When people are unhappy with a service, it usually doesn’t take much for them to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboards) to make their views known. But it’s quite rare for people to do the same when they’re happy with a service.
One such person (a Ventnor resident) did just that (write a letter of thanks) and the result is to be a visit to the Ventnor branch of Boots of their top bosses.
We’re not just talking the head of Boots UK, but the head of Alliance, the pharmaceutical and healthcare company that merged with Boots back in 2006 to form Alliance Boots, making his way to Isle of Wight to pass on the thanks to staff.
Billionaire heading to Ventnor
Stefano Pessina, the Italian Executive Chairman of Alliance Boots (who according to Wikipedia is worth a whopping US$2.6 billion) and Simon Roberts Managing Director, Boots UK are to pop the chemist in Ventnor.
Their mission is, we understand, to pass on the thanks and gratitude of a customer who believes the staff at Ventnor’s Boots are “pure gold”.
Do not delegate!
In his letter to Mr Pessina, the Ventnor resident (who would prefer to remain anonymous – “I’m not looking for fame here” – he told us) asked the Executive Chairman to, “find some meaningful and personal way of telling them how grateful” he was.
He went on to say, “If you cannot do this yourself personally, I’d rather you file this and forget my communication. I do not, emphatically, wish this to be ‘delegated’.”
Mr Pessina listened to his customer and is to do as requested.
The customer wrote,
Dear Mr Pessina,
My wife passed away last week, after an 18 year protracted cancer illness. This was no ‘battle’, we didn’t invite it, we did all we could to ensure it co-operated with what we wished to do.
Inevitably, this involved a long, detailed and variable drug requirement, all of which was sourced from your branch in Ventnor, on the Isle of Wight. I’m sure your geographical knowledge is up to speed, but if not, we are on the South Island, just south of England, somewhere off Southampton.
I contact you since your employees in this branch have far exceeded any reasonable expectation I might have had in terms of service, recognition, empathy, and sheer interest in the problems with which they knew I had to deal.
In my experience, customers tend to complain, rarely can they be bothered to give credit where it is due. In my case, your staff have made my life enormously less difficult. For this I am not simply grateful, I am brimming with sheer gratitude at their understanding.
Particularly, I should like to mention the following staff members whom I have come to ‘know’.
Anna McCarthy, Pharmacist, Claire, Tracy, Bev and Heather on retail sales (on the occasion I had to queue crash). All of them have my undying admiration and gratitude. ‘Thank you’ simply isn’t enough.
I would be more than grateful if you could find some way of conveying my thanks to them in an ‘non corporate’ manner.
You have a star cast here, your business is more than fortunate in having employees of this calibre. Please, take care of them, they are more valuable than you know. You are in corporate charge of them, they actually got to be in charge of me, we needed them, they responded in a positive manner of which I could only dream.
I am in awe. This level of service doesn’t happen. Please try to accept this in an ‘exceptional’ manner. If you can,I want you to step outside your office and read this elsewhere. These folk are exceptional in every way, and they deserve some exceptional recognition.
I lost my wife. You still have your staff. Pure Gold.
Find some meaningful and personal way of telling them how grateful I am, please. If you cannot do this yourself personally, I’d rather you file this and forget my communication. I do not, emphatically, wish this to be ‘delegated’.
That is how strongly I feel, and I ask you to respect my request not to simply pass this to a department of some description to answer me. These folk are worth more, much more.
Salutations Distinguees,
Updated: Despite checking twice, OnTheWight has now been told that Stefano Pessina is due to visit the Ventnor Boots branch, rather than having already visited. We’ve altered the copy to reflect this.
Image: Fortune Live Media under CC BY 2.0
