One of the things that I remember most about Christmas during my childhood is the writing of thank you cards. Every year, while on my Christmas break from school, I was expected to spend an afternoon thanking people for the gifts they had given to me during the holiday season.
Writing thank you cards seems to have become a lost art, but when I receive corporate thank you cards from stores or businesses that I frequent, it puts a smile on my face. It helps me to understand how the people to whom I had written my thank you cards long ago must have felt – that the time and effort they had put into buying me a Christmas present was well spent.
I am glad to know that my time (because it is about more than just my business) is appreciated! It makes me want to continue to shop in those stores and patronize those businesses. And it makes me want to smile while I am doing so. I think if more companies put just a tiny amount of effort into thanking their customers for their support, they would experience a huge upturn in their business and in the smiles they receive. And would you guess what I was doing when I came to this realization? I was writing thank you cards.