Grand Rapids Reporter

An associate working at the local Great Lakes Ace Hardware made it her personal mission to communicate with a couple that were regular customers by learning American Sign Language, an act that gained the recognition of the company's corporate headquarters to feature her in a national campaign. 

For Christy, a desire to help others reached a new level as she challenged herself to learn American Sign Language after a deaf couple needed to communicate with an employee at the store. On just her second day of the job, she took to the task of working to talk to her two new deaf customers. 

It had been years since she had last signed, and while trying to say hi, she signed the letter "H."

"I went to sign 'hi' to a customer, but the 'H' wasn’t an 'H' and the customer giggled."

That moment prompted Christy to begin relearning sign language so she would be able to communicate with customers.

Christy is not one to turn someone away due to differences. Instead, she naturally turns to those people and receives them with open arms, letting them know they are not alone in the world.

"I would stand with someone with a handicap faster than with someone who doesn’t," she said. "To me, they’re not ‘those kinds of people;’ they’re just people."

Going out of her way to help others is an ingrained trait that Christy has had for as long as she can remember. Her tendency to seek out people who are considered "outsiders" began in early childhood and has brought her to a place of being able to help people with basic needs in unexpected ways.

"Ace is very big on customer service, and it starts at the top and works its way down," Christy said, according to Ace's website. "People come to Ace for the service they get."

Christy's act of kindness and going out of her way to make sure her customers were taken care of, even with just basic communication, gained her national recognition by the corporation in what Ace calls "Heartware Stories," stories of employees taking helpful to new heights to meet the company's mission to provide excellent customer service. Christy's story, and thousands of other Ace associates helpful acts, also helped Ace Hardware retailers win the J.D. Power's Customer Satisfaction Award for the 15th time in 16 years. The study then ranks the companies by those responses, and this year Ace ranks No. 1 in all categories, according to a May release.

According to the J.D. Power website, the award recognizes the highest-performing companies within its benchmarking study to "help companies increase consumer consideration and ensure that highest-performing brands stand out in the crowd." J.D. Power's annual U.S. Home Improvement Retailer Satisfaction Study takes the responses of real customers assessing companies in the five categories of Staff and Service, In-store Experience, Online Experience, Merchandise and Price.

Ace Hardware received the highest score in the J.D. Power Home Improvement Retailer Satisfaction studies every year from 2007 to 2017, and again from 2019 to 2022.