Anyone who has worked in a retail or customer-based environment has more than few customer stories to share with their friends and colleagues.  Since many of my friends work or have previously worked in retail, many of our conversations evolve into customer-related stories.

From the perspective of a retail manager, sometimes customers get generalized.  We tend to forget the good customers and only remember the really bad ones.  But the sweet, honest, caring customers are the ones we should remember.  Those are the ones that keep us in this demanding field.

Many years ago, a frustrated customer threw a pepper mill at me.  I was shocked and aggravated at the time, but now I find it humorous.  When I start telling customer-related stories, the pepper mill comes to mind. Often I forget the woman who took the time to mail me a thank-you card for helping her teenage daughter find an outfit for school.  Or, the woman who recognized that I was busy and working alone and bought me a soda because she appreciated the service I provided.  Or, the sweet lady who overheard that it was my birthday and beautifully sang to me right in the middle of the store.

I am not alone.  Recently, a friend of mine who works in a bank received a set of personalized chocolate business cards from an appreciative customer.  Another colleague received homemade cupcakes from a customer who just wanted to say “thank you.”  And, still another colleague learned that a very demanding customer, whom she thought left unhappily, called her corporate office to commend her service.

All of these instances have one thing in common:  Each person was just doing their job.  As employees, we often get a bad reputation, and so do our customers.  We are surrounded by kind and generous customers who just want the one thing we are expected to provide:  help!  If we can choose to forget about those few negative experiences and focus on the prospect of making one person’s day, we may actually succeed at brightening ours as well!