The Kindness of Strangers

I got to the Tim Hortons across from my office every morning and order the exact same thing. A breakfast sandwich with just egg and swiss cheese on an english muffin, a hashbrown, a small (up until a few months ago it was a medium) steeped tea with one milk and one sugar.

At some point, I ended up getting waited on by Vanessa. And because I'm a creature of habit, and she seemed to be the only one who could get my order right - having swiss cheese requires a substitution of the processed cheese at no extra charge, which confuses most of the workers - I made sure to get into her line every morning.

One day I walked up to Vanessa's register and before I could open my mouth she said, "I know this! Don't tell me!" She punched in my order perfectly, took my money and wished me a nice day.

Since then, whenever I end up in her line, she punches in my order and we exchange pleasantries. Pretty awesome eh?

Well this morning, Vanessa showed me how much more awesome she can be.

I got in her line and ahead of me were two construction workers who ordered about 20 coffees each. (And really, 20 separate coffee orders? Why not order 2 boxes of coffee and then take a bunch of milk and sugar with you? Oh, you'd rather hold up the line behind you for 15 minutes. Of course.)

Realizing this was going to be a long wait, I pulled out my Blackberry and sent a few texts to my husband and surfed around Facebook.

I looked up a few minutes later to see how the line was moving and Vanessa made eye contact. A few moments later, she had a tea and food up on the counter beside her and she motioned for me to come up to the front.

"I saw you in line and preordered for you."

She rung me up, I quickly gave her my money and said, "I think that's one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me. THANK YOU!"

She smiled and said, "You're welcome, see you tomorrow!"

I smiled all the way back to the office and told my coworkers about how great Vanessa is.

Customer service isn't completely dead.