Feed the positive dog!

CNN reported the other night that one-third of all Americans (and I would imagine the same applies over here) are losing sleep over the economy, 8 out of 10 people are stressed out, and an increasing number of people are turning to popping pills to deal with the stress and lack of sleep. While these pills may work in the short term, there is a better way. It's the secret weapon against stress, it doesn't cost a penny and it is only a thought away.

The answer is to feed the positive dog.

Here is a simple story about a man who travels to the village to speak to the wise man. He says to the wise man, "I feel like there are two dogs inside me. One dog is positive, loving, kind and optimistic and then I have this fearful, pessimistic, angry and negative dog and they fight all the time. I don't know who is going to win." The wise man thinks for a moment and responds, "I know who is going to win. The one you feed the most. So feed the positive dog."

The fact is we all have a positive and negative dog inside of us. It's part of our human nature. The key is to feed the positive dog and starve the negative dog. The more we feed the positive dog the bigger it gets and the stronger it becomes.

It is true there are times when nothing seems to go right and negativity can be a downward spiral, but taking time to think about what has worked, what we all have to be thankful for and what we can achieve if we put our minds to it, for me is time well spent.

Running a building society can be a roller coaster. We don’t always get things right and when I see a complaint from a customer I feel genuine pain, as it is really important for my own value set that we try our best to do the right thing. However each month we gather feedback from our customers and below are the comments we have received recently from customers who use our Saffron Direct contact centre.

Having read these comments, my positive dog is contented, on the rug in front of the fire, having just polished off a large Aberdeen Angus fillet steak…….What will you be feeding yours?

“When customer service becomes consistent it's then out of the ordinary... everyone is really impressive."

"I've been in contact with a number of your staff and colleagues... extremely impressed by how helpful, positive and friendly they've been... beyond the call of duty...
I have relationships with other banks and financial providers, I don't ever find them as helpful"

"A short note to say thank you for the excellent service you have provided in the past couple of days. You have shown a desire to follow matters through to a conclusion rather than just pass the issue around the system. You are a credit to Saffron and I trust this is reflected in your appraisal system."

"Thank you for prompt and comprehensive response. It is very refreshing to get such good service."

"Very Very many thanks for arranging this. It is terrific in the day and age of "rules" that cannot be broken just because "they are just rules" as another Society has done and caused me great inconvenience. Your flexibility and understanding is so refreshing."

"Thank you very much for your letter... and for your swift response. I am so relieved that the confusion has been quickly put right... Thank you, again. I am very pleased indeed with your service."

"Dear Mr Golding, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff of Saffron Building Society... Cherrelle of your Customer Services who took ownership of the slow moving problem and urgently chased through information... thank you"

"Throughout these difficult circumstances your employee acted in a very helpful and professional way, nothing was too much trouble... I would like to commend her to you!"

"I would like to say that dealing with Saffron has been a pleasure, especially when I have telephoned.. Thank you for your excellent service... You all seem to be such nice people there."