He preached wine and drank it… by the barrel!

Three and a half hours slipped by unnoticed as Aki Kalliatakis, MD of Leadership Launchpad, delivered his boisterous and passionate talk on customer care. As our eyes followed his every move across the room, you could see that he had cast a spell on every intern [customer] present. And so it must be with any organisation that aims at growing its business; its focus must revolve around meeting the needs of customers as well as captivating their interests.

Because customers are the life blood of business, care must be taken to find them; win them over; and retain them if a business is to thrive in markets characterised by cut-throat competition. As Kalliatakis pointed out, “... in Africa, when the sun comes up, you had better be running".

The video clip on a bunch of highly motivated fishmongers at demonstrated that work does not have to be a dreary affair. For these 12 world-famous guys, a day’s job incorporates fun, games and profits, all rolled into one. Their positive attitude to work transforms even the most mundane task at Seattle's Pikeplace fish market into a fun activity, and not just for them, but also for the prospective customers.

However, when all is said and done, would I plunge back into the wonderful world of Customer Care? … That my friend, is an entirely different kettle of fish….

As I hang on to every word he said, the words written on the cover-sheet of his presentation rang true. “Delight your customers with positively outrageous service”… and delighted with the customer care lecture Kalliatakis delivered, I was!