There are normally two times when someone tells another person about you or your business, when something goes wrong or when you encounter something remarkable. If people aren't talking about your business or service, you are most likely just average.

This weekend I encountered two businesses I would like to "talk about". The first is a business sector that I have come to loathe in Enid, America. It's our movie theaters. I normally don't talk about our mall theater because it is just average. There's nothing special about it and usually there is no reason to talk about it.

This weekend there was a reason to talk about it. My family and I decided to make Saturday a movie day and planned out a course of action. We looked online at the movies and times and mapped out our plan. Our plan went into action as we darted to the mall for lunch. We had a full 45 minutes to eat before the movie was to begin. Luckily I decided to purchase tickets as I entered the mall and before we ate. It was fortunate because the times on the Dickinson website were completely wrong. We now had 20 minutes to eat, get popcorn and find a seat.

I quickly paid for my tickets and went to shovel my food down so that I could try to get a good seat. As I ate it occurred to me that I might have been overcharged. On the way back in I asked about kids three and under and was told they were free. The cashier had not asked me the ages of the kids and charged me full kid price. I received a refund. This left 5 minutes to rush into the theater to grab seats while my wife grabbed the popcorn.

It was then that I heard even more "good news". The theater was out of popcorn!!! It was the first show of the day! The people around me could not believe a movie theater had no popcorn. I couldn't either. There was no sorry, no certificate for free popcorn next time, nothing. My family sat down disappointed there was no popcorn and we began to watch the irritating commercials. After the blur continued through the second commercial my wife went up front to ask them to focus the picture. Once it was focused the picture split where the bottom of the movie was on top and the top of the movie was on bottom. This continued until another person in our row went up front to have it corrected.

After that things went fairly smoothly and to the theaters credit, somehow there was a full batch of popcorn ready as we left the theater. Why is Enid's movie theater like this? Because they can be. They have no competition and they don't care. They hire employees that don't care. They are truly unremarkable.

On the other hand, I also experienced a business that I think is remarkable. My lawn care engineer Mark Miller spent his Sunday cutting my lawn due to weather delays. He didn't have to come on Sunday. He didn't come because he wanted money, he left without even getting paid. He did it because he believes in great customer service. His lawn care business is remarkable and something I would talk about.

The other day the city left two trash cans full of monkey grass because the cans were heavy. Mark and his crew hauled them off for me, no extra charge. If the grass hasn't grown much, Mark cuts me a deal. His guys always clean up and they do a great job.

Is your business remarkable? Are people talking about it? What are they saying?