The Gift Of "Thank You"

I've written before about my history with "thank you". I believe in it - I practice it - and I appreciate it. So my calling to thank a small business for providing the service they said they would (and the service that I paid for them to accomplish) probably doesn't come as a shocker. Yeah, well it shocked the small business.

I identified who I was and what I had ordered and where I'd asked for it to be delivered. I began to express my thanks at a job well done and I could tell, even just one sentence in, that the individual on the other end of the phone wasn't prepared to be thanked. My guess is that when a call comes through as mine had - from a customer who identifies themselves and what they'd purchased, what typically would follow would be a complaint, not a compliment. Strangely, without a lot of warning, I found myself on hold.

A moment or two passed.

A new person picked up the line, identified themselves as a member of management or some-such, and asked me to repeat what I'd already said ... namely that I was satisfied with my purchase. I laughed at the request (just for a second) and then agreed that yes, from what I'd been told, everything was as I had asked for it to be and thanked them again for a job well done. I assured this person that I'd keep their contact information in mind for future use, and we ended the call.

And a strange feeling has grown inside of me since that time.

First off, I did something nice for my guy for "no real reason at all" and heck, that always feels good. Secondly, my guy was pleasantly (almost) surprised with what I'd done and brightening his day is another "feel good" for me (so yeah, I was smiling pretty good by that time). And then, by thanking folks for doing what they said they would, I "added to the happy".

Kinda makes me wanna do this sort of thing for my guy every Friday.