Letter of Appreciation 32 Years Later...

My father is nearing his 93rd birthday and I had to clean out some of his old papers and personal items when I moved him to a new assisted living facility. He has a small stack of papers with a rubber band around them and I began to look through them. Some were old legal papers, birth certificate and other assorted papers that no longer were needed, but in the stack there were two sheets that caught my attention.

The first was a Letter sent to one of my fathers companies dated January 30, 1974 from a customer who was looking for a new Condo in Florida and happened to meet my father the sales manager at that time of "Lime Bay" a new condo development.

I have scanned this letter so you can read it here.


Although it might be a bit hard to read here, the letter deals with how pleasant and professional my father was to this customer. Now remember this letter was one of two I found in my fathers only personal papers and he kept this one for 32 years.

The other paper I mentioned was one he received from one of the companies he worked for and acknowledged him as being the first salesman to reach the million dollar mark selling mutual funds. This too was dated or or around the mid 1960's.

So the next time you meet someone that does their job well or goes out of their way to help you, take the time to write a letter to their employer and let them know about their exceptional staff.

You letter can also end up being the one they save and cherish as my father did his.

Reply From HearX President

Please read the cordial reply from Dr. Paul A. Brown, Chairman of HEARx

Let me reprint the second paragraph of this letter for you:

"That is why we are particularly pleased to receive such kind words as yours. We join you, by copy of this letter, in praising Robert who truly exemplifies the HEARx commitment to quality patient care and satisfaction"

A copy of his letter was sent to Robert Rosengarten the individual I was impressed with and wrote about and his regional manager.

Now you understand how important it is to send a letter to a company president when one of his employees impresses you or extends himself and shows he has exceeded your expectations of what you would expect him to do.

I feel as strongly about writing a nice letter as I do a complaint. Both have their place and both alert a company to the good and bad individuals in their employ. It also doesn't hurt your chances of getting exceptional VIP treatment the next time you have to go into the store or use their services.

A few important points in writing a complimentary letter

1. When an employee extends themselves to you and you want to show your appreciation let them know you would like to write a letter to their employer and find out who the president or senior executive is of their company.
   
   
2. Ask them to supply the proper name and address for you to write to. In some cases they may offer you a comment card. Make sure you copy the information from the card and write a letter which has more weight then completing the card.
   
   
3. Make a note of the particulars of the incident...flight number, date, time and other specifics. This will be important when writing your letter.
   
   
4. Once again stick to the facts and keep the story as short as you can but still tell your story.
   
   
5. By all means compliment the company and the executive you are writing to to let them know that you understand that having such a wonderful employee is a a direct result of their efforts in hiring and training their employees.
   
   I have also found that certain companies care about their customers and their employees show it, while others are owned or run by executives that are arrogant and believe the customer is never right and it shows when dealing with their employees.
   
   You can see from Dr. Browns reply that he is a gentleman as was his employee and it is his ultimate direction to his staff that helps them hire the type of individuals that can help them run a successful business and keep their company strong.

I hope this helps my readers in composing their own letters. I can tell you that I get a proud feeling when I know that in some small way I was able to put a smile on a good guy or gals face at the end of the day. By letting them know that some of us, do appreciate their hard work it can make their day. Wouldn't you smile too if someone you dealt with told you how good you are or how they appreciated working with you? How often do you tell a waiter or waitress how you appreciated their good service (aside from a good tip, which they might not even look at).

Try this simple experiment...the next time anyone in a store, on a plane in a restaurant or even someone performing a service for you, impresses you, verbally let them know it. Watch their face and see how good you will feel doing it.

Watch for information and links to my "Bad Boys" web site. You won't believe what I did to expose some of the worst on the net.

Len