Well there is always a first for everything. After 18 years in the corporate world I can safely safe this is a first for me and a moment I will never forget. When I first started this blog my intent was to try and share stories which were incredible and memorable while providing some insights into amazing customer service. My secondary goal was to challenge businesses out there on how they can consider their business with a different lens in the creation of customer loyalty. And quite frankly this organisation should stand as a beacon for everyone out there. So back to my story – A couple of weeks ago I was hosting an executive crisis management training program with the new CEO Tony (he is 7 months in the job) and his executive team. About 30 min into the  workshop we broke for a pre-arranged morning tea hosted to raise money for breast cancer as well as farewell a long serving team member. I figured there was something special about this company when the staff who had raised some money towards the purchase of an Ipad (but not quite enough) looked on as the Tony stepped in and made it very clear that he would cover the amount required to fully purchase the ipad. But that is not the punch line of this story it got so much better.

After all of the thank-yous were delivered Tony returned to the stage (technically was standing in front of the fridge) and continued his presentation by reminding the team of  his passion for innovation and openness to new ideas. He re-iterated that not only is he looking for ideas but the ones which prove to have a financial benefit to the organisation, he was happy to share in those rewards with the individual/s who share them. To prove his point he started to recall one of the ideas which had been presented to him only a short month ago. The idea was simple and elegant. I think he mentioned simple about 15 times. It turns out the organisation who provides financial services to a specific community, issues a debit / credit card every 18 months to its members. The downside of this process is an increase chance of fraud as cards go missing in addition to added logistical load on the business.

The idea was:

“why don’t we just issue cards every 4 years like many other organisations”

Tony recalled sitting back in his chair contemplating the idea and within seconds said, “Brilliant make it happen”. That little idea has projected significant savings for the organisation  over the next couple of years and Tony to his word then turned to the sightly embarrassed staff member who appeared to be humbling accepting the praise and promptly handed her a cheque as a thank you.

The cheque he handed her was for $40,000 

Seriously Tony Taylor and Police Bank

That is no way to run a business