Random act of kindness: Good customer service should be rewarded

Last week I was heading towards the hill at the end of my street for a brisk walk when I got stopped by a stranger asking me where the nearest hotel was. It was the next street along and as I hadn’t any urgent plans I thought I’d walk her there myself.

We got to the hotel and she hadn’t booked anything in advanced and she was a bit startled at the cost. She asked me if I knew of any other hotels and luckily I did as I used to work at one close by. I gave them a call and unfortunately they were fully booked. You would think that would be the end of the conversation but the receptionist went onto give me the details of other hotels close by, and their contact details. To save me time calling around she even checked Booking.com to see if there was availability. Bear in mind this hotel was fully booked and not gaining anything by helping me, I thought she went above and beyond.

Upon talking to the stranger some more I found out her name was Lisa and she’d travelled from France and was back up to Edinburgh the next door, not before presenting a poster at an event at a university. She was extremely tired, so even though the hotel I showed her to was the more expensive option, she booked a room there.

So there was the random act of kindness that I helped a stranger get a hotel room, but I also wanted to say thanks to the receptionist at the hotel I called. Luckily I was still in contact with the Front of House Manager, so I contacted her just to double check the name of the receptionist. I then wrote a little note and bought a bar of chocolate and dropped it off at the reception desk.

I’ve no idea if she has received it or her reaction; that’s not important. What I thought was important was that good customer service that goes above and beyond is recognised, which sometimes isn’t the case. Sometimes it’s easier to make a compliant because you’re hoping for a refund of sort, some sort of personal gain. Having worked in a couple of venues I recognise that at the end of the day venue staff work really hard and put up with a lot.

And who doesn’t like a free bar of chocolate? Free food always tastes better!

Thoughtful presents: They don’t always go right

Throughout this blog I’ve mentioned random acts of kindness and thoughtful presents that I’ve given. Social media has a way of being able to highlight when things go right, but if I did that all the time then it wouldn’t be real life. Things go wrong and this week a thoughtful present/act of kindness went wrong.

One of my creative friends was going through a tough time as a family member was in and out of hospital. When I hear somebody I know is going through a tough time, I have a reflex that I have to do something to make things better. Not to solve the problem because I haven’t got a magic wand in life. I just feel a surprise present, act of kindness or whatever you want to call it, might make a tough day a bit better.

So back to my creative friend, I thought making some granola bars might do the trick. They’re a good source of energy and healthy. I got my friends address and like all acts of kindness I was all set to do a doorstop drop off because some people get awkward in accepting kindness. I was all set…and then I saw on his Instagram that he was on holiday! So I had a batch of granola bars but with nowhere to go. Luckily with anything I bake; family, flatmates, and work colleagues are happy to eat them. 

This isn’t the first time a kindness idea hasn’t gone the way I planned it. A friend of mine last year had her first baby. She had lost her mum when she was a teenager and although she had female relatives around her, I thought it would be great to get some advice on motherhood from some well-known mum’s. I wrote to around 15, and had planned to write to more. But I only got 2 replies; one was from JK Rowling’s people saying she doesn’t reply to individual letters. The other was in a week of writing and was from Jo Elvin, who is the editor of Glamour magazine. She wrote a lovely letter for my friend and really put the time into writing. I didn’t get the outcome I wanted, maybe I just wrote to the wrong people.

And when I did a random act of kindness day I tried to give a dog a bone! It’s seriously hard to do. The owners are close by and would get suspicious of a stranger giving their dog a bone. In the end I just had to leave it in a park and hope a dog would find it!

In the news you hear lots about random acts of kindness and the successes, but you hear less about the ones where the intentions are good, but don’t pay off. They should be rewarded just as much because at the end of the day, doing something for a stranger is a risk, you don’t know how they’ll react whether it will be good or bad.

If an act of kindness doesn’t pan out, don’t be put off. It’s all about timing and sometimes even acts of kindness, however great they are can have a case of the right place wrong time. And if you’ve experienced that in an act of kindness you’ve done, I urge you to keep going, and I applaud your efforts.

