Every now and then, we occasionally get an order and customer service call from a recognizable name. This summer we had a few orders from Caryn Johnson aka Whoopi G.

Here is what I can tell you I learned about Whoopi from these orders:

She makes her own phone calls when there is an issue (there are those in my own household that don’t even do that let alone be a celebrity)

She speaks fluent Spanish.

She is apologetic if she feels she needs to.

She is generous.

She is busy.

She is funny.  (I know, who knew?)

Here is how I know.

She had a minor issue on her first order of not being able to locate a necessary component. She was getting frustrated with our young gal as she kept relaying where it should be and WG was saying that it was not. Our gal transferred the phone to me but by then Whoopi had given the phone to one of her assistants who is multilingual. We had problems communicating what I was referring to in technical terms so I passed the assistant back to our young gal who also can communicate in several languages with instructions on what I wanted her to relay. We got it straightened out without further delay.

The next day. We came into work and the gal that listens to and distributes all of the general voicemails says we need to listen to one. It was from Whoopi and she said she would just like to apologize to the young customer service rep that she had gotten frustrated with the day prior. She said it was not how she normally handles herself and wanted to apologize.

We were all stunned as we have folks go into a rant or get overtly frustrated every single day and almost never do we hear someone say that they were having a particularly stressful day and they didn’t mean to come off so harsh. (and as I heard it, she wasn’t nearly as upset as many we deal with are)

On another order she placed, she phoned because she was having delivery issues.  I happened to be helping out on the general line and was the one to take her call.

As I was searching for the order as some were under her given name and some were under her famous name, we established a rapport.  We fed into each others humor that day and had some good laughs.  She said she was very glad to have gotten me on the phone that day as not only was I taking care of her issues, I had changed her mood.  Such a nice compliment from a comedian.

Her issues were with the delivery people which required several calls from me to them and back to her with a conference call between all to complete.  Each time I would phone her, she was busy but took the call herself.  If she was busy on another line, she would still answer my call and finish the other quickly to get to me.  Some of those must have been with loved ones as she would end that conversation with an “I love you”. I enjoyed hearing her openly convey love to those in her life.

Once, when she had someone in her vicinity that I could hear her communicating fluently in Spanish.

I can’t say that I knew much about her prior to the calls we had, but I can say that I loved hearing her generosity of spirit over the phone – be it my overheard conversations on her end – and with me directly.

I phoned back a few days later to make sure everything we had previously arranged had taken place as planned.  She conveyed that it had gone well and asked if I had gotten what she sent.  I didn’t know if she had meant to send an email or what but I said “No, was I suppose to get something?”  She relayed that I would.

I looked through my emails and in junk as well, but nothing, so I let it go.

A few days later, I returned from lunch and there was a decent size box on my desk. It was well wrapped and had a bow around the inner box.

Inside were 18 individually wrapped cookies of different varieties overnighted from the Indulgent Baker in New York http://www.rubyetviolette.com/

And of coarse a thank you note.

I shared the cookies with the rest of the team and then took the last few home to share with the family. Very rich and delicious.

I sent a thank you message letting her know the cookies were well received and expressed my gratitude for her generous spirit.

She even replied to the thank you with more kindness.

Its pretty cool to see some insight into a famous person’s life and realize that they might just be better in their daily life than they are in the lime light.

That was fun.

Love Sally