Marie Campbell, of the Alloa, Clackmannanshire branch in Scotland, was given a Customer Hero award along with three other managers at Cook’s retail conference last week, as well as a gong for her 40 years of service at the same store.
After building relationships with customers in the town over many years, Campbell began to notice some regulars were not booking any longer.
“I ran into one customer I’d known a long time ago in a coffee shop who told me she didn’t go away any more now that she had lost her husband – and I had met others in the same position,” said Campbell.
“I went home and asked my husband if some people could come away with us. In the first year, we ended up going on a cruise to the fjords in a group of 37.
“We tend to go in September, outside of the boules season!”
The group cruises have become a regular fixture now, with the passengers travelling to Southampton by coach, and are also open to men.
Campbell organises bingo for the journey, and money is raised for charity. “The initial concept was for those who had lost a partner, but we also have a gentleman who has had a stroke and his wife, because the group support each other,” she said.
Campbell now makes a point of writing to clients she knows have recently lost a partner.
“Since that first cruise, the friends seem like completely different people – they are going to the church guild and meeting for coffee,” she said. “I am so privileged to go away with them.”
The other Customer Hero Award winners were Donna Close from the Ballymena store, Jasmyn Wood from the Oldham branch and Georgina Newell from the Biggleswade shop.
John Stewart, of the Dundee City Square branch – which has been shortlisted in TTG’s Top 50 2017 – was named Company Manager of the Year.
A host of other awards were given out during a gala dinner.
