It is reassuring that customer service is still high on priority for many individuals within the ACR industry.
This industry often gets a bad name and bad press. This will be something very positive to report.
Great blog with a wonderful message

To provide extraordinary customer care one needs to go the extra mile for the customer but still need to remain professional and do your job the best to your ability. You don't have to lower your technical pride or sell yourself cheaply but if are able to be friendly and remain professional that can be a plus.
Believe in yourself and your company and your product and you will provide great service.
Interesting blog with an extraordinary response.

This blog is a 'must read' by everyone include myself :)

Sure there are some arrogant service engineers, they have the skills and the knowledge so perhaps there is some justification, but there are more arrogant customers who don't have the skills or knowledge, so how to justify their behaviour? ACR engineers are generally undervalued by customers and it is time that we received more appreciation for our technical skills which at the end of the day are what the customer is paying for.

Go Natasha go. You are a star!

Hope you get the Steve Award for extraordinary customer service that you deserve!

I am interesting in this blog and in customer service. We all have customers in some form or other. So, when our service provider turned up today I thought that I was ask the service engineer about his goals for the year/career. We have office ac units and they are service regularly by the same people/company.
The engineer told me with great passion about his career so far, and about how he has improved over the years by working with some of the best engineers in the field, and about how is he is still even at age of 35 still studying to become a better engineer. He has joined the Institute of Refrigeration and was extremely proud to say that because of his experience, he has been voted a full member earlier this year. A man full of pride and passion about his work and with a drive to improve himself. So, I asked him about customer care and how he improves their experience. He looked at me totally blank. So, I explained about this blog and the message of extraordinary customer care behind it. He was speechless. After a pause, he said that "he was one of the best engineers around, and that he always fixed the problems for the customers. Unfortunately though, most customers are idiots and don't appreciate what we do. We would be better off without them" he joked. He went on to tell me how some users of AC are so stupid it is hard to imagine, and that he has been barred from a couple of places because he 'told them they were wrong'.
If this is the best that the ACR Industry has to offer, albeit a very dedicated man striving to improve his engineering skills, then I think the industry still has a long way to go.
Steve's blog is a very good reminder that no matter how good we think we are, it is how customers think of us that matters.

I would like to nominate Travis Roberts from Star Refrigeration at Oxford. He is an experienced Service Manager and service engineer who takes the time to understand what the customer wants. He is a good listener and a great problem solver.

