TKOG Who puts her faith in the power of positivity

NTKOG #181: The kind of big-hearted Pollyanna who, when life gives her lemonade, takes a moment to write a glowing review of the lemonade stand.

I am: ungodly perky the majority of the time, and try to remember to count my blessings.

I am not: always great at letting my blessings know that they count.

The Scene: A typical business interaction, gone horribly wonderful. In fact, this is the kind of interaction I’ve been having more and more frequently since I started this project, because it plays into a few key tenets of my (if you will) developing NTKOG philosophy. Let’s break it down step by step.

Tenet 1: Calmly but firmly ask people to modify their negative behaviors toward you. At work recently, have received a slew of calls from people purporting to be Verizon, pressuring us to make a verbal agreement to extend our contract. Instead of growing flustered and uncomfortable, have asked callers to explain themselves then told them I’d call the company back on my own terms.

Tenet 2: Be proactive. (ie: at least duct tape a garbage bag to the wall behind you before the world throws shit at you.) Yesterday, called Verizon myself to ask about our contract so I could put an end to the harassment for once and for all.

Tenet 3: The shittier someone’s job is, the more effort you should take to be sweet to them. Speaking as someone with a low-level job, I can tell you right now that being occasionally treated like a human is the only thing that keeps me sane. So when the sweet-but-tired-sounding billing department employee came on the phone, ignored the various negative things going on that day and chatted with her pleasantly. When she asked what I did, instead of snapping: “I write. Mostly rent checks. When I can afford ‘em,” I told her a little bit about the industry I work for, then asked if she had fun Memorial Day plans.

Tenet 4: If you want something, might as well ask for it. After she’d verified the information I’d called about, the woman asked if I wanted her to poke around and see if they could bundle any of our services to save money. She mentioned a few “deals” that would have cost us money, and I told her up-front, “Look, I can’t actually spend any more money, but, hey, if you happen to have any promotions running.”

“You know what?” she chirped back. “I’m not letting you off this phone ’til I find something.” Less than five minutes later, she had given my company over $800 in customer-appreciation savings, and detailed instructions about how to receive the same treatment once this boon wears off. I thanked her profusely, both for the excellent customer service and for lifting my hope in humanity.

Dude, you kind of lost track of the NTKOG: Even having thanked her, I felt I hadn’t done enough to show my appreciation. Then, when I told the story to Co-Worker (who is a 19th-century-novel-style Good Person), she immediately replied: “You should call the company to give her manager a compliment about it!”

Oh yeah! Of course! This is exactly the sort of thing I always want to do, but never get around to. In no small part because, while companies are voice-menu-activated to handle every complaint on this great and confusing earth, none actually has a good system for giving compliments. But, buoyed on the woman’s excellent service, I persevered and, after a few tries, was patched through to the manager of her department.

When the manager picked up, she sounded affectedly bored — like she’d just finished a two-hour marathon of bullshit complaint calls and was callousing herself up to take one more. But once we’d finally gotten my account information out of the way, and I’d told her the reason for my call (“Truly, the best customer service phone experience I’ve had in my whole life. You guys did something great by hiring her.”), she paused for a moment, then her voice positively bloomed.

“Oh my. Oh my. Your whole life?” Meanwhile, I could hear her fingers clacking away. Probably an email to the woman, cc-ing her direct supervisor, commending her excellence — but maybe (dare I hope?) a MS Word clip-art award for Commitment To Being A Super-Awesome Human Being. Lord knows she deserves it.

The Verdict: I really need to do stuff like this more often! Shame on me for being too lazy to do it! While I try to make an effort to thank people personally for excellent service (my interpretation of “if you see something, say something” leans toward customer service and awesome outfits), taking the time to put in a word to someone’s manager is an even better way to make sure they receive the recognition they deserve. Plus, thanking people for going the extra mile is the best possible incentive to do the same yourself!

Okay, okay, I’ll stop puking sunshine now. But, seriously, even a day later, thinking about this story makes me want to hug a llama.

Tagged as: count your blessings, customer service, i like being surrounded by good people because it reminds me to try to be a good person (except sometimes i hate being surrounded by good people for the same reason), i'm obsessed with pollyanna because i read it in a sex motel in lake tahoe while the ex and i were breaking up (tmi?), in which i come off as sort of self-satisfied which is ridiculous because no one recognized my schmuckitude more than i, NTKOG Philosophy, pollyanna puke, posts that probably would have been written better were i not jet-lagged (sorry dudes), verizon