The Retirement of a Treasured Bunny
Thank You……..Congratulations… and Thank You Again!
Recently, we celebrated the retirement of a treasured member of our team. We gathered pictures, stories, and poems about our time together to give a special gift. We celebrated the next stage of her life and said thank you many times for all the Glad Dreams she had given while she was a bunny. It was fun, happy and sad all at the same time. We repeated what we have said before to those bunnies who leave our company, “once a bunny, always a bunny” many times during her last few weeks in our office.
I have thought about her and how we celebrated her retirement many times since her official last day. We all miss her presence in our office. What I really miss is how she would interact with customers and especially those who have a challenging situation. There is a common phrase in business about the importance of getting the “right” people on the bus. The saying goes something like this, “get the right people on the bus, and then figure out the right seat for them”. It’s an easy phrase to say, but often a hard thing to put into action. When you find the right people, they are precious. This was a precious person.
As we drew near the end of her working time, we received a note from a customer who purchased a Bunnies By The Bay product from a department store we sell too. There was a problem with an item she had purchased. They were writing to us to share the situation with us. Our soon to be retired bunny quickly wrote them this note:
“ Bunnies By The Bay has been around long enough to know that a happy customer is our very best advertisement – and Giving Glad Dreams is our promise, after all! Please accept this replacement item and enjoy. Congratulations on that best gift of all, a new grandchild. 😊 Wishing you and your family the very best – have a great weekend."
It was the perfect response, and it got another perfect response from our treasured customer:
“ I must say I was very surprised and delighted to receive your email in regards to the Bunnies By The Bay play mat. I am very impressed a company will stand by their products and make things right. Rest assured that I will be a customer for life.”
I was so grateful when I read the email exchange for how the situation was handled, I was touched at the care we gave to the customer and happy to see the customer received our gesture in the spirit it was given. I did experience a pang of sadness because I knew the person who had given such Glad Dreams would soon not be available to take such care of a customer. However, I quickly, felt a sense of gratitude for all the Glad Dreams that had been given, to those customers she had touched and those bunnies she had taught.