My attention has been drawn to this blog by a member of my staff. I have read it with interest but not all of the many comments. There are so many.
I would like to tell of an example of extraordinary customer service that you may find of interest,
We are a family owned and run meat business. We are by no means small but we have operated with private finance so we make investments carefully and hopefully wisely.
Over twenty years ago, we wanted to expand our abattoir in the west country. We had refrigeration contractors already but asked around the meat industry for recommendations. A young man was recommended who worked for an international refrigeration company. My father didn't want to go down that route, fearing that the costs would be two high and also that we would receive impersonal service. But he heard from a meat processing facility in Scotland of this refrigeration design engineer who slept in his car several times during the final days of a project so that he could be there to make sure it all ran smoothly. He had to sleep in his car because his company had not allowed the costs for him to be present during this period and so he took holiday and stayed on site for the final days of the project. He was young and had a family, but I assume not much spare cash for a hotel or even B&B. The project was a huge success much to the credit of this individual and upon it being discovered that he was effectively 'sleeping rough' the neat processing company owner made the fridge guy go and stay in a hotel and covered the costs.
This story impressed my father as it came from an old friend in the meat trade.
So, we contacted the company and met with the young refrigeration sales/design/projects engineer. He was about the same age as me, but very friendly and open, and most importantly, he was surprisingly knowledgeable about meat processing as well as refrigeration. He talked as though he was a butcher not a fridge guy.
My father asked him for a price for the three chill carcass hanging rooms for the extension. We already had received two other prices so we had a budget. To help the young man, we showed him the specification (without the price) from our regular supplier and asked him to quote the same. He wouldn't, he insisted on spending time down at the abattoir so that he could understand our process. During the next two weeks, he came down to our abattoir at least four times at 5 in the morning to see the start of the daily kill before he went to the office. My father was amazed that a fridge wanted to know so much about our operation that he effectively worked there on the slaughter line moving the fresh carcasses into the chillers and then monitoring them. No one else had done this before. Three weeks later he came back with a price for the refrigeration system. It was much higher than the others and more than we had budgeted. We called him in to explain. He came in and talked through his proposal in such depth and with such knowledge and confidence that we looked around to find extra finance to fund his proposal. When it became obvious that we couldn't afford it all, he re-jigged his quote and showed us how we could do it in stages.
To cut a long story short, the plant was bought and installed and proved to be a great success. The success helped to fund our growth and we went on to build two complete factories with the same fridge engineer although he changed companies.
He became part of the family and even once, after his company had lost the service contract, came down when we had a problem with the new service provider and helped their engineer fix a problem. He did that even though he was not being paid for it.
Who was this remarkable guy? Well, it was none other that the author of this blog - Steve Gill. When I read the blog I knew why the story of the postman would appeal to him. It is because he has the same values of customer care.
I have not given my name here as I do not want to be bothered by answering questions about this story but if ACR News wish to verify it, Steve can give you my details because he will know who it is from the story.
Over the years I have worked with my contractors from all trades and also with many refrigeration companies and their staff. I can say with all honesty that none have impressed me or my family as much as the young man from all those years ago. Thank you Steve. The Fridge industry has an extraordinary person of its own.

I have been thinking about Mick Collin's suggestion that the concept is taken further and applied to other categories.

Making the ordinary extraordinary.

I think this is actually a very good idea. If we take the environment for example, there are many examples of people reducing their environmental impact, but what if there was a Steve Award for for the person from the ACR industry that really goes the extra mile to reduce a customer's energy usage or environmental impact for no gain for themselves?
I think that there is some mileage is extended this concept to other categories as Mick suggested.

I would like to nominate Graham Smith of ICS. His customer service is second to none.

Would be interested to know a lot more detail about the people being nominated.
Also, who is nominating them? Are these customers?

Has the criteria been finalised? If people are making nominations shouldn't they give their full details and say more about the individuals?
Who are the judges? Have I missed this? Has it been announced somewhere else that I have missed. Is it in the ACR News magazine or somewhere else?

I would like to nominate Graeme Fox. Most people know Graeme for his work with AREA but what is forgotten is that he runs a very successful but small business. His customer all love him and accept that he will be away doing AREA work at times. But he works with them and keeps them informed. They are proud to have him as they supplier.

I would like to nominate Dave Wilkinson - Service Manager at GEA Nottingham. Dave is a very knowledgeable service manager but he really takes care of client's to ensure that they really do receive the attention they deserve. He is a pleasure to work with and always reliable.

Salesman are notorious for being your best friend when you have an order to place but then vanishing once the order is placed or not wanting to know you if you don't place orders.
And so for those that lose an order after working very hard to try and secure it, well, these never forgive you and certainly don't waste their time in staying in contact.
In my experience, that is true in all cases except one: Robert Long of Starfrost. Although I have never placed any orders with him, we has always stayed in contact and also been very friendly and what is more, helpful. If ever I need any information, even about the job he lost, if I contact Robert he is always keen to help and provides me with more than the information I have requested.
It is for this reason that I would like to nominate him for the Steve Award for Extraordinary Customer Service.

Well done to Graeme Fox and all those other ACR industry ambassadors named here. It has been said that 'A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step'. Graeme and the others are all making steps. Without steps, we would stand still.
To Graeme, Steve, Mike, John, and Eddie, I say good for you, keep taking those steps. Don't give up.

