"Hi - who should I speak to to say 'thank you'?"

When I do a good job at work, I like to get praise. Yes, I'm paid to do a good job, but praise keeps me going. It gives the person doing the job a reason to keep plodding on through sometimes very thick mud.

But how many of us really take the time to reward good service? I'm not suggesting you send a bunch of flowers, but when that poor sod in the call centre actually gets to say "computer says yes" all they have to look forward to is the hope that maybe this time they won't get shouted at.

Companies with good customer service, the kind that goes above and beyond, thrive. Nothing beats the word of mouth viral effect of a good experience. I can't stop telling people how good the staff were in the John Lewis in Kingston the day I had to return a load of things delivered from my wedding list...and I hate department stores.

Recently I was forwarded an email by one of my clients, Sling Media. It was an email sent by a customer to a generic customer support email address on the website. I had a very brief sinking feeling before realising that this was one seriously happy chappy. So happy that she'd been compelled to let someone else within Sling Media know.

It worked - her email was forwarded to everyone and the guy who had taken the time to go above and beyond got company wide recognition, being called out by name in her email for his efforts.

I expect he'll keep up the great work for a long time to come thanks to that one little email. And all credit to Sling for not ignoring it. Because that's the problem. It's too hard to speak to companies to complain, let alone bother to say thanks. And even if you do - does anyone care?