bygjohn's blog

Where I work, we've put a lot of effort into customer service, achieving the Customer Service Excellence (CSE) award (previously Charter Mark). While I think that a lot of CSE is window dressing, going through the process has been beneficial and we're a lot more customer focused than we were. A lot of the improvement is simply down to attitude rather than any major change, and my recent experiences on the receiving end really bear this out.

1) I recently had a repeat good experience with a local electrical shop when I had to replace my washing machine. Most big dealers will now remove the old appliance (because they have to) but only my local shop could offer to do the whole job: disconnect the old machine, take it away for recycling, connect up new machine. And the total price almost beat Argos for the basic cost of the machine. All done in one afternoon with no fuss. Perfect. Take a bow, Charlesworths.

2) Contrast trying to get the bus back from the local hospital this morning. First, the bus was there (Aviva, can't remember the number), waiting, but the driver sat there chatting to a lady friend with the doors shut so all his passengers had to stand waiting for ten minutes. Passengers at a hospital, who could have done with a sit-down. Then, when he did decide to open the doors, I didn't have enough change, so offered a £5 note. At which the driver doesn't even look at me but looks down like he's lost something on the floor and mumbles something about changing ten pound notes since he started and he hadn't change for "that". And just sat there silent like some surly halfwit. In the end I ended up suggesting he serve some of the people behind me and then he might have enough change as it was a £5 note, not a £10. This is for a £1.90 fare, mark you, not 20p or some tiny amount. Sure enough, after he'd served a few people he had change. Now, if he'd actually engaged pleasantly with me, apologised for the lack of change and suggested seeing if he could get enough from the other people, I wouldn't be writing this, nor would I have had to suppress my impulse to point out that £5 notes are legal tender and he might like to consider whether he might still have a job if he continued to discourage passengers in this fashion. And people wonder why everyone drives...

3) This afternoon I went to my doctors' surgery to rearrange an appointment and sort out a muddle with my repeat prescription. First off, the appointment. I showed the receptionist the letter they'd sent and explained I'd be away on the proposed date. So she said she'd cancel it. So far, so good. As she made no attempt to reschedule it I asked if they'd send me another appointment by post, and got a really patronising blather about how they only send one letter and it was up to me to arrange another appointment. So, stifling my impulse to ask her what she thought I was standing there for, I suggested that perhaps she should make a replacement appointment. So I end up with one mid-morning instead of start of the day because all the early ones have gone and "the computer won't book past the end of the month". Argh! Next, the prescription (same woman). I've recently changed the pills I'm on for my diabetes and the new pills are 4 a day whereas the old ones were 2 a day. Unfortunately when they've altered my repeat prescription thing they've kept the same number of pills so I only got 1 month's supply instead of 2 to keep in sync with all my other pills. I explained all this, that I was effectively short of a month's pills and that the repeat record needed altering, to be told I'd have to order the missing month when the repeat request came due and get the record changed then "because the computer won't like it if we try to give you a prescription now". And that was it. No help and a Little Britain response. At which point I cracked and pointed out that I do have better things to be doing with my time than muck about with prescriptions, and I wasn't impressed by them making a mistake and doing nothing to correct it, before leaving in disgust. Now, if there'd even been a hint of an acknowledgement that they'd made an error, and an apology for their substandard computer system's limitations, I'd have probably gone away vaguely happy, even though I was nowhere nearer a proper solution. "Computer says no" really doesn't cut it, sorry. Delamere Surgery, you should be ashamed.

Well it's a horrid grey day with showers and cold wind. An I'm in Sandbach for a homeopath appointment which he'd double booked so am killing time for an hour with a cuppa in Waitrose. Not a disaster as I was going to pop in for some shopping anyway, though I'd have been a tad miffed if I didn't get seen at all having booked a half-day's leave for it.

Can't imagine anyone on the planet giving two pins about this either way but posting this is killing a little time!

Right, before anyone gets their knickers in a twist, I intend no disrespect to anyone who has died from swine flu, or their families.

But: I am sooooo bored by the media hysteria about the thing, and the jumping up and down this s likely to engender amongst the dafter members of the public.

So far, there is little to suggest that it's either more contageous than ordinary flu, or more fatal either. As a comparison, I read today that 36,000 people died of ordinary flu in the US last year. 3,000 per month, roughly 100 per day averaged over the year. So far swine flu has only killed one person. And the death toll has been cut down in Mexico where it all started.

Yes, it makes sense for governments to start taking precautions in case it turns out to be dreadful, but so far it's hardly the end of civilisation as we know it. Sheesh.

I was staggered over the weekend to hear the drivel being spouted by Harriet Harman about Sir Fred Goodwin's pension plan. She sounded like Wacky Jaqui 2, for heaven's sake.

Her assertion that he wouldn't get the money even if he was proved right in a court of law because he'd failed in the court of public opinion is the most blatant evidence yet of NuLabour's moral bankruptcy. Ours is supposed to be a democracy under the rule of law, not the rule of the mob, Harriet. While I may not particularly like the fact that the guy is getting a fat pension despite dragging a major bank down into phenominal debt, that's no excuse for such cavalier disregard for the law from someone who is manoeuvring to be a future prime minister. Heaven help us if that ever happens.

And all this when quite frankly the ire of everyone should be targeted at the government moron who approved the arrangement in the first place.

Title says it all really... -4°C is a disgraceful temperature for this time of year. I'm sure the sun could do better. Brrrrr...