The opening lines voiced by Hugh Grant who plays the British Prime Minister in the 2003 movie (love Actually) says:
“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinions starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaking suspicion… love actually is all around.”
Love, affirmation and caring for one another is probably the largest foundations of whom we are as humans and how it affects our culture. Yes hopefully more than hate or revenge.
Is affirmation not one of the underlying factors of what makes Facebook and Twitter so successful? Please see the post: Am I in your Tribe? Doesn’t #FollowFriday on Twitter and ReTweet’s confirm that we all appreciate a little attention when we can get it?
But nothing quiet says I love you to a business, more than a positive customer review. The time when someone takes those few moments to contact you or even better the world about how great the service was, or the food, or in general the whole experience. Reviews and word of mouth referrals, the thing that every business needs to market themselves more than any other form of promotion. Sadly it seems that often we have to even ask for testimonials to add to our website or proposals.
In a later scene of the movie the Prime Minister reads the following words on a Christmas card (it’s even ‘Canadianized’ with the eh on the end): ‘if you can’t say it at Christmas, when can you, eh? -. ‘I’m actually yours. With love, your Natalie.’
I wanted to write this short post to encourage people to take a few moments and post here, or tweet out, or write on a Facebook fanpage what great experience they have had at a business this year. #bizluv
Or even share their love for another person in their life and how much they mean to them.
Because:
‘if you can’t say it at Christmas, when can you, eh?