Never Underestimate the Power of What You Do

By Diane Campbell

He had a gun, a stocking over his face, and a hat on.  His intent was to rob the bank.  He went up to the tellers, and demanded money from both drawers, all the while waving the gun in their faces. The silent alarm went off, but by the time the police got there, he had gotten away with an undisclosed amount of money.  That was Tuesday August 23, at 12:39 pm.  As of this writing he is still at large.

At 3:00 pm the same day, Gratitude Goodies got a call from Denise (all bank names changed to protect) at the same bank.  “Can you please send out two $100 baskets for us?”  “Send one to Susan, and one to Katie”.  Emily, on staff at Gratitude Goodies, took the order.  She was at the shop by herself.  Marian and I were delivering a large order three hours away out of state.  She called us and we discussed what to do and how to get them delivered to two different locations in a hurry.  By 5:00pm both gifts were in the hands of the recipients.

The bank had given the two tellers some time off to relieve the emotional stress of the situation and wanted to do something to let them know they were thinking of them.  A beautiful gourmet chocolate gift basket was delivered to each of the tellers in short order.  Our staff recognized the urgency of the situation and got it done!  What impressed me the most was what Denise put on the card message.  “We are so grateful you’re ok”.  Even now, reading this give me goose bumps.

I wanted to share this with you because you should never underestimate the power of what you do.  What’s written on the sentiment card has a lot of power.  Do you help your clients, like Emily did, to communicate how they feel?  A lot of times they don’t quite know how to say it.  When you help them express themselves like Denise did to her tellers, you’re really getting to the heart of the matter.  Denise didn’t have to do anything, but, she wanted to let her tellers know that she understood how intense this situation was and offered a comforting gesture.  Isn’t that what this is really all about?

Emily understood the urgency of the situation and acted so professionally with great compassion and understanding.  Having great people on your team makes all the difference.  Don’t ever estimate the power of what you do.  You never know how it makes others feel.

Diane Campbell owns Gratitude Goodies and is a writer for GiftBasketBusinessInsider magazine.