Let them know!!!!!
I chanced to give a hand in a cake order recently on behalf of my friend. She is this interesting cousin of this lucky chap who got married to this lovely girl.
My friend wanted to send a special wish from 'Across the miles' and you know our online orders at times.. I remember how one such order reached the venue at 10:00 P.M for a 9:00A.M wedding. So, I thanked her common sense to have an offline order placed for this cake. Now, when you are paying a fat sum and you are extremely creative and expressive, it is natural to expect a cake that exactly matches your specification. At least, when I took the order like I would do for myself, I wanted to be sure.
We decided on a Baker and started off with the careful and long and process-oriented ordering process [ There is much more to process adherence in a bakery than we have in IT industry..].
I generally cannot settle for " Its okay... this would do.." when I stand in for someone else to do something. So, I bothered the bakery and my friend and another cousin in her family who received the cake on my behalf ( Murphy's law here, I was tied up at work after a long holiday, so could not move out to receive the cake..) as much as I thought I should and finally closed formalities and went on holiday.
When I got back and checked with the baker, Mr. Receiver had picked up the cake. When All was not really well at work, this good news of "All is well" with the cake was a welcome note to me. My friend sent me a picture of the cake the next day. I tell you, I would not have had the mind to cut it. It was so well made and so cute and exactly as expected. Infact, this was much more perfect that I had expected.
My friend wanted to send a special wish from 'Across the miles' and you know our online orders at times.. I remember how one such order reached the venue at 10:00 P.M for a 9:00A.M wedding. So, I thanked her common sense to have an offline order placed for this cake. Now, when you are paying a fat sum and you are extremely creative and expressive, it is natural to expect a cake that exactly matches your specification. At least, when I took the order like I would do for myself, I wanted to be sure.
We decided on a Baker and started off with the careful and long and process-oriented ordering process [ There is much more to process adherence in a bakery than we have in IT industry..].
I generally cannot settle for " Its okay... this would do.." when I stand in for someone else to do something. So, I bothered the bakery and my friend and another cousin in her family who received the cake on my behalf ( Murphy's law here, I was tied up at work after a long holiday, so could not move out to receive the cake..) as much as I thought I should and finally closed formalities and went on holiday.
When I got back and checked with the baker, Mr. Receiver had picked up the cake. When All was not really well at work, this good news of "All is well" with the cake was a welcome note to me. My friend sent me a picture of the cake the next day. I tell you, I would not have had the mind to cut it. It was so well made and so cute and exactly as expected. Infact, this was much more perfect that I had expected.
See for yourself!!!!
See, its easy to pick up a photo from the catalogue and have the cake baked, but we wanted an online order specification to be made available for offline order. And that was supposed to go through a specific process including an approval and design sign-off.
After I saw this picture, I thought it is only fair to let the baker know that their shop has done a fantastic job. For me, its important that you let people know any single appreciation that you might have for them. So, I called up the shop. When the baker finally picked up, I introduced myself and he knew me very well.. whether he remembers me or not, he would surely recall the cake.. I told him "A Big thank you from all of us for the lovely cake you had made for the wedding. I'll be happy to recommend your bakery to people from now on." That is all I said.
The baker was thrilled and happy about the compliment as if I had complimented his own piece of work. I knew this cake got done at a different place since it was a customized order and was delivered from this outlet. Still, the voice showed that Appreciations do matter and do make people's day.... I recall that I had once done a bouquet order like this for a friend and called the florist to say that the flowers were done so well ; they remained fresh for about two days and that I can confidently recommend them to my people. He was very happy to hear that..
At the end of the day, no matter how much you get paid for what you do or don't do at work, no matter what you get for what you do or don't do at home, what really makes you feel grand is plain acknowledgement of the fact that your job is noticed.. Appreciation comes next, as a bonus.
Let's think about appreciating people for what they are, for what they do and for what they know, as and when we spot their self, act, and knowledge. It goes a long way to help them know themselves better. Often, we don't know our strengths until someone appreciates our work.
After I saw this picture, I thought it is only fair to let the baker know that their shop has done a fantastic job. For me, its important that you let people know any single appreciation that you might have for them. So, I called up the shop. When the baker finally picked up, I introduced myself and he knew me very well.. whether he remembers me or not, he would surely recall the cake.. I told him "A Big thank you from all of us for the lovely cake you had made for the wedding. I'll be happy to recommend your bakery to people from now on." That is all I said.
The baker was thrilled and happy about the compliment as if I had complimented his own piece of work. I knew this cake got done at a different place since it was a customized order and was delivered from this outlet. Still, the voice showed that Appreciations do matter and do make people's day.... I recall that I had once done a bouquet order like this for a friend and called the florist to say that the flowers were done so well ; they remained fresh for about two days and that I can confidently recommend them to my people. He was very happy to hear that..
At the end of the day, no matter how much you get paid for what you do or don't do at work, no matter what you get for what you do or don't do at home, what really makes you feel grand is plain acknowledgement of the fact that your job is noticed.. Appreciation comes next, as a bonus.
Let's think about appreciating people for what they are, for what they do and for what they know, as and when we spot their self, act, and knowledge. It goes a long way to help them know themselves better. Often, we don't know our strengths until someone appreciates our work.
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