Service With Goodwill

Last November 2013, in a small money transfer/courier office I witnessed a regular customer; an elderly man went to the teller window to collect his remittance.  Later, the elderly man and lady teller were exchanging view about the former senior citizen ID card.  It appears that the first name of the elderly man (Alfredo) in his ID card didn’t match the name written in the remittance form (Fred), which is the nickname of the recipient. The exchange of views took several more minutes; finally the elderly man left the premise in vain when the teller refused to release his supposed to be remittance based on the teller’s statement of “as per company policy.”

                                                  

An occurrence nearly similar to this, in 1991, quickly replayed in my mind when I was in Saudi Arabia.  Inside a bank, ahead of me in a queue was a fellow Filipino who was preparing to leave, happy and thanking the teller, an Indian national, for releasing his money even though his full name was erroneously written in the remittance form.  During my turn, when I mentioned to the teller about the happy face of the previous customer, the teller said “I’m working in a prestigious organization.  In the front line, I committed myself to do service thru simplification of my tasks by reasonable judgement, for the customers as well as for my organization.”

There’s a contrast in the attitude and motivation of the aforementioned tellers.  But I’ve learned something beautiful – that if we only simplify our job we can provide service to others with goodwill.  Ephesians 6:6-7  “Not with eye service, as men pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.  With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.”