Fantastic Friday - Olympics 2012

So it is the penultimate day of national blog posting month and it feels kinda weird that I am so close to the end, especially with how poor my writing has been as of late. After the one poor attempt at throwback thursday a few weeks ago I thought I would try again but with a twist. Why stick to the conforms of it being on a thursday? Today I want to write about fantastic Friday. You never know it might catch on? Rewind to 2011 and there were riots galore in our nations capital.  From Hackney to Croydon, gangs of teenagers fought running battles with police, making roadblocks from burning cars and ransacking shops. No, it is not that period that was particularly fantastic for the country and the city of London but a mere 12 months later and the summer of 2012. The Olympic Games came to this great country of ours. Much has been written and said about that summer, but why was it fantastic for me? Well truth be told it didn't start so fantastic for me. I had applied for various Olympic tickets but didn't get any. I got over it and enjoyed watching the Games on my television and following online and the radio whenever I wasn't in front of a TV. Then, I was thrown a lifeline. My friend had a spare ticket for the open water swimming event in Hyde Park. There was a little bit of a snag, I had very little money in my pocket or my bank account for that matter. I had to get to London somehow though, I couldn't not. It was my home Games, a once in a lifetime opportunity! Megabus to the rescue, I bought a return ticket for £11 from Preston to London. I've tried to forget the long tedious journey but I haven't forgotten how I felt when I arrived in the city. I was in awe of the huge buildings and the bustling streets all around me. I met Ollie just outside the coach station at Victoria after travelling all day but the first place I wanted to go was Buckingham Palace. I recently went on a tour of the state rooms but I am always in awe of the place, the history of the Palace and everything it represents. 

Me & Ollie being very patriotic 

We went for a bit of a tour around the city, a pint and a chat then headed back to Ollie's house in Benfleet ready for our Olympic adventure the next day. What a day it was, we started bright and early and headed into London. There were Games Makers at the station and were incredibly friendly and very helpful. London was truly splendid, the sun glistened in the sky and shone off everything. There were members of the armed forces everywhere acting as security for the various events happening across the city and they made me feel safe and secure rather than looking scary. People were chatty and friendly and one woman even gave us the best advice on where to watch Olympic events on the big screen if we wanted to drink outside to. Ollie and his parents showed me around London, the ease with which they managed to navigate the underground just astounded me. We went to Hyde Park to watch the swimming in the grandstand, the sun was beaming down on us and the banks of the Serpentine were packed with spectators. Most of them were there to cheer on Keri Anne Payne. Astonishingly she is the same age as me but a double world medalist and an Olympic Silver medalist. It was a fascinating race but unfortunately she finished the race back in 5th place. 

Kerri Anne looking stunning

  

 One of the unique things about hosting the Olympics is that each nation has a particular house in that city showcasing upcoming world events. So we visited Brasil house to see a taste of what we are to expect in Rio in next summer's World cup and the next Olympic games. A place what really impressed me though was Qatar house. They are planning to build not just new stadiums when they host the World cup but whole new cities!

one of the new cities

London in an Olympic year was truly something else and it made me fall in love with our capital. Hopefully I will catch the next one in Rio and see how that compares, because after that summers experience I am well and truly hooked! 

To go out or not to go out? That is the question

Officially half way through the month of National Blogging Month and I am still here, blogging away looking for things to write about. Admittedly I did join the party a little bit late but I am not far behind the number of blogs I need to be at so far. Tonight my youngest brother (I must stop saying little) is over in Preston with his friends for a birthday party. I had always planned to meet them but I have been so busy lately that I completely forgot. So the question was to go out or not to go out? I have work in the morning and besides the designer I am the only one on my department. The correct thing to do is be responsible right? Well that got me thinking, you only live once. I rarely see my youngest brother and nights out with him are even rarer, I think the last one was over two year ago. 

Anyway I didn't have to convince myself too much that staying in is overrated. I am sat with him and his friends in a hotel room pre drinking, playing ring of fire. Tomorrow at work should be fun...  

