Why it pays to be courteous...

Yes, I apologize... I've been thinking yet again...

~So over the past few weeks of being EXTREMELY BUSY (like we're talking 15 hour days of working... 6 months pregnant with twins, in 90 degree weather with no A/C) which is a good thing, but exhausting to say the least. Due to demand, we've fallen a little behind on orders, most of our customers have been more that understanding while others flip out because they haven't gotten their order in two days. I have received some of the meanest emails ever...and it never ceases to amaze me when it comes to the nerve of some people.

So let me share a few stories with you:

~So one lady emailed us just a couple days after her order (we currently have a 2-4 week wait on orders, and all our buyers are sent an email notifying them of the wait). Long story short, she was very upset that she had not received her pillows and it had only been a week. She proceeded to chew us out about ripping her off and taking her money... blah, blah, blah. So we wrote her back to ensure her that her pillows would be shipped the next day and they would make it to her before her "deadline" to pay her credit card. So I stayed up half the night to get her pillows made and shipped the next day, we also put her order ahead of dozens of other very patient people.

~We shipped it out, and it was headed to California along with 3 other California orders. Well 2 days later the other 3 orders made it to California while her package some how ended up in Tennessee! Don't ask me how it happened... sometimes things like this just happen.

~Any way the day of her "deadline" she wrote us another nasty email only for her pillows to show up two days late. By no fault of our own it took her order almost two weeks to get to her and I am starting to believe that it was simply because she was so rude about the whole thing. Of course when it arrived she never apologized to us, or thanked us or even cared to tell us she received it. However, for the people that are very understanding and polite... the packages always end up to them much sooner than expected on both ends....call it Karma.

~I always think it is funny that people will chew us out with the hope that we will instantly bend over backwards to make them happy...it's like ticking your waitress off... it's not too smart to offend the person handling your food. Whatever... such is the life of business.

Then to my second story:

~For the Fourth of July we went down to Idaho Falls for the Melaleuca Firework Show...and it was packed... they said that it was supposed to be the biggest show in the nation this year. It has always been a pain to get out of Idaho Falls after the show just because there are so many people in one area. So we rushed to our car, hopped in and tried to beat the crowds only to find ourselves bumper to bumper with thousands of cars and literally not moving for about a half hour. I remember a pickup cutting me off to get ahead of me, and then a little while later I allowed a car full of college girls in front of me, she then allowed another car full of college guys in front of her.

~Well after sitting there for a half hour and not moving, the guy two cars ahead of me got out and started talking to the cops about the best way to get out. Because he was super polite the cops told him to wait for a few minutes and then flip around and he could get out of the exit that was about to open up. And sure enough... just a few minutes later the exit opened up and all three of our vehicles were able to flip around and get right onto the highway and get out of gridlock. We got home just 40 minutes later around midnight while both my family and Jacob's family got home after 1:00 am.

~Your thoughts: "Nice story Krista".... but remember the pickup that cut me off... he was just three cars ahead of me and he was stuck in place, because he couldn't turn around. And I only got out because I let the college girls in front of me and she let one more car in front of her. It was all because I was polite just that once that I was able to get out sooner. It makes me wonder how many times being polite has paid off for me, or how many times my lack of kindness has come back to bite me and I just never even noticed it.

~This is just one of many stories that I have as examples of why it pays to be courteous. I feel like we live in a world where it is all too easy to be rude, especially with emails and text messages, it is so easy to forget that you are not the center of the universe and that what you say and do might hurt others. Just like the package that ended up in Tennessee for no reason at all... I believe that what goes around comes around. And I say this to Kaylie all the time: "If you don't want it done to you... don't do it to someone else". "If it would hurt your feelings to have someone say that to you...don't say it to them."

~Just put yourself in other people's shoes and treat others how you would like to be treated in every single circumstance... and you will find the world to be a much better place.