Twenty percenters

I am sure you have heard about the 80/20 law. For example 80% of your effort nets a 20% result and vice versa. I think that this rule applies people to in that you spend 80% of your time working with 20% of the people. Most customers transactions are fairly straightforward and time little time to net a satisfying result. Then there are the twenty percenters. These are the habitual in-needs or have complicated requests. I have come to realize that I place a value on a persons information needs. If a customer comes to my desk looking for a stapler, needing me to search the Internet for something, etc. I generally don't mind and I will often go out of my way to find the best information possible. Sometimes it is a real challenge and I am up for that. But on the other hand if a customer comes to my desk multiple times a day with the same requests, I have do not value their needs as highly as other customers and I find that I grudgenly look up yet one more google image search for the millionth time, I help them out with the same problem on the computer, etc. I try to helpful but I would personally be embarrassed if I had to ask someone for the same things a gazillion times. I actually value other people's time in the same way that I value my own. But since working with the variety of public, I have learned that some people really have to believe that my time should be spent working on their problems. All libraries have them and I am assuming most businesses do.
On the other hand, there are some customers that are a pleasure to see week after week. And some of these customers are daily users as well but they are generally not needy or at least their needs vary. And I have one customer that when he does come in shows us a card trick and leaves us all with a smile. I remember my favorite priest telling me that sometimes he couldn't give people what they wanted but the one thing he was always certain he could give was a smile. And I never left a conversation with him without one. These might be the twenty percenters as well. Perhaps 80% of the people you will ever meet will make a very low impact on you but 20% will make a huge impact, positive or negative. I personally hope that I make a positive impact, but I realize there are times when I make a negative impact as well. So maybe I need to think a little bit more on how I want my 20% impact to spin.