Story time:
I called my tax software helpline bc there was a bug on it and couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. The phone rep answers my call and says “hello this is software provider, how can I help you?”. Then the song Alcohol by DAX started playing in the background. It went on for a couple seconds very loudly as she tried to ignore her phone ringing. She told me that she was supposed to pick up her aunt from the airport and then couldn't get the day off. Now her friend was circling the airport looking for her aunt but they don't speak the same language. It was a whole kerfuffle!
I felt bad for her and asked “wanna keep me on the line so it helps your call numbers and go deal with it?”. She said “are you sure? Thank you so much!” So I sat and worked on other stuff for 25 min, no biggie. When she came back she was so thankful and then said “can you just be my customer all day? Haha”. After some chit chat she went to work on my issue.
While working on it she put me on hold and the hold music started playing. It then struck me that the hold before had no music and it was actually just on mute from her end.
We solved some other VERY critical issues that needed solving and then hung up 3 hours later. Following the call she got 10s on her survey and a glowing review. So shout-out to this lady who fully embodies the awesomeness in the world
Help your fellow people! Be kind to people and ruthless to institutions!