I keep going on and on about the power of thank you but it is a phrase that I have become acutely aware of.

Kindness, gratitude and manners are the 3 values that the Radford family (and I’m sure the Nixon family but I don’t want to put words into their mouths) base our lives on. It’s a bit of a mantra in our house that we must ‘always be kind’ (unless they punch you in the face – in which case, you definitely don’t have to be kind but don’t return the favour). William (8) never skips a please or thank you. Penelope (4) is slightly less reliable but she shows empathy and compassion beyond her years so we’ll take that compromise.

But, in undertaking our new tent lives, the power of thank you has really struck me. Our Together Tents WhatsApp is full of the stuff in various guises:-

It’s also the small things. When you pass one of the team a peg, you always get a thank you. When you rush over to help someone realising that 4 hands might be better than 2, you always get a thank you. When you finish work at the end of the day, there are thank yous all round.

And then the big things….when we get a great review, or a call, or an email thanking us for what we have helped to create for our customers, it really does make everything worthwhile. I won’t say there is no better feeling because of course there is – passing your driving test (which looked dodgy for a long time), graduation, wedding day, children (to name a few for me) – but happy customers certainly rate up there!

As fallible humans, we all strive to be valued and to value. And this is the bottom line. Those 2 words are all about valuing. They come with no judgement and no expectation. They just are. Two little words that can change a whole day, week, month…lifetime…They can never be over-used in my opinion.