Who Would Have "Thunk" It?

(Auburn, Indiana) Messenger Corporation was founded in 1913 by Frank Messenger. The company he founded made calendars. The company grew to become the leading supplier of funeral stationery products in the United States.

I became acquainted with Messenger Corporation during the years I operated the funeral homes in Reynolds and Roberta. If a person signed a register book at either funeral home, it most likely came from Messenger. If a person received a thank you card for food or flowers sent to a grieving family, it also came from Messenger.

There is no telling how many times I went to a family’s house after a funeral and combined all the pages of the memorial books into one book, placed it in a box and presented it to the family. The box always had this word on it. Messenger.

I don’t think I ever met a sales representative in person from Messenger during the many years I operated the funeral home. But I still purchased my memorial stationery supplies from them. I didn’t buy from them because they had the cheapest price. I don’t think I ever even compared prices. I bought from them for one reason.

Service.

The friendly gals that called me on the phone on a regular basis simply took care of me. They knew my buying patterns and knew when I would be ready to order. They had a good product and they delivered. Always did what they said they would do and when they said they would do it.

I never had a reason to go to Auburn Indiana to visit the Messenger Company. Actually I never even thought about it.

But when I drove up to the building that I did business with for so many years and saw the logo on the sign, I remembered. It has been at least nine years since I ordered anything from this company but I had not forgotten how service oriented they were.

I was in town to speak to Messenger’s National Sales Meeting. I spent some time with the leadership of the company and they took me on a guided tour of their facility. I later spoke to their sales reps from throughout the United States and the support staff at their corporate office. While I was speaking I asked if there was a “Deb” in the audience. I remembered that Deb was the friendly voice who called me for years and delivered service “above and beyond”.

I had a special day. I was able to meet Deb Treesh in person and thank her in front of all her peers for her friendly voice and the service she provided to me.

I never could have imagined back when I was running a couple of small town funeral homes in rural Georgia and talking to a long distance voice from a company in Indiana that one day I would be in their town to motivate their employees.

Who would have “thunk” it?