OP
I think that was back around 2008. Ten years of going to the Keys and never brought them any business. When I worked in Key Largo at Divers Direct/World Watersports, I used to call Quiescence every morning for a reef report. WWS had a large board listing diving conditions for customers and I liked to fill it in. No one else ever did. I thought it was too nice and too helpful to leave blank. So, as a new hire, I took it upon myself to call around and Paul at Quiescence was all too happy to help me provide that service. I'd send customers to Quiescence and Island Ventures because I started working at Island Ventures in the morning guiding divers and crewing for Brian Berry and WWS in the afternoon from 2 PM - 10:30 PM. The divers Paul had were some of the first to be diving deep again after diving became tame. Some of the kids he had working even used the Cousteau triples in the plastic packs.
One day, a super sexy Asian woman came into WWS with a computer battery that needed to be changed. I told her we couldn't work on her brand, but I knew who could. I called Paul at Quiescence and he told me to have her stop by West Marine and buy battery number whatever it was and then go to Quiescence where he'd change it for her. She did. She came back into WWS the next day and told me that no one had ever done something like that for her in a dive shop. A dive shop calling another shop to provide customer service was unheard of in her experience. She asked if there was anything she could do for me because I had been so nice and saved her morning dives. She ended up taking 3 specialty classes from me and became my girlfriend from there. She used to dive in a white bikini, no wetsuit, and looked like a Bond girl. Really the stuff of teen fantasies come to life. She was an E.R. doctor and we nearly got married, but I broke it off because I knew I wouldn't like becoming a kept man or leaving diving to get a job that would allow her to quit practicing medicine and be a stay at home mother. She eventually found a great guy who was as well-off, owned a beach house and sailboat, and would make a better family man so I'm happy for her. You never know what might happen if you are nice to a customer.
I had another customer come in with a million questions about swim goggles. We spent over an hour looking at goggles and he didn't purchase any. I didn't mind. The next day he came back to thank me and put in an order for a swim team. We had pooled commissions so it didn't matter, but I was glad to have helped.
Paul at Quiescence died and whoever took over the shop ruined it. There might be different owners now, but I just wrote the shop off as a loss.
One day, a super sexy Asian woman came into WWS with a computer battery that needed to be changed. I told her we couldn't work on her brand, but I knew who could. I called Paul at Quiescence and he told me to have her stop by West Marine and buy battery number whatever it was and then go to Quiescence where he'd change it for her. She did. She came back into WWS the next day and told me that no one had ever done something like that for her in a dive shop. A dive shop calling another shop to provide customer service was unheard of in her experience. She asked if there was anything she could do for me because I had been so nice and saved her morning dives. She ended up taking 3 specialty classes from me and became my girlfriend from there. She used to dive in a white bikini, no wetsuit, and looked like a Bond girl. Really the stuff of teen fantasies come to life. She was an E.R. doctor and we nearly got married, but I broke it off because I knew I wouldn't like becoming a kept man or leaving diving to get a job that would allow her to quit practicing medicine and be a stay at home mother. She eventually found a great guy who was as well-off, owned a beach house and sailboat, and would make a better family man so I'm happy for her. You never know what might happen if you are nice to a customer.
I had another customer come in with a million questions about swim goggles. We spent over an hour looking at goggles and he didn't purchase any. I didn't mind. The next day he came back to thank me and put in an order for a swim team. We had pooled commissions so it didn't matter, but I was glad to have helped.
Paul at Quiescence died and whoever took over the shop ruined it. There might be different owners now, but I just wrote the shop off as a loss.
