Joanne is Walking Out of Friends, Literally

As some of you are aware, I'm on my holibags at the moment and apart from a pre planned call back to the office, I'm doing nothing bar lazing around and writing Blipfoto stories.

I came up with the title of todays story weeks ago however after having to deal with a few things that have "gone wrong" at our Villa, it got me thinking that perhaps the title should be "Customers and their problems, what's your view?"

If the answer is "they're a pain" I'm guessing your not in a customer facing environment. If you view their problem as an opportunity to speak to them, change their perception and have them come back for more, then I'd take that any day.

Let me start in the present and then I'll go back to Joanne Docherty, pictured above, right.

We arrived Thursday and enjoyed the first few days trouble free. Then on Saturday night as the young team rolled in around three in the morning, they noticed we'd had a power cut. We checked the fuse box and nothing appeared to have tripped and the surrounding villas had lights on, so it seemed to be just us and decided to get some sleep and report it in the morning.

The morning came and I flicked the switches again, just in case power had been restored, but it hadn't. So we called the number on the "who to call if you have a problem" page of the villa booklet and were told someone would be out to sort things out.

Result? Would appear so.

An hour later Zoey emerged from her basement quarters to inform me her toilet wasn't filling up. So another call was placed to report this new, issue or 'complaint'.

Shortly after, Mr "Internal" electrical guy arrived. He did what we had done and merely confirmed "yes, you have a problem" which we knew, and told us "it's outside, not inside which I cannot do".

It was at the point he informed us he was "for the off" and "someone else" would need to look at it that we switched from mild annoyance to "hold on, this is a problem now".

You see Zoey is a Type 1 Diabetic and insulin, to remain effective can't freeze, or over heat, so it's always kept in the fridge. A fridge that was now losing its 'cool' demeanour and was becoming a hot 'cupboard'. Now I'm not looking to be over dramatic here however hot weather also effects Diabetics in strange ways and makes a mockery of normal regimes, so you can't leave anything to chance, hence or increased level of annoyance.

This was solved by another quick phone call, explaining the 'potential' issue if hours were to pass and having understood our concern then within thirty minutes the "outside" electricity man visited and sorted the problem. Our bit of the main board had blown apparently?

So that was a very positive experience which was then ruined when the Rep popped in and asked how things were going.

We explained how well the electricity issue had been dealt with, however we still had the toilet issue. Given it was now 19:00 at night, we suspected it would be the morning before it was sorted, which we could live with. However the Rep left us flabbergasted when she said "if no one comes tomorrow, just take some water from the pool and flush it!" Erm, how about NAW, how about you get it sorted.

Can you see the subtle change in my demeanour based on someones view of how to treat my problem?

Result? Not impressed

Fast forward to this morning when we notice the power cut must have knocked out the pool system as it wasn't heating. So I was up for a battle when I phoned "the people you call if you have a problem" this time I spoke to someone different who had both problems sorted within a few hours..

Result? Impressed and back on track.

If Joanne is reading this, she knows where I'm going with this and probably laughing as she reads it.

Joanne, a first time walker, registered for The Kiltwalk back in February and we got off to a great start. Joanne wanted to change registration details for someone she'd registered and could no longer make it and we said "absolutely not a problem".

Result? She was delighted and couldn't wait to meet us on the day.

Now fast forward Joanne to April 17th, four days before our first event of the year and Joanne's first ever Kiltwalk, yes four days before, how unorganised is that?

I mean the buses, that we put on free of charge, were full to the brim and we'd told Alison at our end to say "sorry guys we have been emailing for weeks, and when the buses are full, the buses are full".

So surely everyone knew didn't they? Surely it was just Joanne's inability to organise?

Result? She wisnae happy and here's why.

What Joanne had been busy doing was training, arranging childcare, raising money and replacing others who had said they were walking, but now weren't and Joanne was keen to make sure as many people as possible were talking part to raise money for The Kiltwalk.

But of course, like Zoey and her insulin issue, we didn't know or think of any of that!! Furthermore, if you weren't reading emails and just going by the website, it said "buses back to Glasgow" and didn't mention any limit.

So we contacted Joanne and she explained her situation and we explained ours where ours was we put the buses on free of charge, but they're paid as a Kiltwalk Expense. Joanne was mortified and apologised. But she was right and we now realised we had not made it clear in every area of communication.

So the answer was simple, we put on another bus. In fact we put on another three!!

Result? Well it should have been, but talk about shooting yourself in the foot!!

Guess who we forgot to confirm this back to? Yip Oor Joanne as she's now known.

