Storm in a coffee cup?

So Peter Mandleson has taken offence to Starbucks' CEO Howard Schultz stating the fact that the UK economy is pretty ropey! Well I know politicians don't like to hear the truth, but WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE - we are in the biggest trouble imaginable and pretenting it isnt happening, isnt going to fix it!

Back in December we reported in our blog about Richard Branson's opinions on UK PLC and let's be frank, he didnt exactly mince his words either!

Why do politicians want us all to pretend all is rosy in the garden. It isnt. It wont be for many a year and if Mr Mandleson spent less time swearing at drinks parties and more time actually working to find a solution, we might all be in a better place right now.

Oh, and whilst on the subject of helping the UK economy, why do the US, France and many other countries around the world fight to ensure government contracts are won by UK companies and yet in the UK the winners (and I speak for the office supplies industry in this too) are often foreign businesses who have shares listed on Foreign stock markets. Want to help change things Mandy? You can start by helping UK owned businesses take their fair-chunk of the government spending pot. That way the money stays in the UK and supports british workers and their families too. Isolationist? Perhaps slightly, but when it's cold outside, it's time to shut the door.

Personalisation and Flexibility - the key to great service

Delivering consistent, high-levels of service is great, but in a world where service is a pre-requisite how do you attain the golden prize of customer delight? The answer lies in personalisation and flexibility.

On the UOE Group on LinkedIn we posed this very question and Phil Jones, Sales & Marketing Director of Brother UK (who writes a great blog - check out http://thecorporatebubble.blogspot.com/) gave us this first-rate example of what we mean:

Customers today set their expectation of service not on your competitors but on the wider sphere of service they receive in their lives. We must all look outside the industry to see what's being achieved in service levels by others and look to replicate/introduce into this industry. I've just discovered valet parking at Manchester airport.

I just call them, tell them when I want to drop my car off, someone is there to meet me, they take my car away and bring it back when I fly home. It's the ultimate in convenience, they even switch my heated seat on for me on cold days, are ultimately personal in their approach and here's the rub, it's cheaper over 2 days to have valet parking, than park in the short stay at the airport.

The service is impeccable, smart drivers, polite and in a world when time matters, it saves me time. Lessons to learn. Busy people, need high convenience at short notice. An existing business model can be disrupted (convention of static parking to flexible parking). I'm not a number, they know me and have taken great effort to remember me (personalisation).

Double Dutch? Don't stop having fun at work!

Our good friend Anju Rupal of Sense2love.com told us about a great website - that captures the humour and sense of fun of a top Dutch department store called HEMA.

Their first store opened on November 4, 1926, in Amsterdam. Now there are 150 stores all over the Netherlands. Take a look at HEMA's product page... it's in Dutch but just wait a couple of seconds and watch what happens. Don't click on any of the items in the picture, just wait and see... This company has a sense of humor and a great computer programmer, ya?

Proof indeed that you CAN keep things fun however big your business gets - why wouldn't you want to have fun? That would feel like hard...er...work, wouldn't it?!