The Extra Mile, Literally

Just this past weekend, my wife and I moved. Probably the most disorganized and complicated move for us to date, though through no fault of our own. As everyone knows, the common accepted currency among friends helping friends move is pizza and beer, I wanted to introduce everyone to this great place near by that we had discovered a month or so ago. My purpose was two fold however, as it was also to say good bye to the pizzeria, as in our move, we were no longer in the delivery area.

Since discovering this place, we've been back about once every two weeks, and on a few occasions, several times within a single week. As I was picking up our three extra large pizza's from the owner, I told him that this was for our moving crew, and that we were not outside of his area. He asked where, and then had me come over to their large delivery map on the wall. I showed him where we had moved too, and then realized as I was doing so that we were literally less than a mile from their delivery boundary. So close, yet so far! Maya, the owner then told me that not to worry, I should just call and ask for him and he would make sure that we would get our pizza.

Did he have to? No. Was it that big of a deal? Not really. But, to me, it was huge. He made a small concession on his part, and in doing so engendered even more loyalty in someone who already thought they were the best around.

A lot can be learned from that example, what ways can you go that extra mile for your patrons and customers?