Have you witnessed a “Random Act of QBQ!” recently? My brother-in-law, Tom, ran across this one. Enjoy!
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John, I have a QBQ! story for you!
While at a conference in Chicago, my laptop mouse died. I wasn’t sure if it was broken or just needed a new battery.
So I went to the Candlewood Suites store in the lobby, but they didn’t have any “mice” or the battery I needed.
At the front desk, I asked Julie if they possibly had a spare mouse that another guest had left behind. She looked in their little “lost and found” cardboard box, but there weren’t any.
I thanked Julie and headed out to the conference center next door.
When I returned that evening, there was a message on my room phone from Orlando at the front desk. Reaching him by phone, he told me Julie had gone out and bought me something and I should “come on down.”
Arriving in the lobby moments later, I saw that Julie had gone out and purchased a “jumbo” pack of like 50 batteries for me. I only needed … one!!!
I was blown away.
After recovering from “Rare and Outstanding Customer Service Shock,” I took ONE battery and kindly left 49 behind for other guests to use.
It was the least I could do. 🙂
I’ve just written a note to the senior management of Candlewood Suites about Julie, praising her for going the extra mile.
John, I don’t know if she’s ever read QBQ! or Outstanding!—but she certainly embodies them both!
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Please share with us any “Random Act of QBQ!” you have seen, either here or to John@QBQ.com!
6 Responses
I traveled a great deal. I would usually take my car and leave early in the morning. Before I hit the Interstate I would stop at a local Burger King to get a fresh cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich for the road. Every time I stopped I heard the most pleasant voice on the speaker and she would say, “Good morning, this is Debbie – how many I help you?” Notice, it was not a sales pitch asking me if I wanted the special of the day. More importantly, she talked as if she were talking directly to me and not doing anything else other than serving my needs. As I picked up my order, I noticed something else, she would place one of her hands beneath my hand and then with her free hand place the change in my hand insuring that neither she nor I dropped any coins. As I would start to pull away, she would wish me a good day.
Now for the rest of the story …
I like writing hand written thank you notes. I knew her name was Debbie. I wrote to Debbie’s manager (my random act of kindness) to thank him for his great selection of Debbie as his employee and how pleasant she has ALWAYS been whenever I visited Burger King.
It was at least a month later when I found myself driving through Burger King at about 6:30 AM for my coffee. As I pulled up to the window, Debbie greeted me again as usual, but this time she said, “I know it was you. You wrote to my manager, did you not?” I told her that I had. She said “Thank you very much. My manager was so impressed he gave me a promotion and a raise all because of your note card.”
The lesson I took away was (1) always be observant. (2) say thank you as often as you can. (3) write hand written thank you notes. (4) it only takes a few seconds to be nice, whether people notice it or not.
Jim, good stuff … absolutely! Thanks!
This was three years ago, but one of the most meaningful Random Acts of Kindness I have ever personally experienced. It was three years ago this past week and I have been reliving the experience through my memories that pop up on Facebook each day. My 26 year old son was involved in a vehicle accident and taken by helicopter to a hospital a little over an hour from our hometown. When we finally arrived at the hospital they advised us that they would be flying him by jet to Harborview Medical in Seattle, WA (I was allowed to go with him and my husband drove out by car, about a 9 hour drive). He was so broken… pelvis in three pieces, three places in his right shoulder, all of the ribs on his right side and several on the left and some internal injuries. We were so thankful he was alive. After about 5 days in the hospital, surgery and moving from ICU to a regular room things had begun to “normalize”. My husband and I went to get a bite to eat, we just wanted a place to sit down and have a quiet meal away from the stress and chaos we had been living in. We wanted chicken wings and not being familiar with Seattle, we Googled for a restaurant and found the Wing Dome that was fairly close to where we were. We went and it was a very comfortable, relaxing environment and found that our waitress was very friendly and helpful since we weren’t familiar with their variety of wings. It was busy that evening, it was one of those places with a sports theme and several different sporting events on several TVs. Toward the end of our meal, she told us that we were some of the nicest customers she had had all day, she wanted to know where we were from and what had brought us to the restaurant, we told her our story and how we finally arrived at the restaurant that evening, by the time we finished she was in tears and told us that she had a 5 month old baby and could never imagine what it would be like to get that kind of call. When we went to leave, she had paid for our dinner. We found her and I gave her a big hug and told her how much it meant to have someone be so kind and caring. Needless to say, she, my husband and I were all crying when we left. She was such a bright spot in what had been a very stressful and trying week. I sent a note to her manager to let them know what a wonderful, caring person they had in their restaurant. Now it is three years later and our son is pretty much back to normal. I love the saying that basically says, everyone you meet is going through something. You never know when being kind can be the only bright spot someone has in their day!
Debbie, what an amazing story. Wow, touched our hearts here at QBQ! Thank you!
I absolutely love QBQ stories such as the ones in this blog post and the comments. Reading them reminds me to always try to create experiences of this kind for those I come in contact with in a professional capacity as well as in my personal life. Thank you so much for sharing!
Anthony, you’re dead on! Thanks for sharing!