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That's dangerous territory, you're not supposed to incentivize/bribe customers into leaving reviews according to the Competition and Markets Authorities recent guidelines, although lots of companies do, and the whole thing has become a bit of a grey area 

Originally Posted by Garde

“Wait until you get back to post all the wonderful boring pics of your holiday that we all cannot wait to see ..... ”

You really are a grumpy old fart!

Yup have been guilty of posting pics on my personal FB account while we are on our hols, but live in a nice quiet cul de sac with the nosiest neighbours in the world, plus pics are private to friends and family. 

Interesting though about the bar code, never would have thought of that!

Not sure if I'm eligible to be a silver surfer as most of hair has long gone 

It's a fine art sometimes when it comes to naming and shaming. After running review websites for the last 11 years, and forums for around 6, we've certainly upset a few people over the years 

We have a few shaming threads:

Business Scams and Cons to be aware of

Warnings, Name and Shame Dumping Ground

Marketing Fail - Learn from the mistakes of others!

But if it's factual and not malicious, then I don't have a problem with it, although from experience lots of behind the scenes checks are done as we have had countless competitor bashing, including directors of the same firm at war with each other, or brothers with separate companies trying to destroy each other 

But it keeps life interesting...

In contrast, it's also good to name and praise, which is something most people don't do enough of, me included. We are all guilty of shouting and ranting, especially in the heat of the moment, but it takes time and effort to praise.

Hmmm, just had a look at our business praise thread, and saw it was 10 months since anything was added  Then realised the thread had auto locked (a little anti spam trick we have), whoops. So have now unlocked it, and lets see if anyone has been wowed recently by some customer service...

Businesses that aren't yours but you would recommend

Wow food for thought! Not sure what the rules are for private letting, or if there are any?

As a landlord you must have some kind of responsibility or duty of care?

The Childrens Air Ambulance has received lottery funding, and they have just announced they will be receiving 2 new helicopters, as they only currently have one for the whole of the UK.

£32 Million Helicopter Deal - Children's Air Ambulance

I think it's amazing what the Air Ambulance Service has done, and have followed and supported them from when it was just the fledgling Warwickshire Air Ambulance. But it does seem nuts to me that the Air Ambulance is broken up into lots of different privately run charities. 

In my mind it would make more sense to be run like the RNLI, be a National service, with equipment procurement centralised, economies of scale, standardised training, processes, equipment etc. Then different regions could seamlessly backfill in a major crisis. 

The Air Ambulance Service seems to be a step in the right direction, but next door to us we have the West Midlands Air Ambulance, with fund raisers getting hot under the collar as they step on other peoples patches. We need one service, one big pot of dosh, standard kit, and one huge army of supporters with a centralised marketing team raising support and awareness.

But until then, make sure you support your local Air Ambulance 

When it comes to supporting good causes, few organisations cater for and potentially cover everyone, regarding of background, race, age or medical condition. Most people won't think about it unless they were unfortunate to use it, so support Air Ambulance Week, and support your local Air Ambulance.

We are covered by the Air Ambulance Service who cover Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Rutland, as well as provides the Nationwide Children's Air Ambulance.

The the Air Ambulance Service are running a give an hour to save a life campaign.

Every rescue mission we fly across Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland costs £1,700 – but we receive no government funding. We need your help.

Air Ambulance Week runs from 17th – 25th September and there are plenty of ways you can get involved: theairambulanceservice.org.uk/give-an-hour/

Here's a great film the Air Ambulance Service did a couple of years ago, but shows the amazing work they do, along now with the Children's Air Ambulance that can currently reach 1 in 3 children across the UK.

Very good point, In the original example the guy in the video included insurance as a breakdown of the costs. But I wonder if it is checked? Plus £700 is a lot if that is the case.

So as a professional courier, how do you stand on the issue of having an army of amateur delivery drivers? Does it impact your business or is it a non issue?

I must confess I haven't really been keeping up to date with it, other than a catchup with the news headlines, but they seem to be doing spectacularly well. 

With the Olympics, I was googling "medal table" about 4 times a day, and up team GB popped. But it doesn't work for the paralympics. 

Interesting one this morning. Won't name them as we all have bad days, but had a call from a printer company based in Manchester this morning. We've bought a couple of printers from them, they phone from time to time, hows your printer going, usual expected up-sell.

Last month when they phoned I had a little moan that it seemed nuts that I could buy the exact same laser colour printer we use, for a cheaper price than buying replacement toner. In my mind it's mad, especially as there is nothing wrong with our printer and we love it. So asked about non branded or refillable toners. Don't get me wrong, it's not the suppliers fault, it's the manufacturers.

Sales chap then sent over a quote for a new printer versus refillable toners. Today, got the sales call, whats the update on the quote. Admittedly I was busy, call had interrupted me and I was quite short, saying something like if I wanted to order, then I would have. To which I got a very short and stroppy response back telling me fine and he would delete the quote, good bye.

If you are making customer facing calls, you are going to get grumpy gits like me. But if you can't keep it professional and pleasant, it's time to stop making them 

Would I consider buying elsewhere? After today, most definitely.

Great post from Higgers on another thread about customer loyalty, but how relevant

• 78 percent of consumers have ended a transaction due to bad service.
• Only 4 percent of dissatisfied customers actually speak up.
• Loyal customers are worth up to ten times as much as their first purchase.
• The probability of selling to a new customer is 5-20 percent, while selling to an existing customer is 60-70 percent.
• It takes 12 positive experiences to make up for a single bad experience.
• Negative interactions with a business are spread to twice as many people as positive ones.
• It costs over six times more to get new customers than it does to keep one current one.
• For every customer who complains, 26 others don’t speak up.

Quoted from the Huffington Post

Political and controversial! Ticks all my boxes