A lot of the tension in our lives and the world is based on mistrust and a lack of empathy. Sometimes it is understandable, sometimes it’s unfathomable. On a macro-level, we are all aware that a certain major world power is responding to some of its own fear and lack of trust and empathy through aggression.
It seems kind of crass and superfluous to write anything about business and customer service at the moment, but at the same time to discuss the feelings of trust and empathy on a smaller, micro-level is where we have to begin.
To think about two well-known quotes, ‘From small acorns, mighty oaks grow', and Mahatma Gandhi’s, ‘Be the change you want to see in the world’, suggests to us that we have to start somewhere. We have to adopt these practices of trust and empathy to cultivate a feeling of safety at a human level so that they can unconsciously become part of our lives daily.
It’s something we certainly look to instil at The Graphical Tree on all levels. Peer to peer and as a service provider. Throughout the company we always try to encourage trust in one another and to hopefully have empathy to the needs of those around us, therefore being supportive when needed. While we have a set of company guidelines from our ISO management practices, we encourage staff to make their own decisions – because we believe in their experience on a personal and industry level. It's never been part of our ethos or set-up, but we know that Micro-managing just isn't needed – we know that staff have the best interests of the project, the customer and the company at heart. There's always someone they can call on for opinion or advice, from any level of colleague, or a supplier network we ourselves trust because of their own years of experience within the industry.
Not only do we believe in staff trust, but we also want to explicitly show that you the customer can trust us too. We’re not hiding being a website wall with automated customer service bots - you’re welcome to come in, call us or email. You’ll speak to a person, and that person is likely to be your contact throughout all the stages of your enquiry and job.
Many of you have been, and probably still are, either completely working from home or in a hybrid work routine. Either way, knowing that you can trust The Graphical Tree will go a long way to ease the apprehension and stress of handing over a project to a supplier and worrying that all goes well during its production process. And although there might be a physical distance that wasn’t there before the pandemic due to working away from ‘the office’, one that wouldn’t perhaps allow you to brief us in for a job physically, or be on-site at an important moment, you trust that we’re understanding of this situation and can be available to help on multiple levels regarding a jobs undertaking - from brief to installation.
By us offering a relaxed, safe and professional environment for staff and customers – we’re not ones for incivility – we can do our bit for peace, harmony and the reduction of stress on a basic fundamental level. There’s enough of that in the world already. Building solid, friendly customer relationships, from the foundation of our own internal peer to peer relationships, helps to it make the working environment that bit easier.
Hopefully, these last few years has made us more aware that playing our part for the wellness of all is an endeavour that is well worth undertaking.
