I'm sure that all of my valued readers have heard the well-known and often used phrase that is the title of this article "Thinking outside the box", but what exactly does it mean, many may query? Well let me relay to you an incident that happened to me recently which prompted me to write this article.

My daughter picked up some items from a store for me on her way home from work one evening. Now one of the items was in a bottle and when I went to use it I noticed that the foil seal was broken and the contents of the bottle leaking, so the next day I called the store in question, which incidentally I have been a very good customer of since they first opened for business about 10 years ago. I said to the person who was in charge, that my daughter would stop by the next day after she left work and pick up another bottle which she would bring to me whilst collecting the damaged one, which she'd return the next day. This person then said, "That's a very unusual request". Incidentally, the reason for having my daughter collect the new bottle before returning the damaged one was because I live quite a distance past the store in question.

After some back and forth between the manager of the store and myself, she quite reluctantly agreed to do as I had requested, however, she said once more "That's a very unusual request". When I was relaying this to my daughter who works at a large International financial organization, she immediately said, in referring to the manager of the store "She needs to learn to think outside the box".

Yes, all business organizations have rules; have their procedures in place as to how they operate. However, every incident is not exactly the same and people have to use their intelligence and judgment to decide when to break the rules so to speak in order to keep a customer happy, particularly a really good customer thus ensuring that he or she returns again and again. It's simply a way of saying that you appreciate them and their business. This obviously requires thinking outside the box. o Think about it! Visit my website at: www.dpaulreilly.com. Listen to "Time to Think" the radio program on STAR 106.5 FM at 8:55 a.m. & 6:20 p.m.

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