Sears Auto Center Treats Members Like Family by SHC Speaks
It’s one of life’s certainties: sooner or later, we all get a flat tire. Not only is a flat tire an inconvenience it can also be stressful depending on the situation.
Luckily for one customer, the Sears Auto Center in Springfield, Illinois, was still open when Liz Moody pulled into the mall parking lot at 6:45 p.m. and realized she had a flat tire. Even though it was just 15 minutes before closing time, the team of technicians was more than happy to put on the spare tire and make sure her car was ready for the road.
Vernon Polson Jr., Sears Auto Center Store Manager, has instilled a sense of responsibility in his team that members and customers have noticed. “I always remind the team, think about any of your family members with car trouble – your mother, sister, brother, uncle – we treat our members and customers just like they’re family,” he said.
Assistant Manager Brian Forrester and Advanced Technician Samuel George both lent a hand to Ms. Moody that evening. While changing a flat tire may not seem like a herculean effort, their willingness to help a customer at the end of the evening before closing time did not go unnoticed. Ms. Moody was so thankful for their help that she wrote a letter to the local paper to share her positive experience, stating in part, “…these incredible gentlemen at Sears Automotive took incredible care of me and my car, located the spare and had it on the car and the flat tire under the car all within a half an hour.”
Sears Auto Center
Left to right: Samuel M. George, advanced technician; Vernon Polson Jr., manager; and Brian L. Forrester, assistant manager.
Mr. Polson, who will celebrate his 39th anniversary with Sears in September, is proud of the comradery at the auto center. “We have a really unique situation at our store in Springfield. We’re like brothers,” he said. “We’ve worked together for years and we’re like family. We see each other every day of the year except Christmas, and even on Christmas we text message each other.”
You can read Ms. Moody’s full letter on The State Journal Register’s website.
