Service – and the Price of Beer

To celebrate surviving six months at Apple Print and Creative, I took myself off to Norway last week. As expected, we experienced stunning scenery, amazing towns within the Arctic Circle and fascinating facts about the history of an area not often studied at school.

What I was not prepared for was the exceptional service and customer care we received throughout the visit. This came not just from the restaurant staff on the boat, but also from the young lad who looked after the reindeer, the snowmobile guide who sang to us in “Sami”, the bus driver who really cared about his passengers and the young fisherman’s wife who is fighting a one woman battle to save the village that three generations of her family have lived in.

As someone who has been in the service sector almost all of their career, from a waiter in a grim hotel when I was 17 to my current role (a few years on), I appreciate good customer service when I receive it, and even in these days of “buying online” and universal “electronic mail communication” I still believe that service is the greatest differentiator when looking for suppliers of anything – from a pint on a Friday to a creative and print service.

Having spent a week in this environment, I am encouraged to make every effort to ensure that the service I give to my customers is taken up a notch or two - and I will be happy to be put to the test by existing and new clients. If these young people can do it in temperatures of minus 10 to minus 30 then I should be able to manage it from my warm office in The Orchard.

And as for the price of beer? Well, Norway is an expensive country to drink in, but £10 for a bottle of beer and £40 for the house white was appreciated by my liver more than it was mourned by my wallet.