Bigger Than Balance Blog

Postcard from London: Customer service at it's very best today

Friday:  July 10th, 2009 a day of extraordinary customer service in our new neighbourhood.  First thing this morning we were at our new bank signing our savings away on the dotted line, which can be scarey, but not with this bank.  The customer service we received (perhaps because we were newbies with strange accents, or just depositting a large sum) was something we ex-Canadians are unfamiliar with!

First there was the handshake, the sitting down with us and speaking with us about our wishes...no upsell, no hype, no aggressive persuasion.  Follow this with the signing process and a request from the bank that should we have any comments or concerns about how we were treated "here is the number we can phone with complaints".  What complaints, we were even offered something to drink during the process.  The nicest, most efficient and pleasant experience to start off the day.  Top it off with we have a future appointment with the business manager and financial manager as an addition to their usual service for customers like us.  Very nice.

As if the bank experience wasn't enough, our next stop was buying cellphones (although in UK they are called mobiles).  We needed to pay cash because we didn't have a credit card (did you know credit history doesn't mean anything if you move to another country?)  Anyway, we came with cash in hand, but the computer system wouldn't let the salesperson through the system--kept wanting to verify the address with a piece of ID--we don't have it yet.  So we left, disappointed but willing to wait until the fabulous bank gave us our debit card next week.   Halfway up the street and the mobile phone guy comes running after us saying they found a way to get around the system (he knows we wanted the phones asap not next week, so he worked hard to solve the dilemma) and we tried again, only to be thwarted so away we went, no mobiles in hand.  Almost got to the end of the street and 'tap on the shoulder' pardon him if we think he's stalking us' but for sure he can do it this time.  This is a keener and a gentleman.  We returned, exchanged a few laughs and jokes about his stalking us with other sales people, and then success...we have mobiles this evening.  What a star performer he was.

Are we pleased with the service and attention we received today.  You bet.  Barclay's bank Crouch End and Carphone Warehouse Crouch End have repeat customers for sure.  What is really encouraging about today is realizing when Customer Service goes right, it really makes a huge difference and impact on their business and the customer's day.  While things took awhile to get sorted out, it was more than worth the wait.

More on the guys from Carphone Warehouse again soon.  They went above and beyond the call of duty one other time as well.  Another post.

Dr. Bev

Snapshots of life in London

Dr. Bev has been posting cause frankly I've just returned to the land of the living after a week of hellish jet lag. Now, after 2 nights of actually sleeping I'm beginning to feel human again.  Perseverence was called for, getting up at a normal time, eating regularly and going to bed at a normal time...then lying there awake (do you know how many bizarre thoughts you can have after hours awake in the middle of the night?) only to get up at 4:30am for breakfast!  I'm very happy that week is over.

Regardless of the, at times dizzying ,jet lag, we have been exploring. Now remember everything is uphill or downhill depending on which way you are looking. So we hiked the hill over to Highgate Village, one of the older villages that make up London, it is just over the hill and a potential site for permanent digs.  Smaller than Crouch End, a little less trendy, but peaceful and green, and full of the all important cafes, fruiterers (yes there is such a word) and bakeries. Who needs more?  We keep taking different routes home (don't worry the map is always on hand) and discovering beautiful, tree lined roads that eventually get us home.  Ok, you caught us, at times we are trying to find less steep hills!

On the practical side, we got smart and did a major shop and had it delivered! Some other poor sod carried it all up 3 flights of stairs (no lift to use). I think this will become a regular habit. Headed into the tube station (underground) to purchase our Oyster Card for easy use of the tube.  Here we were all but adopted by the attendant who spent about a half hour explaining the intricacies of the tube to us. What a doll he was. Now it seems easy, but if you don't hear from  us for days, send out a posse!

Learning to cook on a gas "cooker" is a delight. Happy to say we haven't blown the place up yet. Also learning the intricacies of the "boiler" which is the equivalent of a hot water tank but very different.  The brain is pooped by night as it endures a new learning curve with every new turn.

Great news is we have a new bank. Now this doesn't sound like much to you back in Canada, but it is apparently difficult to get banking started up here. Not so it appears, we were quickly approved and will meet with a private banker tomorrow morning. 

Then it's the weekend and there is plenty of exploring to do. 

Ta for now, Dr. Toby

Quotes to Questions - July 7, 2009

QQ:  quotes to questions!

Quotes and questions to inspire change and provoke discussion. Subscribers in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., the Middle East & Asia are reading this week’s QQ.

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QQ:  Our visions begin with our desires. (Audre Lorde)

QQ:  What desire fuels your long-range view?

Postcard from London

July 5, 2009...newness, jetlag, and a small dose of isolation.  Well the new life has begun.  After a journey of 36 hours of lost sleep, we are here!  The thing is, here is a little isolated - not in terms of shops, transportation and people, plenty of all that - no, isolation because we aren't connected to internet, phones, or t.v. as of yet. It is a strange feeling to sit through quiet evenings. Yes, I could read, but frankly the jetlag has taken it's toll - awake at 4:30 am, have breakfast and fall off to sleep again only to wake mid-morning feeling fuzzy!

It is the 2nd full day and I'm able to scribble thoughts.  Yesterday we shopped in the High Street in Crouch End (this is our new neighbourhood) lucky us, CE is full of fresh fruit and veggie shops, mediterranean food supplies,and french pasteries to die for! Pictures forthcoming, for sure. The vibe and people are distinctly middle-class, boho-chic, and casual for Saturday.  So it feels like a good fit.

