In the Orlando Harcourt offices, they used to celebrate what they called Customer Service Week. It was an excuse to hammer home the idea that we all needed to pay more attention to the customers, and to do it they gave us lots of little trinkets.
Every day, there would be one or more surprises on our desks when we showed up in the morning. (I remarked once that it was like Hannukah.) Drink koozies, pens, coffee mugs, stuff like that would greet us every morning.
One day we got a branded leather coaster emblazoned with the company name, and underneath it said, “Do it right the first time.” Beneath it I immediately scrawled, “…and nobody gets hurt.” I still have that coaster sitting on my desk at home.
My favorite gift was the stress ball – you know those, a squishy rubbery ball filled with sand or something that you squeeze to relieve tension. Well, that morning everybody found stress balls on their desks and immediately started playing with them.
Clearly the office was a stressful place, because I remember standing there listening to the subtle yet noticeable background sound of squish… squish… squish… reverberating throughout the office. Even more clearly, in fact, when three separate people actually broke their stress balls from squeezing too hard that very first morning.
Obviously, it’s not easy living in a tourist town.