When I was a kid, me and one of my friends sometimes visited her grandmother. She lived in a rather Spartan apartment, without television or exciting toys, but visiting her was always a much sought-after experience, because she was a great storyteller. I guess she came from a generation where stories were the way to distribute news and knowledge, and she was particularly good at it.
Her apartment was simple, because she had sold her house, so she could travel the world. Her stories from near and afar were great, and she could make climbing the pyramids sound as exciting as an Indiana Jones movie. However, my favorite story was a homely one about when she had to get a wall cabinet in her kitchen painted.
She had gotten a painter recommended by a friend, and had made an appointment. The painter had been shown the wall cabinet that should be painted, and they agreed that it should be painted in blue.
After they had agreed she went out to a café to drink a cup of coffee and read a newspaper, and the painter went out to buy blue paint to paint the cabinet immediately after.
When my friend’s grandmother returned to her apartment, the painter proudly showed her the freshly painted cabinet. It was clearly the work of a skilled craftsman; the paint was spread evenly with long perfect strokes, and not a spot had been missed. It was obviously a job that an amateur could not have done to the same high standards.
Unfortunately, there was a problem. My friend’s grandmother wanted the cabinet painted in pastel blue, but the painter had chosen a standard blue. The painter had failed to enquire her about what shade of blue she desired, and she had forgotten to inform him about this — in those days — unusual detail.
She then waved her finger, which she rarely did, and told us that we should always strive to understand our customers. Sure, we should aim at being good at our trade — as the Bible instructed — so we could stand in the presence of kings. But being skilled at something was not enough in itself; you also had to understand how to satisfy your customers.
As we were sitting in her kitchen, we got confused as we could see the cabinet, which was painted in pastel blue, and not the standard blue that she said that the painter had used.
She told that after the painter had learned that it was not the color she had dreamed about, he had apologized for the misunderstanding and returned the next day where he re-painted the cabinet in pastel blue, and refused to accept any further payments, not even for the extra paint.
So we asked her, why he re-painted it for free? And she replied, because that’s what good craftsmen do and that’s why you hire them again and again, even when they done a mistake.
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