Stories of Kindness from Around the World

I am pretty new to this site and so have been trying to russle up some ideas for acts of kindness recently. Today I realised I have been thinking too hard and all I needed to do was look at what I do on a day to day basis and try to make improvments. this came to me after a call I took at work. I work in a call centre and deal with sales enquiries, technical support, operational assistance and of course complaints. It can be a difficult job at times because you get a lot of abuse and not so much thanks. Becuase of this it can be easy to lose sight of what you are there for - to care for customers.

I received an email from a customer today quite irate that nobody had been able to help him. His product was well out of warranty and he was wanting it to be repaired free of charge and at the bottom of his email he wrote - "I wish you would start earning your title of Customer Care". While company policies would not allow me to assist him financially, it got me thinking about the role I play in people's happiness and I have turned a new chapter. The next call I took was a woman in distress because she couldn't turn her TV on. This is quite a common call and you often become frustrated at them and do not pay enough attention to the customer. This time I decided to listen to her carefully. I helped her turn her TV on and then listened to the story she had to accompany the reason she had got herself into a fluster. The conversation only took about 5 mins of my time and yet she could not stop thanking me for the time I had taken to listen to her story. It reminded me of the simple things you can do to help someone. It doesn't have to be a big event. A simple smile or a lending ear can make a big difference to someone.

I thought I'd share this story to remind you that if you're stuck for kindness ideas, think of your everyday life and try and do a simple good deed every day...that's my aim from now on!