Wednesday, September 19, 2007

The Kindness of Others: Day 1

It's not often that I meet a customer at my full time job at a high end retail store that acts the way all customers, all people for that matter, should act. I was having an ok day; I had some nasty, rather uncivil customers who were not nice by any means to me as well as my coworkers, but I wasn't allowing them to get into my head and bother me. I was successfully ignoring their lame attempts to make me their indentured servant.
And then, as I was about to lose all hope of making some sales and salvaging the night, she appeared, a customer who restored my hope that people (strangers) can be kind and good at heart. I will refer to her as Ms. J.; she came in looking for bedding and everything that goes along with it for her daughter's dorm room at a prestigious Boston university. Initially, she was only looking for a bedskirt, and I was eager to help her. She seemed slightly stressed, and my job as a salesperson is to make the customer's shopping experience a positive one. This mom had a real desire to make her daughter's room a warm, vibrant, comfortable place, and decided that she didn't just need a new bedskirt, but a new lifestyle. She wanted a mix of warm and cool cozy colors, browns, reds, blushes, pinks, aquas, and crisp whites. Her finishing touch was a red cashmere throw for her daughter to toss over an armchair. Throughout this process, even though she was stressed out and unfamiliar with the Boston area, Ms. J. was pleasant and never overly demanding.
After she made her purchase, a coworker and I helped Ms. J. to prepare everything in advance for her daughter's room by throwing away all packaging, zipping pillow protectors onto pillows, putting the duvet on the comforter, etc. She was conscientious and respectful of our jobs and our service towards her. As we helped her to walk her bags to her taxi that was waiting outside we all had a real conversation. She asked us what we studied at school, and told us not to stay in retail forever, that it is a thankless, brutal occupation with long, late hours. When we finally made it outside we put her bags in the front of her taxi, and we thanked her, and she thanked us and began looking through her handbag. She handed each of us a $20 tip; we both told her that we weren't really supposed to accept tips, and she said you don't understand, you both helped me, and went so above and beyond your job description, and this is my way of thanking both of you. My coworker and I both hesitated, and she said please take it; I promise I will disappear into the night, I won't tell anyone and we'll all probably never see each other again. People like my coworker who helped me when he didn't have to and my customer who turned my night around by acting extraordinarily positive reminds me of the kindess of others.

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