Today’s appaling customer service cheapens and saddens life. It shouldn’t be that way. I expect great things from great companies.

Part of my job for a landscape contracor was company troubleshooter. I had no budget nor any limit on time. Just get the job done. Make the customer happy. Move onto the next problem.

My Dad used to tell a story about Aldo’s, a somewhat swanky restaurant at a large outdoor shopping center called Town & Country. Many services including a small grocery store.

Dad was a frequent guest and all the Italian waiters knew him well.

Dad went in one afternoo feeling extremely tired and not in the mood for an argument.

He told the waiter that all he wanted that day was their split pea soup.

The waiter apologized, saying that no split pea sout had been been put on. Today’s soup, the waiter explained, was onion.

“Toni, I really want some split pea soup.”

The waiter paused at that for a few seconds, disappeared, and in 20 minutes Dad had split pea soup.

Did they run out to the grocery store to get a can? Or did they have a small amount stored somewhere that they heated up? Who knows?

The point is, Dad got his split pea soup.