Result? an 'incoming' email on the Friday lambasting us (quite right too) and a post on her own Facebook page saying this was most definitely her first and last, repeat LAST Kiltwalk EVER.

So we talked somemore, found out her story and kept an eye her and waited and 'watched' to see what happened next.

Turns out she LOVED her Kiltwalk experience, or so she said on her Facebook page (or so the Kiltwalk Police told us).

In fact not only did she love it, it was also one of the best days of her life. In fact not only did she love it and not only was it one of the best days of her life, she was volunteering to help out if needed and promised to be back again in 2014 with an even bigger team.

So all's well that ends well . . . except that wasn't the end!!

In fact it wasn't even close to the end. It was just the end of the beginning as what happened next is remarkable.

While stalking, sorry casting an eye over Joanne's Facebook page one Friday night I identified two themes emanating from her page. The first was she was beginning to utter things like "The Hampden Kiltwalk was so good I'm getting Kiltwalk withdrawals, I wish I was doing the Edinburgh one".

The other thing that was becoming obvious was Joanne was having "a Friday night tipple".

Now as Linda McKeitch will tell you, I have previous Friday night "form". In Linda's case I knew Friday was Vodka night and at around 23:00 secured Linda and her husband Ronnie on their first Kiltwalk back in 2011. They loved it so much, they returned to do the 2012 walk and this year, are taking part in the Speyside event.

So Linda won't be surprised to hear I secured Joanne's registration for the Edinburgh Kiltwalk on a "drinking night". However she's clearly been to negotiation school, as it there were 'conditions' to meet.

The first was she had to find someone to walk with, which was solved by roping in another one of her friends, Karen Adair, who signed up at the first time of asking.

The second was a cracker. I had to help her increase the £750 she had already raised, to £1,000 before registrations closed. We did this and more thanks to the help of Oor wonderful walkers.

So Karen (pictured left) and Joanne took part in the Edinburgh walk and this picture was taken at the end as they both enjoyed a well deserved Cider.

With two events down and The Kiltwalk bug gripping Joanne more than she would ever have imagined, she knew what was going to happen next.

First of all there was 'me' who threw down the gauntlet of going for Kiltwalk number three, but yet again there was the dilemma of who would walk with her, because as the title says, she was literally 'walking out of friends'.

With Karen unable to walk, or any of her Hampden friends up for a second, there was only one person left to turn to and that was Emma Jane Murdoch, who jumped at the chance of a weekend away in Speyside, sorry I mean a chance to walk for Scotland's Children and signed up like a shot.

However getting Joanne back on board didn't really have anything to do with me. You see Joanne had already been smitten by five year old Aine Farrer, whose team "Aine's Journey" were all over the Edinburgh Kiltwalk raising much needed funds for Aine and Edinburgh Sick Kids.

If you want to read Aine's story then read our Blipfoto here http://www.blipfoto.com/entry/2897824

It's a great effort from Joanne and all her diminishing friends and I think we're agreed she's a marvellous nutter taking on all of these Kiltwalks, where I'm sure she'll match Oor Elaine in walking all five Kiltwalks :-)

It would be great to think Joanne was just that, a nutter who loves to raise money for Scotland's Kids, however there is a serious side to all of this crazy activity and Joanne has a long history of fundraising having taken part in 10K runs in aid of Yorkhill Children's Charity.

You see Joanne's wee brother David was born with a hole in the heart and heart valves that were round the wrong way. He had two operations scheduled at Yorkhill and came through the first one fine as he was a strong wee thing. Unfortunately the second, more serious operation, wasn't a success and his wee body just couldn't cope and passed away at only 4 weeks old.

Joanne, was only 12 years old at the time but despite her young age she always remembers the nurses and how kind they were to her and her family and she promised that when she was "grown up" she would work as hard as she could, to raise money for children that have suffered or are suffering in David's memory.

I'm sure we all agree that given some of the antics she gets up to, there's a debate to be had about her ability to call herself "grown up". However one thing that's not in doubt is she has been true to her word and is achieving great things with her fund raising efforts.

So what has all of this story been all about?

I guess that without trying to sound like a preacher, it's to take a moment to try and understand why someone is so upset, angry or dissappointed with you, rather than launching a volly back straight away.

Quite often if you talk to people and explain your situation and understand theres, good will always come of it.

What good has come from this?

Well we've now got a fervent Kiltwalk supporter and ambassador in Joanne. While we have the satisfaction on knowing we're helping her fulfil her promise to her wee brother David,