Your Valentine Client

Got a date this Valentine’s? I’m a long way from home. I dined out to be served by the entertaining Ashley. By day a self-described Virgin America professional soda can opener. By night a waitress and studying business at the local college.

When the bill came, she used her pink pen to say thank you. And she drew a little heart. This intrigued me as it doesn’t happen in London. Yet in Cape Town, every waitron takes a bizarre pleasure in scrawling over the bill and having their own signature icon.

Ashley’s heart was apparently a sop to Valentine.

I wondered two things. Firstly, how do I make my standard work docs stand out as personal, without crossing the border to tacky. And how do I try and cheer up my customers with a small token?

Is it even appropriate to do such like?

I still send greetings cards snail mail when I want to say thank you about certain things. They always go down well.

I’d be a bit too reserved to send a much of flowers to a particular department, care of their admin warrior, but I bet Americans wouldn’t think twice doing this on Valentine’s Day!