Smile :)

 

 

Edition 183 Monday April 29th 2013

 

 

Hi ,a good friend of ‘Upbeat’ ,John, (not his real name) was our guest at the weekly Friday ‘pizza and pinot’ session at 48 last week and after a pinot or 5 asked when the ‘Upbeat’ format was going to change?? We were instantly reminded of our new, improved and ‘shorter ‘ format announcement some time ago now!!! It is true shorter is better and I am accutely aware how little time we have to read the multitude of stuff that comes our way via the electronic air waves daily…there just seems to be so much to share with you on a weekly basis I guess I cant help myself! Hope you still find time.

I promise to try to keep it a bit briefer whenever possible!....WOW, further to the story last week about Jan the new owner of Paul the VW…well him and his partner Lucy took ownership at Auckland airport after flying up from Christchurch. To our surprise (horror?!) they didn’t head south they headed north to Cape Reinga no less on a 10 day North Island tour before heading back to the mainland and home !! 600km later with Paul going strong they stayed with us at Muriwai before heading to the BOP, Taupo, National Park, Palmy and on to Wellywood!!! Crikey good luck Paul. We reckon they will have covered nearly 2000km in Sir Paul by the time they get home (what a buy!!).

With the heavens opening up the night before we decided to give the Anzac dawn parade a miss but ended up having an ‘inhouse’ version at 6am with Fletcher wide awake screaming, heralding the arrival of more teeth to complete a real smile complete with top and bottom rows!! Lest we forget!!

We discovered another jewel in the Auckland crown on Sunday when we took Fletcher for a walk in Western Springs Park, what a gem it is complete with a plethora (this weeks word) of animal/bird life.Special highlight for us was undoubtedly the eels under the bridge we crossed and the sheer quality of the surroundings, hats off to the Auckland City Parks team, best part is it is free! Go soon !!

I hope you had a cool weekend with family and friends, enjoy your week……Cheers Jonesey.

 

Harry and the Hendersonsn thank you for the fan mail, they will attempt to respond in person to each of you . Afterall ‘Upbeat’ is ALL about them !!!!

 

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” Bill Gates

I love coffee, and I make a point of treating myself to a designer coffee every morning from my favourite café close to work. I know I could have hundreds of coffees for the price I pay for my designer coffee per month but it is about more than the coffee for me.

It is the customer experience, the ambience the feeling of home and belonging I get from the cafe I refer to as ‘my place’. The reality is their coffee is not the best in town but their service and their hospitality is…….or was until recently……….grrrrrrrrr I was upset and no longer go there!!!!

How did this happen???

Simply because my café staff took me for granted and got complacent about my loyalty to them. They wrongly thought my commitment to them would endure bad service and arrogance. It takes a lot to upset me and most people I have found when it comes to customer service however once you do upset us we will vote with our feet and we wont come back. Worse still we will probably tell anyone else that will listen about how badly we feel treated….hmm not good.

We all need to remember we cant afford to take our customers or other people for granted, relationships are a work in progress and we need to be constantly working on them. Complacency, arrogance and familiarity have been the downfall of many a business and a relationship.

Customers are not forever unconditionally and my experience with my café was a good wake up call for me personally with my own customers and how I must strive to treat them at all times. There are no guarantees but there are plenty of competitors eager to take our place as providers to our customers. I have found another café that I am pleased to say has welcomed me with open arms!

 

“Customer satisfaction is worthless. Customer loyalty is priceless.”Jeffrey Gitomer