We All Scream for Ice Cream

There are few things in life better than ice cream.

On Saturday, I drove up to Baltimore to visit my friend Monica, and after stuffing ourselves full at the restaurant for lunch, she decided that we should try this new ice cream spot down the street from her. She held a gun to my head and threatened my very existance, I swear.

After she took the duct tape off my wrists ;) we went inside this neat little ice cream shop called The Daily Scoop. The owner and master ice cream chef greeted us with a big smile and many stories of how he makes his ice cream. He forced us (literally) to try just about all of the flavors.

"Do you like Raspberry?" chef asked.
"No," Monica replied
"Here," chef said, handing Monica a baby-sized spoonful of raspberry ice cream. "Try it anyway. You have to try new things when you're young."

It went on like this until we had each managed to sample the same amount of ice cream that would go in a scoop. And after all that tasting, we still had to order something. I ordered the birthday cake, fyi. It had sprinkles and bits of cake and even frosting.

I was very excited to know that the flavors change all the time, and he has a rice krispie treat blend. He said if I called in advance of my next visit, he'd make sure he had it in the cooler. Now that's service! We even had our photo taken for the wall of customer photos.

I bring this up, because I understand from my mom and dad that this is the way EVERYONE used to be back in tha' day. Customer service meant something. People were generally nice to each other. On the preview for the local 5 o'clock news today, the reporter was telling about an upcoming story on why we're all so rude to each other. I'd really like to know, but I won't be home for the broadcast, and I forgot to set Mr. TiVo.

Have you ever had anyone go above and beyond for customer service? Usually for me it's the other way around.

Tags: ice cream, customer service