Excuse Me...What is This?

People never cease to surprise me. This is especially relevant when working in a customer service position.

It was a typical Tuesday night at work. The pharmacist and I were trying to get things in order to prepare the pharmacy to close in about 30minutes. A women drives up in the drive through. She begins to ring the bell to get our attention (as if we did not know she drove up). She continues to ring the bell, like many others do, as if their fingers are permanently fixed to the button. I approach the window and ask her what I can do to help her. I was waiting for her to give me the name on a prescription we might have ready for her or request a refill on an old script.

Instead she pulls out a huge contraption from her passenger seat and yells out, "What is this thing?" It is dark outside at this time and all I can see her holding is some large white coffee maker looking machine. She goes on, "I got it for free from someone and I did not know how to use it. Can you tell me what it is and how to use it?"

I ask, "Ms. Could you please bring that closer to your window?" So she does. I realize what it is and reply, "Ms. that is a humidifier to moisturize the air. You need to fill it with water, plug it in and turn it on."

She then mentions, "I was thinking that, but wanted to make sure. I know that pharmacists are good with these kinds of things so I brought it in."

As the woman left happy that she could use this machine and satisfied with my help, I thought, why would someone bring a humidifier to a pharmacy to be identified? Why not a home goods store or large retailer? I guess it did not really matter. I wanted to laugh because of how silly it seemed but at the same time I felt honored that the woman had thought of the pharmacy as the first source of reference. She brought her question to the pharmacy first which showed trust and confidence in the profession.

Pharmacists are there to answer questions and help relay information, so I guess if we aren't being utilized for drug information we might as well be helping out with appliances or humidifiers.