Once upon a time, a young family vacationed at a Ritz-Carlton hotel in Florida.

When the vacation ended and they arrived home, their son was horrified to discover that his stuffed giraffe, Joshie, was left behind.

When they realized the loss, the boy's dad did what any reasonable parent might do in such a situation: he lied. He told his son that Joshie was taking an extra long vacation and would be home soon.

The parents then reached out to the resort to see if anybody on staff could find the lost stuffed giraffe. Luckily, Ritz-Carlton has a culture where employees are encouraged to go above and beyond for their guests. Apparently, employees of Ritz-Carlton even have the autonomy to spend up to $2,000 to surprise and delight a single customer.

So for starters, these employees located Joshie the giraffe, which was already a win. But then, they took it a step further. They pampered Joshie and documented the whole thing. They took him around the resort to experience all of its luxurious amenities - a massage, lounging by the pool, hanging out at the bar. They even laminated a name badge for Joshie and made him an honorary part of the Ritz-Carlton team.

They then sent Joshie the Giraffe home in a package accompanied by a scrapbook of photos of all Joshie's "extra" vacationing.

What started out as a sad situation for a small child turned into a memory and a viral story that will never be forgotten.

This is a fantastic example of doing things that won't scale.

This story is very well-known, and I can only imagine the immeasurable goodwill and business that Ritz-Carlton has received as a result.

Every business has certain routine tasks that are easy to overlook. For example:

Sending a family’s toy giraffe back in the mail. Or even… sending it to the lost-and-found to collect dust.

But when most would zig… you should zag.

Ask yourself “how can we turn this routine task into something the customer will remember forever?”

It might not scale… but you should try it anyway.