CSR is also collegiality

 

When Customer Service plans a meeting outside the company, who stands in for the department? Their colleagues in Sales of course! On 17 December, the Sales department showed us that their hearts are in the right place. That too is Corporate Social Responsibility.

 

For the first time in years, the entire customer service team attended a meeting outside the company in the week prior to Christmas. As the first snow storms caught the whole country unawares, twelve of our colleagues made their way to Eindhoven by train. There they were to be given an interesting tour of the ICSE (International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility). Then they were brought up to date with our current CSR policy and the objectives for 2010.

 

Sandra de Laat, our Customer Service Manager, explains that her staff can't simply all take a day off and leave the department unmanned. ‘That was a problem initially. I asked our field sales colleagues if they could perhaps help us out. I received a lot of enthusiastic and spontaneous reactions. The boys simply said: we'll come in and man the department! We'll take care of everything, so just go!’ At the end of the day, almost everybody in Sales came in to help. ‘It all went very well,’ says Sandra. ‘I don't think our customers noticed the change very much at all.’ Our field sales colleagues mainly handled the incoming emails, telephone calls and post. ‘We didn't let them loose on order entry as we would have had to train them first,’ says Sandra with a laugh.

 

Corporate Social Responsibility means that we place equal emphasis on People, Planet and Profit in all our operational activities. The term People means that we place appropriate priority on human aspects both inside and outside our company. Mutual respect is an important element here. How do we treat each other? How do we treat our customers and vendors? ‘Our field sales colleagues made it possible for us to go to a meeting outside the company,’ says Sandra. ‘That allowed us to distance ourselves from our day-to-day activities and think about the new year.’ 2010 looks good, Customer Service will focus on further development and professionalization. ‘We want to continually improve the service we offer our customers and provide increased support for field sales. It's a step by step process.’

 

The day ended with the annual sales Christmas dinner. A tradition that was originally started by former salesman Maurits Valk, who cooks for all the sales staff. He is now assisted by Gerard Kraaijeveld who took over his job two years ago. That too is CSR.