I had moved to Japan for a long- term client consulting engagement. After a few days in a Tokyo hotel I moved to an apartment. After being moved in by my colleagues, it was time to get dinner. I found a pizza deliver flyer in my mailbox, and decided to simply order a pizza as. I might have the previous week in Manhattan. The phone call to Cali Pizza was easier than anticipated and while waiting for the pizza I set about unpacking.

Unfortunately, after 45 minutes no pizza. I figured that my “easy” call really wasn’t and that I would need to make alternate plans for dinner. While thinking about what to do next, my phone rang. It was Cali Pizza calling to say that they could not find my apartment based on the address that I had given them. Once it was determined that I had provided an incorrect address, the clerk on the phone asked me to describe what I could see from my window. After some back and forth they seemed satisfied that they knew where I was.

A few minutes later the pizza arrived, This is when my “customer delight” experience took over. First, the delivery person apologized repeatedly for being late, then he showed me the small blue metal plate on my building with the correct address, and finally he refused to accept payment for the pizza because he was late. Net result: one delighted customer (me), and frequent orders from Cali Pizza during my two-year stay in Japan.

Such “customer delight” experiences become stories I have used to illustrate what it means to truly delight a customer.

When our daughter, Sandy, belonged to the St. Mark Evangelical Lutheran Girl Pioneers in sixth grade, the leaders thought it would be nice if the girls made pine cone wreaths(花环) for their families as Christmas gifts. So the group gathered pine cones, put them in water and bought wire wreath frames and adhesive(黏合剂) to hold everything in place. A few days before Christmas, they and their leaders delivered the finished handiwork.

Through the years, we proudly hung up her wreath each Christmas. In 1986, the wreath was hanging on our door as usual when the temperature on Christmas Day reached 80 degrees. The adhesive began to break down and the pine cones started falling all over our front porch. We took the wreath down, planning to repair it, and gathered up the pine cones. That spring, as my husband, Don, was weeding the flower bed in front of our house, he was surprised to discover a small evergreen plant.

We decided to leave it alone. The determined tree kept growing, making it right through the long winter. When it got too big for the flower bed we moved it to the back of our lot. As the tree grew, so did our family, including four grandchildren. One day the men from the electric company came to trim(修剪) our trees. One of them said it was a shame that someday our nice evergreen would have to be cut down. We just couldn’t let that happen to our faithful — if accidental — Christmas tree.

We decided to move it again, this time to Sandy and her husband Joel’s new house in the country. My husband helped Joel dig the evergreen out. It wasn’t ready to let go without a fight. Finally, five hours later, the tree came loose. They wrapped the roots as best as they could and put the whole thing in Joel’s truck.

After an hour’s drive they planted the tree. I’m happy to report that our brave evergreen is still growing, now producing pine cones of its own.

Chandler Smith grew up being told that he would never accomplish his dream of being a Division 1 athlete. At 5'8" tall and 195 pounds, Chandler was on the small side to be one of the “greats”. Yet even as a high school athlete he decided to work nonstop to achieve his goals. After being accepted onto the University of Houston football team, Chandler continued to try to make a name for himself on the field.

Chandler sat on the bench for his entire freshman year in college. Sophomore year he saw more action. “I didn’t think I was going to play last year, but I had to always be ready,” he said. At the start of Chandler’s junior year the team’s management pulled him aside and dropped a life-changing, and career-confirming offer in his lap: After three years on the team as a walk-on running back, Smith was being given a full scholarship! “My heart dropped,” Smith said. “I didn't even know what to feel or what to think. It was a feeling of ‘wow’. This is really happening. All my hard work has paid off.”

Chandler called his mother Shawn to tell her the news, but when his father Richard wasn't available, he told her not to spill the beans. Later he went home, and chatted about the football season with his father. “I could be getting the first kickoff,” he told his dad. Without missing a beat, Chandler then slipped in the real news: “Something else dad, they told me they put me on a full scholarship.”

“What?” Richard yelled, jumping from the sofa and wrapping his son in a tight embrace. “Congratulations! Hard work.” Then he walked around the living room, clearly too excited to sit still. “Seeing his reaction, I just broke down in tears because I know this is something we have been talking about and expecting for a long time,” Chandler said. “To finally get it and see the benefits of your hard work felt really good.”