SERVICE: Press carrier rises above

As an American consumer, and as an entrepreneur/restaurateur, I have an appreciation for great service. The reason for that is, of course, truly great service in any industry in America is difficult to find. We are people who try to execute great service every day, and we know how difficult that can be.

The great service I am referring to has been provided to my wife and me for the last 4.5 years by our Coeur d’Alene Press carrier, Mr. Scott Orchard. Every single morning without fail, for all those years, our paper has been 2 or 3 inches in front of our front screen door. No matter how bad the snow or rain, or what extraordinary circumstances might have prevailed the previous night and early morning, the paper has been there, and he has never missed even one day! In another life, I had a paper route. It was all I could do to get the papers somewhere in my customers’ yard, and hope not to miss anybody. I never would have considered walking up close enough to toss the paper on the customers’ front porch.

Every Christmas Scott would leave us a card wishing us Merry Christmas, and every year we would leave him a tip, starting out that first year, if memory serves, around $10. By this last Christmas, we left a half dozen Domino’s Pizza gift certificates, and a nice cash bounty, and yet it still seemed like not enough.

If you look at how service is measured in the United States and the world, one consistent barometer that is used, is a company’s net promoter score, created by Fredrick Reichheld, author of The Ultimate Question 2.0, and The Loyalty Affect. Organizations like Apple, Costco, Dillards, Nordstrom’s and CHICK-FIL-A top the world’s best NPS scores.

If the Coeur d’Alene Press’ NPS score as a business was as high as Scott Orchard’s, it would be the highest rated newspaper in the world, as Mr. Orchard’s service is indeed that great. We are certainly going to miss Scott, who is traveling to South America to help open up a business there. If he has anything to do with the success of that business whatever it is, we predict it will be fabulously successful. Melissa and I want to wish you, Scott, only the finest of success, happiness and health. Thank you for demonstrating to us and to all your customers that truly great service in America is alive and well.

JIM and MELISSA HIGHTOWER

Coeur d’Alene