Be inspired
Over the last several months, I’ve had the privilege to share information about Allegacy and how we embrace our focus on the member and employee experience. Recently, an employee shared a testimonial of a member experience. For this blog, I decided to share the employee’s story with you as a real-life example of how important each and every member transaction is in terms of delivering service and differentiating yourself from other financial institutions. When she emailed it out to others, her subject line read “Be inspired”. I hope you enjoy a condensed version of the employee’s story below:
The story of my day begins with usual work procedures: follow ups and phone calls. When I looked up a white haired gentleman met my gaze and we begin to talk about his order of business. We were almost finished up when I heard him say, “My situation is much different now.” (As it related to his transaction) I replied, “Really?” “How so?” He answered, “My wife passed away a few months ago after a two year battle with cancer.” “We were married 60 years”. I went on to give my sentiments and said “60 years! A lifetime for some. That’s amazing!” Shortly after he thanked me for my assistance and stood to leave. I stood with him, and he said, “I hope you have a wonderful valentine’s day”. His eyes started to swell, as he knew the exchange that was about to be spoken, and I could barely manage to get my words together, but I said, “Thanks! I will, and I hope you do as well.” He said, “It will be lonely, but I will manage.” I apologized and told him “to keep his head up” as he thanked me again and walked out the door. I couldn’t help but feel like I needed to do something more and asked my manager for her assistance. Before I could even think, I was running out to the parking lot and caught him before he left. We had run to the break room filled up a small vase with water with carnations. I was so filled with emotion I could barely look at him as I said “We want to give you something in memory of your wife.” He couldn’t speak at first and immediately embraced us. He began to tear up and told us where her memorial is and said he would place it there. Before he left, he managed to say “Thank you all so much. This really means a lot.”
I felt like at that very moment the entire universe shifted to bring us together. For him it was to give him hope and compassion, and for me it was to inspire a love so great that even death can’t change it; to prove in an age of NOW/convenience, unrealistic expectations and perfection that life isn’t always what we expected and anything worth having takes time, patience and lots of hard work, but most importantly what seems impossible to most is achievable with the right person and the willingness to give the BEST OF YOU.
When she shared the story, her peers replied back, “it’s a great reminder of who we are, why we do what we do, and that we have truly wonderful teammates.” I couldn’t say it any better.
Ashley
