This Month’s Appletree Award for Customer Service goes to …

… the NHS! Yes, I’m being serious!

In particular the award goes to three people who were working at   Basingstoke Hospital earlier this month, for going beyond the cause of duty and really looking after the people in their care.

First there is Leah, a student nurse who works twelve hour shifts. She’s on her feet nearly all day, doing whatever is asked of her. Being the least qualified person on the ward, she has to do all sorts of jobs that other people might not want to do. But she does it all with a smile. And when you’ve come back from surgery having missed supper, she’s the one who dashes off to find you something to eat before the kitchen shuts for the night, rather than leaving you hungry.

Next is the nurse whose name I don’t actually know. She’s the one who wakes you up every hour during the night to check your blood pressure, post op, and who apologises for doing it. Without these regular checks, problems could go unnoticed, so they have to be done. At 5.30am when everyone else on the ward was asleep, this lovely nurse is the one who brings you a mug of tea and some biscuits, almost to say sorry for disturbing you and for doing her job.

Finally there is Paul, the nurse who comes into the ward in the morning and makes everyone laugh, no matter how they are feeling. He helps people get dressed, he picks things up that patients drop and can’t reach and he even finds felt pens so that patients can write on other patients’ plaster casts!

All these people have busy jobs to do and yet they do them with a smile and with compassion. They do things that are not in their job description, because they know it will help one of their ‘clients’. They make their ‘clients’ feel special and cared for. And that’s why they get this month’s Appletree Award for Customer Service.

How can you make your clients feel special and cared for? What can you do that goes beyond what they expect of you?