Today I want to share with you a story about some great customer service and what a huge difference it made to me. I started writing this blog for two reasons:
1. To stop people from seeing kids like Evan as 'special' but as UNIQUE!
2. To help me and mums like me stop feeling so judged.
But I've realised that I'd also like people in general to just be a bit more caring, a bit more understanding and a bit more aware that what you see isn't necessarily all that there is.
Which brings me back to my post today and how just a little bit of kindness and an extra bit of care made a world of difference to me.
It started off back in the summer when I found a Gift Card for Bluewater that I'd forgotten about. Now when I received it I couldn't read the numbers properly and I thought it was £15 or £25. For some reason when I looked at it with fresh eyes I realised it was £75. Wow! I thought that's a nice surprise, until I found it had expired 6 days previously and I burst into tears. To explain my apparent overreaction, it had been a tough year for me particularly coming to terms with Evan's tics and we have paid out nearly £5,000 for various test, assessments and treatments for her so, although £75 was a drop in the ocean, I felt like someone had given me a gift and immediately snatched it away from me.
I phoned Store Financial UK Ltd with little expectation that they would care, but how wrong I was. I spoke to a wonderful woman in their call centre who told me to email and explain my situation and they could then decide if there were acceptable special circumstances. She was unbelievably kind and caring.
So I emailed but I didn't hear back (so I thought). Fast forward to this week and whilst sorting through old emails I come across a response from the manager the day after my original email. She said yes of course they would reactivate my gift card and she also shared her own experience of having a child, the same age as Evan, with 'special needs'.
So I emailed saying I can't believe I missed the email and hoped I wasn't too late. The very next day I got a lovely email from her again with just that little bit of extra care and sharing some useful tips about going through the diagnosis process. She also sent me a new gift card that I received two days later.
In a virtual world it can so easily be forgotten that there are real people behind emails and even on the end of a phone. For big call centres we can become just another customer reference number but not in this case and I really wanted to share how such kindness has really made a real difference to me. So much more in fact than the £75 itself. Although I am looking forward to going shopping and spending it on myself ;-)
Niiiice!
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