Please, say Thank You

I've had it. I'm finally done supporting businesses whose owners and employees don't utilize the most basic of courtesies by saying 'Thank You' when the transaction is over. When did this transition to 'My Pleasure' or worse, no response at all, finally cement itself in our society? And how do we begin to bring it back? I fear among all the lost arts, saying 'thank you' and showing sincere gratitude is gone, never to be revived. But I'm going to try.

I blame the golden arches for training myriads of people to say 'have a nice day' in place of 'Thank You'. Directing someone to change their attitude with the delivery of a bag full of burgers and fries. But 'have a nice day' or the more recent 'my pleasure' being dished out at the famous chicken drive through, doesn't come close to the power of 'thank you'.

When someone gives their money for a product or service you offer, 'thank you' is the only appropriate response. It can, and should be, followed up with 'my pleasure' or 'have a nice day'. Taking 'thank you' away from the customer shows a severe lack of respect for all they had to do to acquire the means to purchase what is being offered.

If you've caught on that is a bit of a rant...thank you for continuing to read! It's been a irritant, poking me daily for years. It's infuriating to hear 'my pleasure' instead of 'thank you'. And I've tried to come up with the appropriate response. But inevitably, it occurs to me that it's probably not the fault of the person behind the counter. After all, they have been trained to respond and react in a certain way. Maybe, in some cases, it is a lack of interest. I think, though, more often than not, it's a situation more serious than that...

The blame for the lack of 'thank you's' lies squarely with business owners. I suspect many owners do not extend their own gratitude to employees (which can happen via a living wage) or set examples for extending gratitude to customers. It's a vicious cycle we as a society have accepted for too long. Teaching employees to understand why it's important to say 'thank you' isn't an easy task. From my experience as restaurant owner, it's difficult to identify and hire people who will go the extra mile to understand their role in the bigger picture of why 'thank you' is so important. That's no reason not to try. Gratitude flows in all directions from where it starts. And it must start with business owners.

If you are ever lucky enough to be someone's first boss, take into account that person probably has not learned in school how basic capitalism works. They've been taught it exists, that it's a concept, but not the intricacies and nuances of what it means to run a business in the system. I would argue that any transaction in capitalism should always end with a 'thank you'. When resources are exchanged, it's almost never equitable. Utilizing gratitude and verbally expressing it is important and should be considered paramount to navigating the waters of doing business. It's much easier to understand the character of those you are conducting business with when gratitude is present.

A genuine 'thank you' still goes a long way to building a loyal customer base and should be utilized at every transaction. Plus, it's just downright a nice thing to do.

While were at it...we should also bring back the hand written thank you note. Because the only thing better than saying 'thank you' out loud, is writing it so the recipient can read it over and over again.

So please, say 'thank you'.