“I happened to return to one of the restaurants, the Orient IV, after several weeks, and the owner remembered me by name. During the meal he came over to our table and carried on a lengthy conversation in Chinese with me. He asked me if I especially liked any particular dish when growing up in China. I told him about a dish our family cook used to make in [[Taiwan]]. It had three ingredients: dofu-gan (an especially firm, savory tofu), tsa-tsai (a pickled vegetable from central China), and bell peppers. He laughed and said he had hoped to make the dish for me but he didn’t know where he could get the very rare (for those days) dofu-gan and the pickled vegetable. I told him that in all my travels in America I had not found that style of tofu either. It’s too bad, really, because [[Americans]] think the only kind of tofu is the white, tasteless variety that is familiar here. Actually there are as many kinds of tofu in [[China]] as there are cheeses in America. “A month or two later I returned to the Orient IV where I had had the conversation about my favorite dish, and **the manager exclaimed, “Where have you been? We have been watching for you. I have found the things to make your special food. When you left last time, I asked my cook if he knew where to find the dofu-gan. He said he knew a family in [[Miami]] who made it. We called them and they sent it right away. It is in my freezer. We also got a can of the tsa-tsai. Now I can make your favorite dish. Tell me how to make it, and I will make it for you.** “And so that night I had a dish I had not tasted since I was a boy. **You can imagine what happened to my loyalty. Instead of Chinese food once a week, I was now going several times a week to the same restaurant and bringing all my friends. Why? Because I had a story to tell. A story about someone going out of his way to please a guest.** ” --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[customer-experience]], [[client-service]], [[law-firm-business]], **Source** -- [[20250112015442 - B - If Disney Ran Your Hospital]]