Renewing Friendships

One of the things I love best about this time of year is the renewed contact with friends and family.

Last week I received a phone call from Bill Parness of Aberdeen.

Bill was one of my very first customers when I got into the auto leasing business some 20 years ago. He stayed with me as I changed employers over the years and as fate seemed to have it, he was my very first customer when I opened my own company in 1998.

While our relationship was always a professional business relationship, except for the one time I piggy backed on his waiting on line for concert tickets at the Arts Center, it was a steady and reliable relationship. Every couple of years we'd negotiate a car deal for himself, his wife and his sons when they became old enough to drive. Bill was the "perfect customer" for a guy like me. He wanted a new car every 3-4 years, he hated going to car dealerships and he loved that I would deliver his cars to his door. Yet, Bill was never a easy sale. Getting "the best deal" is fun for him. Every deal was a lengthy negotiation. Then he would brag about his deal and the quality of service to his friends who would call me and try to get a better deal than he did.

Unfortunately the car manufactures were determined to put themselves out of business with ridiculously priced and structured car leases. The economics of the industry forced me out of cars and into commercial vehicles and trucks. My regular contact with Bill and many others like him dwindled. I stay in touch with my best customers from my auto leasing days with holiday and birthday greetings, even though it doesn't make economic sense to do business with them now, "just in case" and "because you never know."

So last week my assistant runs into my office all excited, "Bill Parness is on the phone!" We hadn't talked in a few years. The last time he called it was not business, but because he had read about this blog in the newspaper.

So much for knowing your customers. Bill's wife Laura died after a 21 year battle with breast cancer. I never knew she was sick. I knew about her passion for her boys' education, that she loved convertibles and put up with mini-vans.

Bill's call was inspiring. He shared with me how he and Laura spent their last six years together traveling extensively, how therapeutic that was for both of them, and how he founded Laura's Journeys, a support program for cancer patients specifically designed to encourage and facilitate recreational travel for patients along with their spouse/partner or other family members/friends. Perhaps you read about the program in the Asbury Park Press earlier this month.

Laura's Journeys gave three vacations to cancer survivors last October. They will be giving a week's stay in Athens during a special drawing in January.

You can learn more about the program here.