Health wise we are going to get really fit, the hike to CE is a steep downhill for 10 minutes which means the hike back is straight up, plus carrying groceries (weight bearing exercise) should make for great leg, arm and back muscles eventually!  Let's just say, last night these feet and bones were screaming, but not with delight!

The plan for tomorrow is to hike the hill to CE again, then who knows, we are still breathing it in!

Dr. Bev

Postcard from the airport

 

July 2, 2009...the last moments before our new life begins.  Sitting in the airport we kept saying to each other, "We really did it, I can't believe it is finally happening".  We both have a feeling of quiet calm...neither anxious nor excited, just not knowing how to process the reality of such a huge undertaking in our lives.  What do you do with "we are not coming back"? 

It's been unusual for us to be the centre of such interest from people.  Everyone wanted to say goodbye or to get together before we went, and those goodbyes were truly heartwarming and emotionally tough.  We are really ready for this one last goodbye.  As we take off I can see my little fishing village below getting smaller (no it's true the planes fly right over it!) then the plane banked right and we were flying towards our dream.  What awaits I don't know; my expectations are focused on becoming more of myself - pushing, stretching, reaching beyond who I am now.

Who each of us discover within is waiting to be revealed? That is the journey - that's the adventure!

Dr. Bev

QQ: Quotes to Questions - June 30, 2009

QQ:  quotes to questions!

Quotes and questions to inspire change and provoke discussion. Subscribers in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., the Middle East & Asia are reading this week’s QQ.

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QQ:  We see things not as they are, but as we are. (Robert Holden)

QQ:  What do you see?

QQ: Quotes to Questions - June 23, 2009

QQ:  quotes to questions!

Quotes and questions to inspire change and provoke discussion. Subscribers in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., the Middle East & Asia are reading this week’s QQ.

---

QQ:  Women are like tea bags; put them in hot water and they get stronger. (Eleanor Roosevelt)

QQ:  Have you put your strength to the test?

QQ: Quotes to Questions - June 16, 2009

QQ:  quotes to questions!

Quotes and questions to inspire change and provoke discussion. Subscribers in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., the Middle East & Asia are reading this week’s QQ.

---

QQ:  I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end. (Margaret Thatcher)

QQ:  Do you know when and where to dig your heels in?

Some of us do more than Dream

“Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how….
We guess.  We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.” 
(Agnes de Mille, dancer and choreographer)

We are looking forward to being newbies: to not knowing, to being acceptably ignorant and naiive.  How refreshing is that?  That means we get to “not get it” and to ask question after question:  Why?  How?  Where? and definitely…Can someone point us in the right direction?” (Now there’s a life question for all times!)  In this case, we just want to know where North is!  We are ok with feeling lost, scared, excited, overwhelmed, joyous, stressed, exhausted, breathless AND blissful!  It’s called being alive!  We have both had times in life of feeling dead inside from life events, and this e-ride sure beats that!

From time to time we need to be a little off-balance.  It keeps us on our toes, it keeps us looking for what we want, and it definitely keeps us moving.  Remember as a kid being on a teeter-totter? Exhilarating when you were at the top, when you hit bottom, thud, you just wanted to be up again, but when you were sort of sitting there in the middle not moving, legs dangling, it wasn’t much fun.  Life is like that, not that we always want extreme ups and downs, goodness knows life delivers enough of those without our orchestrating them, but we want, no we need, to be moving. In fact, these days when pretty well nothing feels like a sure thing we have come to believe that risk-taking is the new balance.  Sometimes it means putting all that is familiar and known on the line in order to arrive in a new place. 

We have both done the BIG LIFE REDESIGN a few times before.  Someone asked me the other day if this was the biggest life change I’d made.  At first I thought so, but then I remembered some of the others that, looking back, now seem pretty bold.  I left school at 16, that was pretty risky, but not half as risky as remaining and becoming a teenage statistic of depression.  After working for many years both Dr. B and I quit work and went to university. That was a huge risk.  Our, unlikely in some peoples’ views, goal was to obtain PhDs, 16 years later we had done just that!  Starting a non-profit organization to get good treatment for eating disorders in the early 80s was a big leap of faith when neither of us knew anything about running an organization, but we were still going strong 10 years later having helped thousands!  Choosing private practice for our entire career was impossible if we had listened to the many nay-sayers.  Well, 30 years later we are still here.  AND, if we hadn’t been willing to risk more we wouldn’t have given up our office, taken our practice virtual, and therefore global, which ultimately is allowing us to move to another country and take our business with us. 

Risky, you bet, but the payoffs?  Massive!  If there is one thing we know for sure, the risk of unhappiness, of living a life unfulfilled is always far greater than the risk of change.  So as we sign off this month from this side of the Atlantic, (we will “meet up” with you again in August, the techie-gods willing!) we just want to share a brand new acquisition with you done for us by an amazing client and artist/philosopher Nola Semczyszyn.  Taken from the lyrics of a song by George Michael, ‘Round Here, these words perfectly encapsulate our philosophy of living that we will keep sharing with you in the future.

 

QQ: Quotes to Questions - June 9, 2009

QQ:  quotes to questions!

Quotes and questions to inspire change and provoke discussion. Subscribers in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., the Middle East & Asia are reading this week’s QQ.

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QQ:  The only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary. (Vidal Sasoon)

QQ:  Which page are you on?