laughing, actually laughing outloud, because this is so often NOT the case!!!!! People say their Christians, even telling everyone what church they attend… all while being snippy, rude, negative and usually having a sour expression on their faces! Well, I wouldn’t want to go where THEY go and be like them. Yet we wonder why seekers aren’t flooding to the church. =^) You’re right. “What if…”
We’ve usually gone to Costco because they’re great, but maybe we’ll expand our horizons and try DT next time.
June 1, 2010 at 5:35 pm
WOW Angela that is the truth. Even in my own family ! My husband calls himself a Christian but he even mistreats his own wife and family! Go figure that! He does not live by Gods rules. Honor your wife! He even allows his own kids to not honor their Mother. But as far as Bradys experience with DIscount Tire. I do go to them alot too! I do know they put tires on my truck for me and they even beat the price of Costco by a huge amount! And better yet, they always fix your tires when some thing goes wrong or gets a hole in it. And its not even their fault! And better yet, they do it for free!!! They do deserve the recognition of being Great and loyal. Thats also why I am a loyal customer of theres for years! CHEERS FOR DISCOUNT TIRE!!
June 1, 2010 at 9:09 pm
I know this blog is not about tires, but I want to talk about tire service.
I had a bad experience with Discount Tire. I bought tires on line through them, and made an appointment on line to have them installed. I had to wait in the line of customers for quite a while, even though I had an appointment. They did a very poor job of balancing the tires. In my mind, all I could see was waiting in a long line to get service again. I paid another garage to balance the tires properly.
This weekend, I went to Costco to have new summer tires installed. The tech (Robert) pointed out he couldn’t do this, because one of the front hubs only had two studs that were actually functional — the other studs’ threads were stripped and welded to the nuts. The required operation involved more than installing studs, so the tech called around to several shops to get the best price, and find one that could get me in on Saturday. He also replaced about 6 lug nuts that were worn, at no charge, and gave me a card for a discount at that garage.
I suppose Christians are a lot like tire techs. Everyone has a bad day sometime. But we do the best we can — we gather ourselves up off the ground, dust ourselves off, and go back to doing things right.