Now does anybody want some granola??

Random Acts of Kindness: When ideas don’t work out

As you are probably aware I’m an ideas person, but just because I think of lots of ideas it doesn’t mean they’re always guaranteed to work. It would be great if they all did, but then it wouldn’t be real life if they all worked.

So last week I met a guy who was pretty nice, actually met him naturally for a change and we got on well. We’d already had each other’s numbers but hadn’t met until now. He mentioned that he liked chocolate brownies and obviously testing the waters and seeing if they could be potential for something more I made some, as a way of impressing him. I sent him a text message to say I had made some for a 'work colleague' and there were some spare if he wanted any. But alas, no reply at all, not even if he was to say he was busy to accept them. And that’s fine, a little disappointed but as I learnt at the age of 3, you can’t force people to like you.

But there was a dilemma…..I had made chocolate brownies, what was I to do with them? I was working in London, and most if not all my colleagues were out and I wasn’t going to be eating brownies all day. So I wanted to do something I always wanted to, give some food to the homeless. However with a heavy workload I couldn’t go out at lunch in the end and find someone to give them to. Some of my colleagues were in after all and had a few, and a couple of guys at volunteering had some, but I still had a layer of brownies in the box.

I was walking to the tube and just as you entered Piccadilly Circus tube station sat a homeless man with a sign simply saying he was very hungry. I walked past him and then decided to walk back and ask him if he liked chocolate brownies. He said they were his favourite and so I gave him the bottom layer of brownies in the box which totalled around 6-7. His eyes lit up and I could tell he really appreciated the gesture.

Who knows how long those brownies may last him. Could be one meal, he could graze on them all day. It made me really happy knowing that the little brownies I made which took 5 minutes to cook might have made a longer impact. I’m going to try and make more cakes in the future and give them to homeless people.

And as for the guy? Well life is too short to have people in your life that don’t appreciate a good chocolate brownie!

Random act of kindness: A piece of cake

There seems to be an unspoken rule that you shouldn't talk to people on trains. When I was at uni, whenever I went on a long train journey I made a point of talking to a stranger, so I felt like I had achieved something.

                                           The only picture I have of me on a train.

Since then I don’t really talk to people on trains anymore and that’s a shame, as you never know who you’re going to end up meeting.

I was in London on Wednesday evening going to do some volunteering at an event (which is today or yesterday depending on when you’re reading this) and I took the tube. Upon sitting down like everyone does you look around and generally start to do a bit of people watching. I smiled to a woman sitting near me and noticed that it looked like she’d just been crying or was about to. Her eyes and nose looked a little red and swollen. And unless you’re a Hollywood actress who;s skin doesn't change colour when you cry, these are usually human signs of some tears.

I know all too well over the past year about tears, particularly when you’re in public and trying your best not to cry as you know everyone will stare. For me it takes my skin around 20 minutes to go back to normal skin colour.

I looked over again at the woman and she smiled, although it seemed that it was a smile that was hard to master, as if she was too sad inside to fully smile. For some reason at that point I knew I had to do something, but didn't know what.

So this is what I did. I’d just bought a Boots Meal Deal and part of it was a piece of Red Velvet cake, still in its packaging. I tore a bit of a random envelope in my bag and wrote: ‘Smile. It’s going to be okay. Have some cake. Enjoy!’ Then upon leaving the train I handed this woman the cake and note, and she said thank you as I was making my way off the train. I briefly looked back and she smiled at the note, and looked like she was to cry again, but I hope tears of happiness and relief, and not sadness.

It was a simple, spare of the moment thing that I did, and I've made a conscious decision from now on to always carry a chocolate bar or something similar with me, and some post it notes. You never know when somebody needs a pick me up. And it would be great if you were inspired to do the same. You don’t have to say anything when making the gesture, I didn't and as a result the woman may have thought she wasn't alone in whatever she was going through.

A random act of kindness can really be just a piece of cake.

