Say Nice Things – The Walls Have Ears

Here’s a little background before I get to the point of this post –

I had a terrific morning today. Getting new furniture always freaks me out – and I had ordered a little table for my TV and two slim cupboards to stand on either side of it – because I couldn’t get the kind of modular ‘thing’ I wanted.

Well – I have had a very nice experience in the past with this store, Dreamscape. Granted they are a bit more expensive – but the upside is the service. Five years later if I have a problem, the guy will come running to solve it. Customer Service at its best. Great variety to suit different budgets, will make customized designs if you want. On top of everything – and this I really love – punctual.

Well, today the store owner sent his ‘boys’ with the necessary stuff – tools and blah – to do the final assembling at my place. Twenty-somethings – these boys hardly talked. A far cry from my neighbor’s carpenters who drive us nuts with the noise and the cigarette smoke and the chatter.

Our boys took all of three hours to complete their work. It impressed me the way they handled everything so gently – and they were extremely courteous. Sometimes when you try telling someone to be careful about something – they dont always take it in the right way – well these dudes, until they left, we didn’t know that they understood Tamil (which we speak at home), Kannada, Telugu, Hindi and English.

My mum and I were sitting in the same room where these guys worked – and of course – chattering non-stop. (we only object when others talk non-stop :-P). We talked about the TV program – where there was some cookery show, we talked about our old furniture, and then we went on and on about what a wonderful experience we’ve had so far with Dreamscape – spanning over 8 years. Well – little did we know that these guys were keenly eavesdropping on what we were discussing at length. 😀 – but it was a case of eavesdropping gone right!

Now imagine – after these guys finished their work, they cleared up all the debris, literally ran their hands over the floor to ensure there were no poky bits and pieces – and wished us all a good day and left. After I left them at the door, I came back in to admire their work and found they had left a hammer in one of the shelves. I ran out with it to return it to them and found them chattering near the lift – in turns in Tamil, Kannada and Telugu 😀 – and they looked at me very sheepishly when I handed them their tool. What could I do? I just grinned back.

Point is – never assume that people cant understand what we’re saying. In fact, I’d go a bit further and take a tip from my mom – say nice things in the hope that people DO hear them! Especially if it is related to them. 😀

Now, I am pretty sure they will go right back and tell their boss at least a little bit of what we were saying – and I think I just ensured that my other stuff comes on time as well 😀