The extra mile

by Paul
(UK)

Montpelier, Virginia USA. You often hear that the US has the best customer service in the world, in my experience like everywhere else it's pretty mixed.

However, having toured the house of James Madison one of the early American presidents.

My wife's grandmothers' name was Maddison and the tour guide went to get some reference books and found us in his lunch hour, to talk through the family history. Fantastic.

But there was more. The house itself only had a small cafe, and we were looking for something more substantial. I asked the staff in the gift shop if they could recommend anywhere, which they did in a small town called Orange a few miles away. One of them then said they had just had a call from the place to say that they were closing for the afternoon. Without even hesitating one of the staff phoned the restaurant and asked them to stay open for us. They did.

We had a nice lunch and two out of the ordinary customer service experiences. One from the staff at Montpelier for taking the trouble to call the restaurant, and the other for the restaurant staying open.

I don't know whether this is the famed southern hospitality, but it left me with a very positive feeling about the whole place.