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I'm one of those people who will pay extra for a product at a store where I know I will receive good customer service and I'm lucky that most of the time I can afford to make that choice. There are times, however, that because of finances, I and others, are forced to find the cheapest or best value for the product we want to purchase and not for the service received.

There is a small gas station not far from where I live where the gas prices are regularly a few cents more than the price at the corner convenience store and where the items inside the little store are also more expensive too. Yet, even though several new convenience stores have popped up around this store, all providing much cheaper items and gas, this little gas station store is still thriving.

Why?

Exceptional customer service, that's why.

When you go to this little store, the owner himself will greet you at your car. He or one of his employees will pump your gas for you, check the air pressure in your tires, check your oil and fluid levels, and wash the front and back windows of your car, all at no extra cost. If you want to enter the store you can, but you can also ask the clerk or the owner who pumps your gas to bring you back whatever you want and they will bring it to you, take your money and bring you your change, all why the gas is being pumped. You don't even have to get out of your car!

I don't go to this store because I'm lazy and don't want to get out of my car, though. I don't go to this store because I can't pump my own gas or buy my own products. No, I go to this store because the people who work there treat me and their other customers as valued customers, important, dare I say, even special. I like feeling as though I matter as a customer. I like the personal touch that this store offers, and for all those reasons, I don't mind paying a few cents more to be treated with dignity, respect, courtesy.

I suppose I had come to take this good customer service for granted, until last month, when money became tight for me, and I was having to struggle to pay a mountain of medical bills I had not expected, and I had to start cutting corners wherever I could. That's when I decided that saving a few pennies at this point, in order to keep my lights on or put food on the table, was more important than customer service.

So I made my way to a convenience store on the corner of a busy intersection in my town. This store regularly has the cheapest gas prices, sometimes by as much as 9 cents a gallon,

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