In the latest edition of his blog for Planet Vending, AVA Chair and N&W MD Dave Ward reflects upon a letter recently received from a Happy Customer...
This is not the first time that I’ve used my regular blog to flag up one particular aspect of our operation at N&W that really does prove our assertion that ‘not all machine manufacturers are the same.’
Autumn is as good a time as any to talk about old chestnuts so here we go: my topic this time is, once again, ‘ Customer Service’. If you were to click here, you could scroll down through the annals of our blog ‘Managing In Vending’ to remind yourself that the service we provide to our customers is very important to us. We’re proud of it.
Talking a good game when it comes to customer service is one thing, delivering it is something else altogether. Benjamin Franklin was spot on when he remarked, ‘well done is better than well said.’
Every now and then, we’re challenged to live up to our reputation for excellent customer service and once in a while, we deliver to a level that, quite honestly, is quite humbling and makes me very, very proud of my team. So you’ll appreciate that I was delighted recently to receive the following just a few weeks ago:
‘Last week I spoke to N&W to explain a very difficult situation I found myself in with a major client who was about to go live in a £200m new-build, which required an urgent delivery of a Snakky Max with special cut outs for the MEI credit card reader.
‘N&W confirmed a delivery date of 7th July, but on understanding the urgency (of the situation) they said they would do what they could. Last Friday, through several phone calls to try and arrange transport, N&W confirmed that a machine had been found and that the factory would work overtime to get the required plates and fitting completed. They said the machine would be delivered by their transport on Wednesday 24th June allowing us to deliver early yesterday morning – two hours before the client walk-round. 
‘This act of outstanding service, particularly in the week before AVEX, when the factory was flat-out preparing machines for the show, got me out of a difficult situation and should not go un-recognised. I wanted to pass this on.”
It was especially pleasing that, as a member of AVS, the customer penned his comments so that they could be passed on, through the auspices of AVS, to his fellow members. ‘I wanted to pass this on.’
So I hope you’ll join me as, one again, I congratulate my team and applaud the ‘can-do’ attitude of every single one of them.
Who was it who said ‘bad news travels at the speed of light; good news travels like molasses’?* This is not the first time I’ve been deeply impressed by my team’s attitude and performance and I’m sure it won’t be the last, so let’s buck that trend: please do me a favour and ‘pass it on’.
The truth is that it’s only when push comes to shove that a customer really finds out what a supplier means by ‘outstanding customer service.’ And when push came to shove for this client, our response was above and beyond that call of duty and for me, that’s the hallmark of a winning team.
Pass it on?
Regards
Dave Ward
You can visit Dave Ward’s blog, ‘Managing In Vending’, by clicking here.
