Friendly service makes all the difference….
As I was the other day writing a post about bad customer service, I needed to write about the service I experienced last night at Pizza Express at Holborn. Usually Pizza Express is not my preferred Italian Chain restaurant, but it served the purpose of getting a nice Italian meal in the Holborn area and I could not really look for other options as the battery of my smart phone was dead – so foursquare could not really help.
And exactly this little misfortune was the reason I got one of the best customer service I have ever received in a restaurant. And here is the story – I was supposed to meet some business partners from Germany at this restaurant, but could not find them in the restaurant. The waitress that approached my with a big smile offered me to look at the downstairs area, but my friends were not there. As I was running late, I was 100 percent sure that there must be already be seated. The lovely waitress then suggested to give them a call and checked if I was sure that I was in the same restaurant. Having been in this situation before, in most restaurants or places people give you that weird look like you are dumb and cannot even find the right restaurant. However, this waitress did with a big smile and empathy. I asked her if there would be more restaurants of this chain in the area, but only at least 10 minutes away. Therefore, I was sure that I was at the right place. When she suggested I should give my friends a call, I mentioned that my phone is out of battery and I will not be able to call them. Then, she asked me if I know the phone number and I agreed while wondering where the next telephone booth is and where to get change to make a call. And here came the moment of truth – she offered me to make a call from their phone. She placed on an empty table and asked me to wait until she could get me the phone. I would have never even imagined that this would be an option. This person just really made my day!!! But I never managed to make a call as my friends arrived and there was no need to make a call.
I can only say, it was such a little thing to offer me a phone to make a call and I know for a fact most restaurants or businesses would not allow or do. I think even most people working in restaurants would not even get the idea to offer this. But for me it was one of the best things that happened to me for while and I will certainly remember it for a while.
Additionally, we exchanged details to see if we have an opportunity for her in my business that she can make sure all our customers are happy as well. I think, people with a natural passion for customer service are hard to find these days especially in these kind of restaurants that go for volume and are situated in the tourist areas of London.
However, I think that it also depends on the customer how much service he gets. I truly believe that when you asked nicely and treat service staff with respect and give them a smile your chances are much higher of receiving great service in return. Give it a try!
Dreams – do you still have them?
This is a topic that is really close to my heart and I would like to share my thoughts on this one with all of you.
Due to my business I get in touch with a lot of people and we very often talk about the future and dreams. However, on many occasions this subject is quickly done with as people either don’t want to talk about their dreams and the future or maybe they don’t dream anymore and have given up the hope to get out of the day-to-day rat race in the corporate world. Sometimes, I even have the feeling that many people lost hope of a better life with less stress and pressure at work, more time for family and friends and enough money to enjoy the things that are important to them. I especially feel bad when I hear young people who are not able to tell me what they would like to do or achieve, what they like to do with their lives or aspire to. I know that not everybody knows what they would like to do in their life and there might be even some people who don’t care about achievement and the rest fo their life. However, I think this is only a minority and most people have a talent and are good at something, but might not often get the chance to discover it and do it.
Let’s explore some reasons that might have an influence on this hopelessness of some people. Most people had dreams when they were younger. For example, if you would asked children at the age between 3 to 6, definitely before they go to school, what they aspire to be when they are older. Most certainly you will hear very exciting things like such as: fire fighter, astronaut, pilot for boys and princess, singer, dancer or actress for girls. (I just gave these examples to illustrate something and they are many more answers.) These children are still dreaming and don’t think about if it is possible, they just think it would be nice to be that person or do a specific thing.
Then, when these children start growing up and going to school they will slowly be caught by reality and they wishes become more realistic or disappear at all. But why? Is it because nobody really wants these individual high-flyers that go for their dreams and live them? Do teachers praise very often or really help you to find your talents in school or do they rather try to put you into a uniform way of thinking? Is it because your friends and other people that are important to you might give you that awkward look and tease you when you were sharing your big dreams with them? I think quiet possibly reasons, that people will put their dreams aside and rather get any kind of job after finishing school that gets you money to pay your bills instead of doing something that you really want.
