Thank You's

We've been having a conversation in our recruitment and retention meeting about how we show our appreciation. I know from personal experience that a handwritten note of praise is a very genuine way to show our employees how much we appreciate their efforts. Our dinig services manager forwarded this message from Linda Talley's Success Newsletter that addressed bad handwriting:

"I talk about sending hand written notes all the time and people still come up with all kinds of excuses not to send them. I was talking to a friend of mine a while back, and he said he didn't send them because he had terrible hand writing. I told him to join the crowd because I have had people whom I have sent hand written notes call me up to decipher my note for them and then tell me that even though it was tough reading it, they enjoyed it and thank me. Bad hand writing is not an excuse. No time is not an excuse-that's called setting a priority and writing a note is not at the top! Bottom line, that's it!

"I tell people, if you want the competitive edge, send hand written notes and they still don't do it. Not because they don't want to get ahead but because they are too lazy! Again, some people call it being lazy, I say it's about priorities! If your customers are not a priority, then don't write a thank you note. Let those business people who see their customers as a priority write the notes and they will have the competitive advantage.

"The handwritten note has become about as rare as the dinosaur so when people get one, they are really excited about it. I cherish the hand written notes I receive because I know it took time and thought to construct and write the note. And I am always impressed when someone does that for me!

"By the way, Christmas is coming up. You can start practicing when you send someone a thank you note for the cool gift; or to a staff member that worked overtime to get that gift box out; or to a vendor that made a special delivery to you; or that customer/client that has been a loyal advocate! "