10 Simple Ways to Make Other People Happy

This is an old article, but I thought the world could use some more positivity!

We here at Inc. give tons of good suggestions about how to make yourself happier. We had “10 Easy Ways to Make Yourself Happy in 2016,” “5 Secrets to a Balanced, Happy Life,” and “5 Daily Habits of Remarkably Happy People,” all within the past few weeks. These articles are all fabulous, but what if we want to make other people happy? How can we do that? Here are 10 ways to make others happy, and (spoiler alert) you’ll find that doing them makes you happy as well.

1. Leave a review on TripAdvisor.

My husband and I just got back from a trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. These are poor countries that rely heavily on tourism. Every time we would do an activity and indicated that we’d had a good time, our hosts asked us to leave a review on TripAdvisor. Getting positive reviews can be the difference between life and death for a small business-especially one that caters to tourists. So, if you had a good time on a vacation or you love your local independent restaurant, log on and leave a positive review. You’ll make someone’s day.

2. Let a manager know when you get great customer service.

Most of the time, when a customer asks to speak with a manager, it’s to complain. Switch it up, and when your grocery store cashier is efficient or you watch her handle a nightmare customer gracefully, tell her boss. This will actually make two peoples’ days–the employee and the boss.

To keep reading, click here: 10 Simple Ways to Make Other People Happy

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7 thoughts on “10 Simple Ways to Make Other People Happy

  1. I occasionally will pay the bill for the car behind me in the Starbucks drive-thru. A few weeks ago I was about to do that and I though, “Gee, the Starbucks servers can use the extra money.” So I put a ten-dollar bill in their tip jar. The workers at my local Starbucks are uniformly friendly and upbeat.

    Thanks for the reminder. I’ll make sure to talk to the manager one day soon about his or her awesome crew!

  2. I will particularly endorse #2. Retail managers very, very rarely hear about especially good service from an especially good employee. You make more then one person’s day when you do that. (And doubly so when you post it on your social media and other people notice it.)

    And if you see another customer being a unjustified jerk to an employee, especially if the employee handles it reasonably well, tell the manager that, too. It’s appalling how many people will – literally – demand an employee commit fraud against their employer (“Can’t you give me your employee discount?”, etc.), then complain to the company when told no. (Good managers know the score when that happens, but it’s actively helpful when they have to go to bat for the employee with their corporate overlords after that sort of complaint.)

    1. I not too long ago had really great service at my local post office, and when I tried to call in a commendation for the employee it turned out the USPS voice mail system had no praise section, just a complaint section. I had to lie to the VR system that it was a complaint to get to a human, where I finally was able to explain what I was trying to do.

      1. USPS is a special kind of place, isn’t it? And it’s tough to get the postmaster face to face, too, since they are *always* so busy. (But for a normal retailer, face to face is best, preferably on the spot). I think for the post office, it would, perhaps, be most efficient to simply mail a letter addressed to the postmaster.

      2. My husband had awesome service from a rep at our internet provider and he said that he wanted to send in positive feedback. I asked where he was going to send it because I already knew they had no customer feedback option.

        I’m going to assume they mostly get negative feedback and don’t have a feedback system since it would be an overwhelming amount of flame emails or calls which is a shame for their good employees. The cynic in me thinks they don’t really value when their employees do a good job.

      3. UPS is the same way! A carrier hauled a 150 lb box onto my back deck when I wasn’t home and I wanted to make sure someone knew they went above and beyond to secure my package. I ended up at on a chat where the response was just “Thank you.” They weren’t going to tell the manager or relay the compliment to the delivery person.

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