Effective public relations is comprised of lots of different elements, one being how you treat your customers face to face. And going that extra, often unexpected mile can make the biggest difference of all.
I say this because, on Monday, I visited our local ASDA Living store in Guiseley to buy some batteries. As I was about to pay at one of the self-service tills, I noticed that I had a single tenner in my wallet so I requested £20 cash back.
A couple of hours later and for reasons I'll not bore you with, I returned to the store to pick up something else. And then it hit me: I hadn't collected my £20 from the dispenser. Gutted.
After grabbing my required item, I went to a normal till to pay. And I mentioned my cash back faux pas to the very friendly assistant - adding that I knew nothing could be done.
She asked me not to rush off and spoke to a colleague. And a couple of minutes later, Paul (pictured) arrived on the scene.
He asked me how much cash back I'd left behind, I told him and he said he'd have it for me at the door within a couple of minutes. In conversation with him as he handed me the missing loot, Paul advised that an ASDA colleague had spotted the £20, passed it to him and now he was handing it back to me.
"That's the ethos here," he said. "This store opened two and a half years ago and most of us started working on the same day. I was asked to consider a management career but I prefer being on the shop floor working with the team and meeting our customers."
And you could tell that every word he uttered was totally sincere.
What a credit to ASDA Paul and his colleagues are; public relations at its best.
They can expect to see me in their store much more often in the time to come.