What I learnt from "America's Tire"- camaraderie, celebration and connection

Does the headline seem atypical for a blog? A tire company - seriously? Are we going to talk about tire treads and alignment here? Well yes - JK! No, this is really about my recent experience at the Santa Clara branch of this company - and the takeaways that I came with that I thought may resonate with you - whether you are a rubber addict or not!

To be frank, this is not my most preferred destination to visit ever - given a choice. But choice I had none. The regular email reminders about a tire rotation took its toll and the guilt factor forced me to set up an online appointment. Ugh! And then when I showed up, the place was surprisingly well-lit, spacious and welcoming. And within a few minutes, they had my name down and I settled into the comfortable chairs while I awaited the obligatory tire routine. But between the time I whipped out my laptop and when I finally got the car, there were three seemingly small incidents that caught my eye resulting in this blog

1.   Celebration - I kid you not, I heard about half a dozen loud yells during my hour-long wait there. First, I thought a tire had come loose and there was panic on the shop floor with the mechanics on the hunt for the errant rubber culprit! But when this happened again I realized this was just a celebratory gesture among the team there. I paid closer attention and I spied this - once a job was completed or someone lent a helping hand - there were a lot of high-fives and loud exclamations. #WOW. When was the last time a QA engineer fixed the last bug or finance closed their books for the quarter that this would happen? Not in my work life when I worked for a corporation!!

2.   Camaraderie - With lots of action happening - yes, a lot can happen with tires apparently - judging by the constant stream of people there, it is easy for employees to slip into their world aka I am consumed by my job and have little time to help others. Not here. Every time a car would back out of the floor, a colleague would drop their job and rush out to make sure the path is clear and clear the car to pull out. Yes - they are probably trained to do this from a safety standpoint - but the good humor and the cheerfulness that was accompanied - it was amazing to watch!

3.   Connection - The person who actually worked on your car coming out and chatting with you sharing firsthand information on your vehicle and leaving you with "great chatting with you, your car will be out shortly" may not seem like a big deal - but it is. Why? Because one could easily have the manager deal with the customers and have the mechanics do their job - and customer engagement does not have to be part of their "job". Analogous to the pizza worker at a fast food who created that 5-layer masterpiece coming out to meet you or a pilot of a flight greeting you after a safe touch down, there is something special there.

That's it. A totally unsexy and boring tire rotation left me with so much more positivity and cheer that I had to share it! #MakeingTireRotationGreatAgain