last night i had to call my new zealand bank because of an apparent problem with my credit card; the call was answered after about three rings by a very friendly woman called “ena” who very seriously said “yiss” after each 4 of my credit card numbers as i read them out, & who then proceeded to fall over backwards with helpfulness even when it transpired that the problem was not with my card, but most likely with the german ATM at this end (sure enough, today i tried a different ATM & had no problem). “ena” carefully explained to me about four times (almost too much, actually) what the problem might be, & tried very hard to think of ways to help me even when it was clear that there was no fault of the bank. andy, who was also listening (i was calling via skype, without headphones) could hardly believe how friendly she was.

and why shouldn’t she be friendly? it makes me smile when i have a nice interaction like that, when we both genuinely wish each other a nice day at the end of the call & hang up feeling warm & fuzzy, instead of the frustrated sense of all the world being against me that i’ve had from other, less friendly call centre experiences. yay for kiwi friendliness!