 

(Good) Customer Service

Yesterday, I let Colin talk of his experiences with bad customer service and if you haven't read his blog yet, you can do so here (Lack of) Customer Service. So I thought today I would chat about good customer service. Which is something I am very passionate about. Before I start, I just want to say that I agree with everything he is saying in his blog about how large companies often forget the very basics. It is no secret that I work for a large multi national company with the biggest DIY market share in the UK and much of Europe. Now people will argue that we have forgot the little guy and customer service is not important. In fact a quick look at the B&Q twitter feed will tell you that all we seem to do is dealing with problems or giving bad service across our stores. As consumers, we expect good service all of the time and rightly so. But I often feel that we don't shout enough about good service as individuals enough. If somebody is really nice to us in a shop or a store, we might tell one or 2 of our friends but rarely write a letter or take to twitter to tell the company.

I have recently started on the showrooms department in my store and this is an area that as a customer you would expect the best kind of service, especially if you are spending 5 or 6 thousand pound on a kitchen. I don't work in a  massive store so naturally we don't have all the stock of everything we sell and a lot of items have to come from our suppliers or from our large fulfilment centre. So my job often involves negotiating earlier delivery times for bits of customers kitchens. Naturally at this time of year they want it before Christmas, but with a few things we haven't had enough stock etc. In one case, my colleague drove around the whole of the region picking up bits of stock for various customers so we could get it to them in time because the supplier or fulfilment centre had not got them to our store on time for delivery. There is another colleague who works tirelessly in her office all day often correcting everyone elses mistakes so nothing does go wrong with a customer's order then she will coach that person on what to do right next time. Her job role tells her to escalate it to a manager, but then it wouldn't get done in time anyway and there would be far more issues. Me, well it has just gone 6 o'clock and I "finished" work an hour ago after not even getting chance to have a lunch break properly because I was that busy. Also, I have just got off my mobile phone to a customer and a colleague in store so they could arrange another delivery for the customers order.

I think what frustrates me personally is that from the outside it seems very easy to criticise big companies but from the other side I know there are individuals like myself and many other of my colleagues who do their utmost every single day to give the best customer service every day. I am not saying there are not people who could not care a less because there are people like that in every organisation unfortunately. Or even that  we don't get things wrong because we are only human at the end of the day. But to me and many people in similar roles such as mine the little guy is still important because that little guy is me, its you, its our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers. it is all of us.

   

(Lack of) Customer Service

Today, the blog is from my happy go lucky friend, Colin...

My blog for Stewart today is formed all around customer service, namely from two pretty large companies in the UK - one of them is EE (the people who employ Kevin Bacon to do ridiculous adverts), and Santander (who employ wealthy athletes such as Jessica Hill-Ennis and Lewis Hamilton to sell their already huge product).

I understand that large companies are primarily there to make money in order to keep their shareholders, yet I am disappointed and disheartened at how low these companies appear to value customer service. We'll start with EE.

EE boast to be the largest mobile phone company in the UK, this I believe is true after T-Mobile and Orange merged their UK operations. They are also the first company to bring 4G into the UK. With access to smartphones and our desire to Facebook / Tweet / Surf the internet, speed is everything. Imagine my surprise when I was unable to get 4G access, and struggled with 3G access in both Coventry and Birmingham - both 4G cities (Birmingham being one of the cities that first got 4G). I tweet and surf the internet a fair bit and this was a little frustrating. For the avoidance of any doubt, this was not a momentary glitch, but lasted for several hours! Couple in the fact that I pay around £46 a month for the privilege of such service I was / am understandably a bit disgruntled.

