Doing the Right Thing

Written by LiveLink
March 16th 2024

Doing the Right Thing

Doing the right thing is something that we all aspire to.

Yesterday, Ocado were due to deliver to me between 1-2pm but they had an issue that was beyond their control.

They could have shrugged their shoulders and sent an email with some corporate babble. But they didn’t. The driver called and text me to say he would be late as he was stuck in an endless diversion. He said if I wanted to change or cancel the delivery to call Ocado and they would do that. I decided to wait it out.

Later that afternoon, Ocado called to apologise and say that the driver had had to return to the depot and another driver was on their way. They did arrive at 7pm.

Ocado customer service is supreme. They are unlike so many other corporates that are quite frankly, awful. My main bugbear is the standard corporate babble of  ‘this is not our usual service’ when honestly, it quite often is.

Ocado not only gave me an immediate refund for the delivery fee, they also sent me a voucher for money off a future delivery. Every one of their employees that I have come across over 5 years or so have been exceptional. There’s no reading from a script – just a genuine response.

And they do the right thing.

As a small business it’s easier for us to do the right thing. Less so for large corporates as they rely on long processes and systems and in their attempt to remove the issue of human error, they have also removed the heart and soul of their business.

But I have to ask myself, if Ocado can do it, why can’t other companies. And from experience, Public Sector institutions are by far the worse. Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not maligning individuals as they will mostly be good people. People like you and me. Systems are great, but an over-reliance on them is detrimental as it removes all wiggle-room and leads to frustration both from the operator and the caller.