I truly believe that every person has a talent, but might not get the chance to find out and be able to explore it. Unfortunately, it is reality for many people these days that they have to do a job (which is an abbreviation for Just Over Broke) to pay their bills only and that day in and day out for the rest of their life.
Additionally, parents play a big role in the personal development of a child, especially when it comes to dreams and future plans. Unfortunately, not all parents give the overall support and encouragement a child might need to find that thing they are good at and the talent that lies in everybody and most importantly to turn into something that you can live from (either a job or your own business). We all heard these phrase at some point from our parents: ” Don’t you want to learn or do something proper!” and ” Make sure you get good grades in school and then you can go to university and get a better job!”. It might not be true for everybody and not so often in these days, but In one way or the other we have been pushed from our teachers and parents into a life that more than 90% of people have: go to school, maybe university, then get the next best job, change jobs and careers and do this for the rest of the life until you might be able to retire, which for generation will most likely not be possible if you do not start doing something about it now (but this is another subject). Is this really what an average life shall look like?
Maybe we all just need a bit of praise, encouragement and a chance (mostly time) to find out what we want and want to do, maybe have talent for and a way to make money with it. Some people even say that when you work for somebody else, you help them make their dreams come true instead of living your own. Does that mean that we all should have our own business? Why not, when you want to achieve your dreams?
When I look back at my childhood I feel very lucky, because I was able to explore a lot of different things when I was child. I think I changed my sports about a dozen times, before I found my passion for water polo. Then, still being in school and working part time I found that I would like to have a career in hospitality and now I recently found a business that I can enjoy and strive in. Most of it came together because I have the best mother in the world who always supported me and never told me that I cannot so something, but rather encouraged me to try and find ways to make my dreams come true. Thank you for that and I hope that everybody has someone in their life that will encourage them on a daily basis, praise them for what they are good at and support them to achieve their dreams as crazy they might be.
I will continue to live my dreams as I have done in the past and I know that I can share this with many other people who I will meet in future. Hopefully, I can help them to achieve their dreams as well. One thing I know for sure that helping people to achieve their dreams will ultimately make my dreams come true.
Thank you for reading this far and I would like to hear from you and your thoughts on this subject. What is about your dreams, that you have or had, when you were a child? Do you remember when you had an idea or a dream and other people talked you out of it? Are you making your dreams come true? Let me know what helped you to do so.
Are you still drinking plastic bottled water?
Over the past month, I developed an interest for the challenges that are surrounding the big subject of water. Inspired by the documentary movie Tapped that not only shows some very astonishing facts about tap water, but also gives you an inside into the industry that stands behind plastic bottled water and their practises in the US.
Image via Wikipedia
Tapped is a movie that really made me think, especially when they show you that some of the plastic containers used to store water can leak chemicals into the water that we are drinking. Most of the research until 2009, the year the movie was shot, only focused on plastics containing the chemical bisphenol-a (BPA). These were found to leak substances into the drinking water and the water industry would not even take these plastic containers off the market.
However, PET bottles that are most commonly used for bottled water seemed to be safe and no health concern. This might have changed as a recent study at the University Frankfurt in Germany shows:
They discovered estrogen active substances in most plastic bottled waters, but not in glass bottled waters. These substances might have a negative impact on sperm quality and quantity, interruption of fat metabolism, increased appearance of diabetes 1 and 2 as well as increased risk of cancer. However, more research will be needed to establish which compounds in the plastic are leaking. Unfortunately, the manufacturers are not contributing at the moment and the compounds of the plastic bottles are still an industry secret.
This all adds up to the already bad press about plastic bottles and their carbon footprint. Here are some sites you might want to check out about it:
Overall, this was quiet an eye opener for me and I will certainly try to avoid plastic bottled water, change to glass bottled water if on the road or just use reusable bottles and fill up from the tap. Please check out friendsofglass for more info why glass is a great alternative to plastic. Additionally, you can find some interesting examples of reusable bottles here:
Image by lululemon athletica via Flickr
I am sure you can find an alternative that suits your needs. Watch this space for info on tap water….coming soon!