Social Media (particularly Twitter) is a very powerful tool in terms of communication. It allows individuals to communicate with large national and multi-national companies, and pretty much anyone can see a Tweet, thanks to the power of re-tweeting, quoting and (if you really want to get your message across), by "Promoting" the tweet. With this in mind, you'd think that large companies would do all they can to minimise any negative PR showing up on Social Networks. Some companies (such as Northern Rail, PaddyPower, and London Midland) are very good at this - they have a large customer base and work hard to diffuse any complaint - occassionally with humour, but always with information and handy advice.

Not EE. I've complained to EE via Twitter a few times over the past couple of weeks, and their response has been nothing short of disappointing. All they do is say that they look in my account, and cannot find any issues. Fair enough.
So, why do they not look at #EE on Twitter, to see what other customers think? In my brief searches, I have found people to have the same issues in relation to connecting to the internet via 4G (or 3G if you're not so lucky). However, I do not see EE trying very hard to rectify these issues, and I'm unaware as to whether they're working to upgrade their network. A little less money on Kevin Bacon, and a little more investment in the network would do nicely, because at the moment I, for one, won't be renewing my contract with them.

Now, onto Santander. I affectionately refer to them as the 'Wank Bank'. Primarily due to how awful they are.

I went into a Santander branch in a small Northern City and asked for them to transfer £100 from my account into another. Fairly basic. But the hitch was that I wanted it done the following day. No problem the very nice chap said and he assured me it was done.
Fast forward to today when I receive a text from the intended recipient, stating that the money had not gone into her account (despite the Santander man's assurances it would do!). This means I've got some digging to do, not ideal after coming off nightshift. A quick phonecall to Santander's complaints department, and another very helpful chap informed me that the cashier had not in fact sorted the transfer as requested, but instead set up a one monthly standing order. Not what I asked for.
Understandably, I'm not very happy at this. I appreciate that £100 may not seem like a lot of money, but it is to me. I asked the complaints gentleman if I could put a complaint in against the cashier, mainly due to incompetence. To my utter disbelief, I was told NO! Apparently, I've got to go into the store and make the claim to the branch. (How this can lead to an impartial investigation if necessary is beyond me...). Being tired and feeling slightly grim, I didn't bother arguing the toss about the point of an investigations department that didn't handle any complaints from the customer at the first point of contact. But I digress.

So, again, I took to Twitter to have a bit of a whinge about Santander. Within minutes, I had a reply stating that Santander "are absolute bastards". Good start. The same person also told me that Santander refused to give him Ombudsman details, and failed to follow up his complaint. Again, not great for the PR of what is one of the largest banks in the UK.
Santander, in their defence, have gotten back to me, but I am not expecting a positive outcome to this. Their customer service is appalling, in my view highlighted by incompetent staff and an investigation department which doesn't handle complaints!

All I (and many other's want) is decent customer service. We pay enough into these companies (be it via phone bills or by our wages going into our bank accounts), and the service we get is simply not good enough. Something has to change!

If you want to hear more from Colin, you can follow him on twitter here @C_S1991. He is also growing a poor attempt at a moustache for movember so feel free to sponsor him here http://uk.movember.com/mospace/7904309.

My Remembrance Sunday

It was a bright and crisp sunny morning as I walked into town today. Mothers, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters, strangers and friends alike. All stood side by side in front and surrounding the cenotaph as I arrived. The service had already started but I mingled and found a spot amongst the crowd. On days like this I am always in a somewhat sombre mood. 

The service continued, I even prayed aloud. 2 minutes silence to remember the fallen, remember the brave. To remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice so that me and you can continue to live and can speak our views with freedom. The Last Post sounds and a tear rolls down my cheek as I think of strangers fighting on the battlefronts of both World War One and Two, then in all the conflicts since. Of my friends who have served but are no longer here I feel especially sad for them. The national anthem starts and I feel proud to have served my country, I look around & see current members of our armed services and feel immense pride in them. 

I feel that often we take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude. So I hang around after the service to place a cross on the cenotaph as my own personal act of remembrance to the fallen.Today is not about if you think a war is just, or if the government is corrupt. It is about remembering those who died for our freedom so that we may express those types of opinion. 