Steve suggested that we find a name from our own industry more fitting than 'Fred'. May I propose that it would be very fitting and timely to name this customer service award after Kathy Cumella. A person who truly went the extra mile.

Well said! It used to be said that the customer is king. Fortunately, there are people that make them feel like they are

To have an ACR industry award with the customers nominating those that provide an extraordinary customer experience is a fantastic idea.
People dealing with people is what makes this industry tick.
I hope this can take off. It will make a change from all the other awards where one large company present to another one. They just hand the awards to each other.
Great idea. A truly original industry blog.

Dear Graeme, thank you for taking the time to reply. I know that you are an very busy man and appreciate that you took time read my post and to reply with your comments.

You are right, my post was born out of frustration and I didn't acknowledge the small steps that are happening.

I am as guilty as anyone else when it comes to not doing anything positive for change, and also like the majority, I also am amongst the first to moan too.

You had made some progress as a result of your blog and I urge you (not that you need my encouragement) to keep up the good work.

Also, I have to say, that the ACR News blogs in general have suddenly become more popular and talked about in the workplace. The blog by Steve has raised the popularity and become something of an attraction and focus for discussion recently amongst my colleagues but I also have noticed that the blogs by you and Neil are also being discussed where as before, I read them, but didn't hear them spoken about by others, if you know what I mean.

So, I concede and must agree with you, that you the bloggers and us, the readers and leavers of comments, are perhaps not wasting our time here after all.

Thank you Graeme, I hope you receive a 'Steve' one day.

This brings me to something else, the 'Steve Award' has been discussed a lot at work and all think it is a great idea and has lead us to think that there must be other categories that must be open to all of us rather than the elite few. We have started coming up with suggestions and have called these the 'Steves'. We have discussed many suggestions around the theme of making the ordinary extraordinary and have branched in our thoughts way out beyond the area of customer service. With 'making the ordinary extraordinary' as a theme, the Steve's could be a unique celebration of our industry. What do you think?

Mr Everitt, can I ask how the discussions are going for this Award? Are they still at the critical stage as you mentioned a few weeks ago?

Finally, Steve, any new blog from you on the horizon? Also, what are your thoughts about more Awards based upon Extraordinary as a starting point?

This is such a novel suggestion for an Award. Simple and yet so wonderfully appropriate. Some new thinking to the Awards structure is just what the ACR industry needs at the moment.
I must confess that I haven't really noticed the Blogs here on ACR News but I will certainly reading them from now on. This one was pointed out to me by our HR manager.

I work in the construction and project management industry building and extending food processing factories. I have to say that as a whole I have found refrigeration much more willing to go above and beyond the call of duty then other trades. Over the many years working in this industry I have the misfortune to have come across many indifferent, unhelpful and even rude trades people and have come to think of that as normal. However, I always find the refrigeration and other ACR engineers and staff in stark contrast to the 'norm' and can think of a few who have turned the ordinary in to extraordinary.
As a trade, and as an industry, you deserve a pat on the back.
As Steve says in his blog 'normal has no place in this industry'. In my experience, he is right.
Good blog.

In my experience, extraordinary customer service comes from within. One has to think positively to achieve it.
This is some thing that cannot be taught in a class room. But, we can modify our behaviour by watching others and by training. We can learn from others that provide great service. If we have the will and drive to
That drive, and desire has to come from within us.

This is an exciting opportunity to put extraordinary customer care firmly on the map with the ACR industry, and also to recognise the role played by individuals in business for no obvious immediate financial gain.
Great idea.
It is a wonderful opportunity to share success stories, and pass on hints for successful business customer care.
Steve's blog has put people back at the heart of this industry.
Inspiring

Going the extra mile for a customer at my company doesn't get me any recognition or reward at all. The only ones that appreciate it are the customers and then only if it doesn't cost any extra.
The idea of an award where the customer nominates the person is a great one. I think this could throw up a few surprises.
Great suggestion and a very interesting blog.