All Good Deeds
About being cranky on the front desk and snapping at someone: it’s so tempting to let loose or even just give what you’re getting from a guest/client/customer, but someone will spread bad news or pass along a bad experience so fast, no matter how much they were responsible for it, that it can ruin you very quickly.
My mother just reminded me of that, which is something she learned from one of her previous bosses who was amazing at customer service. She taught her that one bad experience undoes so much good you’ve done with all of your other customers. That in turn reminded me of a Buddhist quote: “Anger is the fire which burns all good deeds.”
People usually speak up when something is wrong, not when something goes well. They’ll say something when it’s truly wonderful or exceptional, but just good or well done or competent, it’s no big deal. Media deal with bad news for the most part, suggestion boxes are filled with things companies need to do better (not generally suggesting a raise or promotion), and people obviously don’t gossip about compliments. This may seem strange to say, but to me, this is evidence that people are basically good and optimistic. If they didn’t expect good things to happen, for things to work correctly, for people to be decent and compentent, they’d consider good things to be unusual and remark much more on them.