People in the UK love to shop online
Nothing new, but numbers are still increasing with rapid speed. When I checked some data on the UK market, I was quiet surprised to see that the UK is leading in Europe when it comes to online shopping. According to IMRG, e-retailing sales in the UK will rise to an estimated 81 bn Euros in 2011. The current per capita spend of 1333 Euros per year bring the UK to spot number 1 in spending money online. This is definitely new for me, but well done UK and thank you for being such a great market. On a funny note, it seems like that the computer skills of online customers have evolved a lot, since this happened in 1999, When Online Shopping Flops.
(This happened to a friend who worked as tech support at an ISP around 1999.)
Me: “Thanks for calling [ISP] how can I help you?”
Customer: “Hi, I was buying this skin care cream online, and then something happened. I need you to send someone here!”
Me: “Alright, Ma’am, can you tell me what happened?”
Customer: “The internet swallowed my credit card!”
Image by garethjmsaunders via Flickr
Me: “I see, can you describe how it happened?”
Customer: “I put the cream in the basket, clicked the checkout option and then it said it was going to ask for my credit card on the next step, then it simply swallowed it!”
(I go through 10 minutes of attempts to try and find out what actually happened, before sending someone over. It turns out she inserted the credit card inside the Floppy Drive to pay the order.)
Great figures for the businesses, but what does the customer think. Personally, I buy a lot of things online, but not everything. I stick to tickets for flights, buses and other transportation, the occasional book from amazon, from time to time some Tesco shopping. I recently even started to play some lottery online, so that I at least have a little chance to win the Euromillions at one point!!!
In general, the online shopping experience is more or less the same when you look at the actual website and so on. However, there are big differences when it comes to services that are related to online shopping – the delivery! I have to agree with an article I read in the guardian about online shopping in the UK that the customer service in regards to delivery is better from Tesco, where you have the option of choosing your 2 hour slot for delivery, than with deliveries from amazon or other online retailers, where you never know when they will turn up or at least don’t have a choice. This seems to be a big aspect for most online customers. This might also have helped Tesco to claim spot number 3 on the top 100 hot list of online retailers according to the IMRG. Surprising, not really!!!
But what are you as a reader thinking about the delivery of your online shopping. Now, I would like to give you a chance to have your say on which delivery options you as a customer prefer most.
Image via Wikipedia
Going back to the business side of things… I am very grateful for the above mentioned figures and I am happy that excellent customer service with delivery times of your choice are important for customers. This knowledge will also give me and my business the opportunity to strive now and in future years to come with delivering to my customer’s doorstep without any surcharge and a delivery time that will suit them.
Shopping at Tesco
Today, I was shopping at Tesco and was overwhelmed by the cheer amount of people going shopping there around midday on a Friday. It seems like many more people work shifts than I thought or are still on holiday….!?
The reason, why I noticed this time the many people rallying through the corridors and stuffing their trolleys full with products, is that I was making some research on competitor products and their costs. It was amazing how many people spent time researching the right product for the right price and fight offer the best offers, when I was able to disregard these product areas at Tesco (or any other super market) in the past years as my products got delivered home and I had no intention of making price comparisons or worry about if it does what it says on the packaging. Amazing how much time and nerves I saved being able to avoid these areas.
Nonetheless, I committed myself to check out what is on the market and especially did some research on ecover products that are supposed to be market leading in regards to environmental friendliness. The result after checking out the prices and comparing them with products that I am selling in my business was shocking. I cannot believe that people are still buying these products in supermarkets and paying these prices when they are so many alternatives out there….!? The secret is free delivery on top of better value for money. Smart shopping is better than fighting about the best products offers in a super market on a weekly basis.
All in all, another succesful day that showed me that there is a big market out there for my business and the products as many people don’t seem to know the alternatives that can save them time and money.
A blog about the journey of my dreams, being my own boss and helping people help themselves. Additionally, you will find things that interest me, e.g. environmental issues, healthy living, life in general and a bit of politics as well, sorry!
Mavegyver 