My day didn’t start well. I woke up late, leaving me half an hour behind my normal morning schedule. I then realised that Dylan’s school uniform was still wet in the washing machine. I threw the wet clothes into the tumble dryer but after five minutes of horrible noise I opted for the radiator. The tumble dryer is on its last legs.
Finally ready to take Dylan to school and I find my car isn’t working; the battery was as flat as a flute, which was not that different to how I was feeling.
Thankfully Ross didn’t need his car this morning, so I borrowed it for the school run, hoping the AA would cover mine. To my relief it did, so a quick call and an exchange of details and within 15 minutes they were there.
Woaf! Now that’s customer service. So, my battery was flat and within 15 minutes of his arrival he’d fixed my car. A weight had been lifted, and so had my mood.
I was working from home today and decided I was going to do some business development, something I’m not afraid of doing but it doesn’t always rock my world, if you know what I mean? I got on with the job in hand but as mid morning approached, I found that I was still thrilled about my car and the service the AA man had provided.
So after a well-deserved cuppa, I decided to write a note of thanks to said AA man, which I did and sent off via email.
This little act of kindness made me think of all the other people I could thank for things they have done. Yesterday afternoon, before my visit to Ernestina, I took Dylan to an end of term party, which had been organised by one of the mums. The party had a DJ, food, drinks and a paying bar for adults. I wasn’t drinking, due to my dull head, so decided to take photos of the kids and try and catch up with a few of the other mums who I don’t see often. I tend to be the mum who’s usually dashing in and out of the school gates, stressed and highly strung with ‘the usual’ time management challenges.
The party was a huge success. The boys looked cool in their urban street-wear and the girls were as pretty as a picture in their party dresses. It was very well organised, so in between sifting through stacks of work emails, I took time out to write an email to the organiser and fellow hard working mum, Lindsay. I knew that yesterday would have taken a lot of effort and had been a challenge for her to organise the event itself, as well as all the other parents.
Gratitude is something we don’t always do, or in fact get a lot of, and in my research on Acts of Kindness, it seems a simple acknowledgement of gratitude can mean a lot to the recipient.
Other people’s efforts shouldn’t be taken for granted. I know myself that delivering excellent customer service requires a commitment and a deeper set of inner ethics towards work and the whole customer experience.
I also believe that going out of your way to organise something for 28 kids and their parents, when you already have a lot on your plate to begin with, is worth a thank you.
So for me today a simple display of gratitude is all I wanted to do, because, for me, both these people deserved recognition for their efforts; the AA man confirmed and renewed my belief in great customer service and Lindsay made 28 little people very happy yesterday.
I’d bet that it’s the only gratitude either of them is likely to encounter today. It’s the way it seems to be these days.
With that in mind, I hope you can find some time to show some gratitude to others, no matter how trivial. Its amazing how powerful 2 words can be…
Thank you!
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