I’m opinionated, have impossibly high standards, and can never just let the little things go.

This is pretty much how I pitch my passion as a copywriter to potential clients in order to warn them about my ‘approach’ before they agree to work with me.

Non-clients don’t get the option to back away from such qualities, however, because these attributes go a fair distance to sum up my entire personality.  That’s right, I’m a delight.

Whilst I personally view it as a positive, my personality-passion combination makes me a complete nightmare for any so-called professional individual, organisation or brand that has wronged me in the arena of customer service.  I’m the first to launch a verbal attack if I feel I’ve been let down or suffered a poor customer experience, and I take visible glee in the written grievance that will most certainly wing its way into the inbox of whichever poor soul is tasked with dealing with customer relations on behalf of a brand or business.

However, every now and then, I like to use my powers for good.  I like to level the same energy that goes into demanding justice at the hands of consumer-based wrong-doings to praise examples of customer care that, in my opinion, go above and beyond what the customer service role or situation expects.  In days gone by, I’d have written an email to a generic website address, or posted a testimonial on a review website, but these days, the power of social media means that there are far more efficient ways of ensuring that a message of well-deserved praise is shared and championed for all to see.

I had good reason to do this just a few weeks ago.  The company?  Costa.  The customer service?  The compassion and gesture of the young gentleman (Harry) manning the drive-through, who effectively shouted me my coffee after I presented him with the ‘Oh I’ve forgotten my wallet‘ cliché.  Actually, it was the ‘Oh FFS why is EVERYTHING going wrong where the hell is my cash my bag’s stuck on the seatbelt I’m too emotional right now my child is ill and screaming in the backseat after a long morning spent in A&E‘ cliché.

I’d needed a coffee to focus myself after an upsetting morning that had followed a sleepless night with my baby daughter.  Everything was ultimately fine, but I was operating on adrenaline and hitting a come-down fairly hard from the emotions I’d been through in the last 12 hours.  The Costa sign just visible from the side of the road on the journey home was a beacon of hope, but I was unprepared for a transaction – financial or human, it would seem.  Since becoming a parent, it’s been about typical that I meticulously plan, organise and methodically re-stock the bag containing all of the stuff for the baby, but when it comes to having any of my own belongings to hand (money, a hairbrush, a sense of dignity), I’m considerably ‘unpacked’.   I didn’t think about any of this, and I pulled into the drive-through and ordered.

Oh, I should point out that technically I DID have money on me (oh the joy of an emergency stash in the glovebox), but it was only when the barista looked at me with compassion as opposed to pity that I realised that the pound coins I’d scrabbled together and handed over had gone out of circulation four f**king months earlier.  Long story short, I told him I was embarrassed and gutted I’d wasted his time.  He obviously picked up on a tone (and possibly the fact that I looked like hell) because he then told me that I wasn’t leaving without the coffee.  I responded by saying I refused for him to get in trouble or have to pay for the coffee himself, and he yet again calmly and with a friendly tone told me I’d be having the coffee.

It was an immensely kind gesture, and even if anyone else views it as small, to me it was huge – and massively needed at a tough time.  I completely expected a robotic, emotionless and ‘by the book’ response given the situation, and what I got was intensely human.  It’s sad that I view this as ‘above and beyond’ as opposed to standard practice, but it really was.

I used the power of social media to write about this positive interaction and ended up rousing action from my contacts to ultimately put me in touch with over a dozen people in Costa who were high up enough to make sure that this lad (who I have since found out has a baby daughter of his own on the way) is truly and publically recognised for his customer service.  Expect a follow up blog from me when I find out more!

My point in all this, is that if you’re good with words, use them to praise (if you can).  Similarly, if you’re quick to use said words to complain, curse or cause a scene, then once in a while, flip things on their head and go out of your way to praise the good things that happen in our consumer driven society.  I’m not talking about saying something nice to someone randomly in the street, or leaving a charming hand-written note on a colleague’s desk (Christ knows this is not the type of colleague I am – hence why I work on my own), but if you are involved in a customer service interaction that really (and I mean really) exceeds your expectations rather than completely destroys your belief in the concept of the customer ever being right/human, then do it.

I’m going to make it my mission to start a streak of such praise using the power, permanence and profile of the written word.  Will you join me?