"At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them" 

Remembrance Day- Everlasting....

So I have just finished a bit of a hectic day at work, the store wasn't too busy but I seemed quite busy myself. Throughout today I have been thinking about what I could write for day 9 of the National Blogging Month challenge. Yesterday I managed to write a poem and today, well today I have been quite frankly stuck for ideas. Well until about 5 minutes ago so I thought I better write something now before my sudden burst of motivation goes. It sort of carries on from the theme of poetry I started yesterday and as it is Remembrance Sunday tomorrow it is kind of topical. A little background the poem is called Everlasting by Cindy Zhao who was amazingly only 14 when she wrote this and it won the Royal British Legion's War

Poetry Competition. I think you will agree how the style is simple yet effective and just sort of dances along. 

Everlasting...

His Version

The long, dark sky looms up ahead

As 2000 soldiers are not properly fed.

We fight and we hurt, to save others lives

But we go down like a bullet, there’s evil in knives

Blood pours out quickly across the sand

There’s nobody there to give a helping hand

We moan through the pain and we cry and we cry

And we say our prayers until we die

Trumpets ring true when the leaders arrive

We all stand up straight, we need to survive

My men surround me, all full of hope

But thinking back now, how would we have coped?

We hear news of survivors in our troupe

But it’s just a rumour going round a loop

We dress in black and mourn for the best

Even though it’s the one we all detest

Flashbacks appear when Christmas comes

And everyone is huddled together, we weigh tonnes

Tears drip down men’s cheeks, we weren’t born to cry

But sometimes it just ends up falling out of my eye

We say bye to loved ones as our happiness fades

We realise it was just a charade

And off once again to fight for rights

To fight for life in the starry nights.

Her Version

Huddled by myself, besides the warm fire

Makes my aching heart fill with desire

To see the man I truly love

As sweet as summer, as pure as a dove

His pictures sit on windowsills

Grinning, Laughing, giving me chills

As I can’t bear to think anymore

For he may be lost in the dreadful war

My heart doesn’t stop pounding, never skips a beat

I look out of the window, the bluebirds tweet

They sing their song, so happy inside

But I feel okay, I’m full of pride

Watching the TV screen with wide, open eyes

To see what’s really beyond the bright blue sky

As my best friend fights to save people’s lives

I just hope that he survives

A tear drips slowly from my eye

If he doesn’t come back I’m going to die

A newsflash breaks across the screen

It’s making a huge scene

The reporter says the war has ended

I scream and shout, it is intended

My wish, my dream, my hopes have come true

And someday they will for you…

My Version

She was waiting anxiously for him to arrive

But unfortunately he didn’t survive

The world had ended, their lives apart

But their souls forever connected, joined with their heart.

When I first heard this poem it was recited on Remembrance in Sheffield a few years ago, I haven't really read the poem that much since my second year when I used it for part of an Emotional Intelligence module. I was in a very sad and sombre state when I first heard this poem. Remembering people who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country is one thing but when you are there and it is the faces of some of your friends, their laugh, their voice, their smell that is the worst feeling in the world. It is sadness, guilt, despair all mixed in together. As I heard this poem I could really relate to the man in it, I was taken into the poem and that man was me. Although a feeling of depressiveness often occurs when I read this, the poem also gives me a sense of pride, of joy, of hope that there is something better out there. 

        

Remember, remember the 5th of November

Remember remember the fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason why gunpowder, treason

Should ever be forgot...

The British tradition of Bonfire night started in 1606 a year after Guy Fawkes was caught under the houses of parliament with several dozen barrels of gunpowder. Tonight for the first time in years I won’t be going to a bonfire or firework demonstration. Instead I am at work until midnight because I completely forgot about this year’s celebration. If I am honest though the older I am getting the less excited I get about loud bangs, pretty fireworks and warming my hands on a large fire.

If you are one of the brave souls out tonight in the cold and rain than enjoy it while you still can.