Tonight, we went to dinner with my parents to celebrate my dad’s birthday. The service was a bit slow, but our waitress was a sweet young lady. And all night long my mom called her by her name. It didn’t seem strange at the time, because I do the same thing – maybe because I worked in the service industry to put myself through college, and I always loved it when someone called me by name.
As we were walking to the front door, the waitress came over to my mom and said, “I want to thank you for using my name all night when you spoke to me.”
“Of course,” my mom replied.
“It made me feel … more … human,” the girl said, smiling sadly.
My youngest rushed over to her and wrapped her up in the biggest hug her little 7-year-old body could give. Then the waitress got tears in her eyes. Then we all teared up.
Just using her name. That’s all it took to make her feel like she mattered. It’s probably not something we think about much, but our service providers wear those name tags for a reason … and it’s not just to use for complaining to a manager if we get bad service. Those name tags are like a little gift from God to make it really easy for us to make a human connection.
It’s so simple.
It’s such a little thing.
But as our waitress reminded me tonight, sometimes little things mean a lot.