Activated Reflections: The Angry Customer

One morning, an angry man stormed into the office of Mr.  Detmer. Julian F. Detmer was the founder of one of the world’s largest wool companies.

The man who stormed into his office was a customer who lived in another city. He owed Mr. Detmer a small sum of money, but he flatly denied it. Everyone at Mr. Detmer’s company knew the customer was wrong, so they insisted that he pay.  After getting a number of letters  reminding him to pay, the man was  so upset that he packed his suitcase, travelled to Chicago and stormed into the office to tell Mr. Detmer that not  only was he not going to pay the bill,  but that he was never going to buy  anything else from him again.

 Mr. Detmer listened patiently to all he had to say. He wanted to interrupt, but realized that it might only make things worse, so he let him talk it out. When he finally simmered down Mr. Detmer said quietly, “Thank you for coming to tell me about this. You have done us a great favour, because if we have annoyed you, perhaps we may annoy other good customers, and that would be a pity. Believe me; I am more eager to hear this than you are to tell me.”

That was the last thing in the world the angry customer expected him to say. Maybe he was slightly disappointed, because he had come to Chicago to argue with Mr. Detmer, but there he was thanking him instead of fighting.

“We will immediately wipe your charge off the books and forget it,” he added, “because you are a careful man with only one account to look after, while my clerks have to look after thousands. You are less likely to be wrong than they are. I understand exactly how you feel and if I were in your shoes I would be just as upset,” he concluded. Since he was not going to buy from them anymore, Mr.  Detmer recommended some other companies where he could find what he needed.

In the past, when the customer came to Chicago, they had usually had lunch together, so Mr. Detmer invited him to lunch again. The customer accepted reluctantly. When they got back to the office, the man placed a larger order than ever before.

He returned home in a better mood, wanting to be just as fair with Mr. Detmer as he had been with him, so he looked over his bills and found one that had been misplaced.  He sent Mr. Detmer a check with his apologies.

Later, he gave his newborn son the middle name of Detmer, and he remained a friend and customer until his death twenty-two years afterwards.