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“Andy Bounds recently helped Barclays secure a £2.6billion deal, one of our largest ever."

Is this the best “customer” service ever?

Tags: News

12th December

We’ve all been on the receiving end of all types of customer service – from the amazing to the amazingly bad. But I saw something exceptional the other day…

… I was working for a couple of weeks with the amazing people at St George Bank in Australia. They’re a wonderful group – totally committed to delivering exceptional value to their customers and to each other. (As an aside: if you’re based in Australia and don’t bank with them, check them out. You’ll be delighted you did).

Anyway, when I arrived in Australia, I discovered one of their managers – a guy called Warren Lane – had posted some presents back to my house for my four children, accompanied with a note “sorry for stealing your dad for a couple of weeks”. I didn’t know he was doing this – so it was a lovely surprise when I got there.

And, of course, when the children got the presents, they were delighted. In fact, one wrote to Warren with the note “well if we’re going to get presents every time you steal our dad, steal him whenever you like.”

It’s pretty easy to find people who do great things like this for their customers.

But it’s much rarer to find someone who does this for their suppliers. Especially one they haven’t met yet.

I would have been really grateful however he’d done this. But the fact that it was a surprise made it much more memorable.

And, as with all the best stories, there’s a simple lesson we can all take: what can you do today to surprise and delight your customers/suppliers/contacts?