Have Hard Times Hardened You or Helped You?

Yesterday we spent the day at the Beach at a resort in the Daytona Beach area. I went to the desk in the morning and asked if they could let me borrow an old hat from lost and found. I shared with them that I had so many upcoming medical expenses for my son, that I didn’t want to spend money on a hat that we’d use just for a few hours and we had hundreds at home.

The young gal at the front desk came back and reported in that it wasn’t possible so I asked to talk with whoever was in charge. Within moments, two women walked out and faced me.

One had an aggressive look on her face, ready for battle. It was apparent on her face when she said, WHAT? CAN I HELP YOU? It was bold and brazen and not soft at all. There was no customer savvy there whatsoever.

The other lady let me speak first, and she was pleasant. I spoke to both of them, and just asked if they had a hat that I could borrow. I didn’t care if it was old or whatever, but my son has red hair and I wanted to help protect his skin.

The bold and brazen lady, in her continued bold style said, “those are only the people’s who lost their hats, we can’t give them out.” I responded, “I’m sure there are some there that have been there forever! Can’t you just let me borrow one?” NO she answered with her natural angry look on her face still plastered on it. Then, the other lady politely chimed in that she’d see if she had one in the condo sales department and she then brought one to our room.

When I walked away, I wondered if this big resort knew how HARD hearted that one lady was? Do they know how her personality is negatively affecting their customers? Do they know, that because she’s got an attitude of “I’m going to get the world before they get me” is costing them?

I would have walked away with such a horrible feeling about their resort. It was the only request I had in my two days there, and it wouldn’t have cost anyone a penny. It was a simple request that they could have done out of the goodness of their heart. And as a matter of fact, someone from the company, albeit in a different department did save the day, and offer me a logo branded hat that was probably used for promotional purposes.
But I didn’t care. I was so grateful for her help and for the hat that I wrote her a long personal letter and will send a letter to corporate on her behalf, about how helpful she was and how awful the other lady made me feel.

What about you? What does your face look like? Is the natural look of your countenance sad? Happy? Content? Angry? Confused? Scared? It is my belief that our faces show our inside feelings and thoughts. And our thoughts then create how we act and respond to other people.

In the case of this woman, she didn’t disappoint. One look at her and I knew that I was going to have a battle on my hands. She wouldn’t give anyone a break because she hadn’t had any breaks in her life. She made it her goal to make it hard on everyone else who she came in contact with on her path.

Lucky for her, and a great blessing to me, she was with a kind hearted lady, who took the role upon herself to solve my problem. She received a long personal and handwritten letter of thanks from me when I left and returned the hat to her. I let her know that she was an angel for me that day.

What would you have done? Gone out of the way for your customer? Or let them figure it out for themselves?

My hope is that if you have time to think about it, you’d do the right thing… and she probably may have too, if she was just a bit more aware.