Random act of kindness: The bank of cakes

I'm with Natwest and I prefer doing bank transfers face to face then doing it online. I tried online banking once and it’s actually quicker for me to pop to the Natwest which is less than a 5 minutes walk from my flat. If the contact I’m transferring to is on the mobile app then I can transfer the money fine, but anyone else I’d rather get a human to do it for me.

A few  weeks I go I went to the bank and saw it was being refurbished. I waited 15 minutes in line before being told I was in the wrong queue and then had to queue another 5 minutes before the manager said she could transfer the money in her office. I asked why there couldn't make signage while the refurbishment was going on, but they said it was early days and they were still figuring things out.

Once I got home I felt kind of bad as I thought I was a little short with the manager, and realised that during the refurbishment quite a lot of customers may get frustrated with the building works and take it out on the staff. When working at a local venue I know that the customer can sometimes ‘shoot the messenger’ when more often than not the systems the staff have to work with can’t be changed.

I thought about what I could do to give the staff a bit of a boost and I could only think of one thing….cakes! Cakes and biscuits make everything better. So I made a batch of chocolate brownies (with a 5 minute microwave recipe which Charlotte doesn't think counts as baking,) and took them into the local branch a couple of weeks ago. The manager was very surprised, but appreciated the gesture.

I gave a little card and said that until the refurbishment was complete in March, I’d make some cake or biscuits once a week. A few days later I got a lovely email from the manager.

So far I've made non cook biscuits, banana slices, a sponge cake with sprinkles in the mix (a birthday present from Jen and Mark) and as a result I've had one of the builders at Natwest ask if I was married, because if I wasn't two of his guys wanted to marry me!

Each time I go into the bank I meet different members of staff, and I always like seeing their reaction. I’m known as the cake lady.

Random act of kindness and thoughtful presents: Baking exchange

For Halloween last year Charlotte and I held a party, and to warn our neighbours that there would be noise, we did the smart thing and invited them to the party.

One of them called Laura showed up and she brought along some cake-pops which she baked. I pointed out that Charlotte and I also like to bake, and jokingly said that if she needed a tasting panel to let us know.

Imagine our surprise when 2 days later I come home from work to find a foil package on our doorstep which was warm banana bread in! It tasted great and so a few days after I returned the gesture with some pumpkin pie that I had made.

Just over a year later and the exchange is still happening. There’s no rota, it’s all very sporadic which makes it even better as you never know when there’s going to be some cake on the doorstep!

Random acts of kindness and thoughtful presents: Cooking down under

I’ve been living with my flatmate Charlotte for around 18 months, and it’s great. We have two favourite shows we like to watch together: A League of Their Own and Masterchef Australia. The latter is what I’ll be writing about today.

My friends and family can tell you that I won’t stop talking about the show, so I won’t going on about it here (I could do a whole separate blog on the show,) but I will highly recommend you watch it! There are 3 judges; Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris. The first two guys are British and George is Australian with Greek and Cypriot heritage.

Watching the show is a big commitment, it's on 5 nights a week for 3 months! I showed Charlotte an episode when she first moved in and she liked it. We've watched 3 series together and when the final is on we cook a fancy meal to celebrate.

Charlotte is in Australia for 3 weeks on holiday, and before she left she booked a table for her and her friend Hayley (who's out there travelling) at George’s restaurant The Press Club in Melbourne. She sent me a screenshot of the booking confirmation and I immediately thought; could I do something? As she's always been there for me through a pretty eventful 18 months.

I sent an email to The Press Club asking if there was anyway she could meet George. The customer service at the restaurant is brilliant and they got back to me within a few hours (given there was a time difference of course.) Unfortunately George was unavailable the day Charlotte was going for lunch, but they said as an alternative I could buy his recipe book and he would sign it for her.

So I made a call early last week in the early hours of the morning to pay for the book over the phone. And this morning I got a message from Charlotte with a picture of the signed book.

A big thank you to The Press Club and of course George Calombaris for signing the book and making The Press Club experience one to remember. And thanks to Hayley for her great pictures.

Now any idea as to what George has written?!?!