Thanks Coles

December 23, 2010
by Rodney Olsen
3 Comments

How do you feel when someone gives you the benefit of the doubt?

The people at Coles Supermarket in Southern River gave me the benefit of the doubt this afternoon and it felt pretty good.

The last thing a supermarket needs in the rush two days before Christmas is to be sorting out a customer who may or may not have misplaced a bag of shopping. That’s why I think the staff at Coles Southern River deserve to be congratulated for customer service that goes above and beyond the call of duty.

The Shopping Trip

Earlier this afternoon I dropped in to Coles to pick up a few bits and pieces. When I got home I noticed that the multivitamins that I’d just purchased on a great special were nowhere to be seen. Not much of a bargain if you pay for them and then don’t get to use them. I searched the kitchen where I’d put the other shopping. I went through the boot of the car several times. Nothing.

Pauline phoned them to see if the bag of vitamins was still at the register. It wasn’t. They suggested I head back there with my receipt.

I’m sure I picked up everything at the register. I’m sure I completely emptied the shopping trolley into the boot. I’m sure I don’t have the original bag. Having said that, I might have messed up somewhere along that chain or the customer following me at the register may well have a couple of months supply of vitamins for nothing. Either way, I had no proof that I wasn’t simply trying a scam and ending up with two lots of vitamins for the price of one.

Extraordinary Customer Service

The staff at Coles were brilliant. The lady who dealt with me apologised for having to check with her supervisor before doing anything. I completely understood. She doesn’t know me from a bar of soap yet, whether she believed me or not, she chose to do what she could to make restoration for the lost bag. She came back and told me I could just go back into the shop and get the vitamins I was missing. I took them back to her and she sent me on my way with a genuine smile.

Before I left the store one of the other ladies apologised that I had to come back to the store to get it all sorted out. Amazing. As I said to her, I don’t know where along the chain the bag went missing. I only know that the items I purchased didn’t end up going home with me.

So thank you Coles for giving me the benefit of the doubt, for acting so professionally and for doing it all with a smile.

Do you have any stories of excellent customer service? I’d love to hear from you.



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From Mouths of Babes

December 23, 2010
by Rodney Olsen
2 Comments

Sometimes you just trip over great blogs. Other times you have to travel thousands of kilometres to find them.

As well as the many great stories that I’ll be sharing about my trip to Papua New Guinea, I want to share a blog I’ve just discovered. It’s called From Mouths of Babes and it’s written by Katrina Roe who was a member of the media team that travelled to PNG. Katrina’s the morning announcer on Hope 103.2 in Sydney.

So what’s her blog about? Here’s part of the story in her own words.

When I fell pregnant for the first time, I couldn’t have been happier. We had been trying for a baby for a while and I knew I was ready for this next stage in my life. But so often my friends with kids had only negative things to say about becoming a parent. ”Enjoy your sleep while you can!” ”You don’t know what you’re in for!” Or sometimes just a smug smile that said, “You’ve got a big shock coming.” The thing is, my first year as a Mum was the best year of my life. I loved everything about it. That doesn’t mean the adjustments weren’t difficult, but just that the joy of knowing my child far outweighed the difficulties.

So I really want this site to be a celebration of parenting, a celebration of all the joy and love our kids bring us. Yes, we need to talk about the hard stuff too, but let’s talk about it in a way that encourages us to be better parents and better people.

I love that attitude. We had people telling us the same sort of negative stuff when our kids were very young but I can assure you that Emily (14) and James (12) have brought us untold pleasure over many years. Of course there are tough times but I wouldn’t swap parenting them for anything.

Katrina’s most recent post, A Brown River Christmas, tells part of the story of our trip to a couple of villages near Port Moresby. I hope you’ll enjoy reading her account of the trip and that you’ll stick around to read more of her posts.



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Toilet Roll Confession

December 23, 2010
by Rodney Olsen
4 Comments

I’m sorry. So very sorry. I didn’t mean to do it to you but I was half asleep. Please forgive me.

Our last night in Port Moresby was going to be a short one. With my flight leaving at 6:30 a.m. I knew I’d have to be at the airport by 4:30 a.m. That meant waking up at 3:30 a.m. The front desk staff at the Holiday Inn Port Moresby offered us a wake up call. We accepted.

After a great meal in the hotel restaurant and a debrief with the team we headed to bed. I remember laying in bed thinking about how difficult it was trying to get to sleep. The next thing I knew the phone was ringing. The time had come to start my journey home …. or had it?

I answered the phone to hear a voice asking me, “Did you request a (indistinguishable mumbling)?” I figured they were asking me whether I’d requested a reminder call so in my half awake state I replied yes before ending the call. That’s when my room mate, Scott Haas from Hobart’s Ultra 106.5, told me that it wasn’t 3:30 a.m. It was only 12:15 a.m. I said to Scott, “Well, I don’t know what I just agreed to but we’ll probably have room service at our door very soon.”

Tap, tap, tap, tap. There was someone at the door. I dragged myself out of bed and made my way to the door thinking about how I could tell them I hadn’t ordered the midnight snack or whatever it was they were delivering. I opened it to find a staff member offering me a toilet roll.

I’m so sorry, but at 12:20 a.m., after just a couple of hours sleep, I wasn’t really awake enough to argue. I politely took the roll, said thank you, and gently closed the door before collapsing on my bed and falling back to sleep.

Somewhere in the Holiday Inn that night there was a guest in desperate need of toilet paper wondering why room service wasn’t delivering what they needed. I’m sorry … but I hope you’ll understand.



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