The Red Roses of Belfield

There aren’t many places to get flowers in Belfield, ND. In fact, there are zero places. The closest place to get flowers is 20 miles away in nearby Dickinson. There you’ll find arrangements made of hydrangeas and viburnums, delphinium, freesia, and lilies. Or, the classic: a bouquet of red roses.

The latter is all that Nicole Zacher wanted for her birthday.

Nicole is a customer at Choice Bank in Belfield. She works at the SuperPumper next door and often comes in to make business deposits. This is what she was doing on a cool, autumn day — her birthday.

Somehow, it came up that Janet Lindbo, Choice Bank Frontline Specialist, had celebrated her birthday that weekend. Nicole chimed in.

“Funny,” she said. “It’s actually my birthday today!”

She chatted with Janet for a while and mentioned the red roses. Unfortunately, she said, her husband thought it would be too expensive. A delivery from Dickinson to Belfield, he said, would cost at least $400.00!

Nicole shrugged, matter-of-fact.

“I probably won’t get anything,” she said. “So I bought myself these jeans!”

Nicole showed off her jeans and smiled. But as soon as she left, Janet’s wheels started turning. After all, birthdays are meant to be special!

“I just wanted to make her day,” she said.

Janet knew her co-worker Kim was heading to Dickinson that day for an appointment. Would she be able to pick up some roses, too?

“Of course!” Kim replied.

That afternoon, Kim drove the 20 miles into Dickinson to run her errands. On her way back, she stopped at Wal-Mart in search of the biggest, brightest bouquet of red roses. And there it was.

“It was perfect,” Kim said.

She got back that evening and dropped the roses off with Janet. Janet knew that Nicole was a few blocks away at the local bar where they play darts every Monday. When she got there, she saw Nicole right away. Janet pulled the roses out and handed them to her.

“Happy birthday!” she said.

Nicole’s eyes widened with shock. So did her husband’s.

“She was pretty excited,” Janet said with a laugh. “And it was good to show her husband that, ‘See? It’s not that hard to get roses to Belfield!’”

The next day, Nicole called Choice Bank and thanked Janet and Kim again.“It really made my day,” she said. “Thank you so much.”This, Janet says, is what it’s all about.

“It’s part of our job to be listening to the customer, and then responding to that,” she said. “It’s just nice to make somebody else happy.”

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