As a young girl, my mother kept a drawer filled with blank thank you cards in our home. Some of the designs were simple and others had flowers and butterflies.
When I needed to write thank you cards for my birthday or Christmas presents, I had fun picking and choosing the styles I liked. The drawer also contained my mother’s address book and a roll of postage stamps.
Everything I needed to write thank you cards was all right there in one place. That made it impossible to come up with excuses not to do them!
So, I wrote them. At first, I moaned and whined like all kids do, but over time it became a part of me.
Thanks to my mother making it easy for me, I developed the habit of writing thank you cards at a very young age.
Making it easy for people to do the right thing will get you the results you want faster.
I work with organizations that want to develop a culture of appreciation. They want a positive workplace where employees get along, work hard, and stay loyal because they feel valued. They also recognize that employees who feel appreciated take better care of customers.
An important step in creating a culture of appreciation is getting employees into the habit of expressing their appreciation for co-workers, customers and vendors.
A powerful way to do this is through handwritten thank you cards.
Thank you cards create a personal emotional connection and let people know we care.
APPRECIATION STATIONS
To make writing thank you cards easy for employees to do, I encourage my clients to create “Appreciation Stations” in all of their locations.
Appreciation Stations have the following:
- An “Appreciation Station” sign (the sign tells employees what it is and that appreciation is important)
- A variety of thank you cards and thank you sticky notes (employees can express their personality through the colors and designs they choose; bigger thank you cards can be used for longer messages and smaller thank you sticky notes can be used for shorter messages)
- Thank you stickers
- Postage stamps
- Pens
Appreciation Stations can be placed on a shelf or table or inside a box, basket or drawer.
Putting one together is simple and sends a positive message to the entire organization about what the company values.
Positive change happens when what is easy to do is easily done.
APPRECIATION PRO TIP #1
When writing thank you cards, be specific about what the person receiving the thank you card said or did that you appreciate and tell them why.
APPRECIATION PRO TIP #2
Bring supplies from the Appreciation Station into team meetings and have everyone spend time writing thank you cards.
