One reason to be friendly towards late night gas station attendants

Something just happened to me that can be filed under category of "things that help restore one's faith in humanity."

Two and a half weeks ago was running around in preparation for a trip overseas. One of the things I did before dropping my car off at a friend's house was to fill it up at a local gas station which I had been visiting exclusively since the hurricane Sandy-induced gas shortage this past fall. In my opinion they handled that mini-crisis efficiently and honestly; I decided then that they would be my gas station from that point forward.

This afternoon went to buy gas again at my favorite (and recently re-branded) gas station. Was a cool, but nice day with nary a cloud in the sky, so I stood outside in the sun near the door to the register. The other attendant, who I recognized from my previous visits, came out, said hello, and said what I thought was "You left your car two weeks ago". After some back and forth, I realized that he actually said:

"You left your CARD two weeks ago."

So we went inside, and from the register he pulls out my recently acquired Chase Ink for Business credit card. I hadn't even realized it was missing, because for my trip had only brought along the credit cards that I thought I would need. The Ink card was not one of those.

That sure as hell is one way to build customer loyalty.