Pets at Home make us feel really at home

I don't know if you have to visit many organisations as part of your job but I do. I'm always very sensitive to how I'm greeted when I arrive. Sometimes it's brilliant but all too often it's not. If you've read my book you'll know all about the importance of "The Four Minute Rule". Put simply this states if you get it wrong in the first four minutes then it's game over. For example, if you turn up at a hotel and there is no one around to check you in.

Well on Tues & Weds myself and Curly were at Pets at Home in Stoke running a two day in-house Presentation Mastery Workshop. Now quite rightly, because we are about to go on site, health and safety is taken very seriously. However, the guys who check us in and issue the safety istructions and security badges do so in a really warm and friendly manner (and the next day not only do they remember who we are but ask "How is it going?") "Excellent" thinks I but then again maybe you'd expect it from front desk people. Next we meet the delegates who in many cases are senior people within the business. Some have brilliant job titles like Flo Li who is Head of Pets (I once met a Creative Director of an International Ad Agency whose business card read - Creative Director of the World - and there was I thinking that was God). All of them are very welcoming and fighting over who gets to make us tea and throught out the next two days, because of their positive attitude and energy, we have a very enjoyable time with lots of laughter, plus they prove incredibily supportive of each other.

What's the secret in getting people to want to behave like this? The answer is not only do Pets at Home have posters everywhere displaying their values crucially they also live them. Below are the values and they underpin everything they do from recruitment to communication.

*It should be fun.
*We do what we say we'll do.
*We take pride in what we do.
*We work as a team.
*We get better every day.

So thanks Pets at Home for being such a great example of how to run a values first business especially during challenging times.

Above is Pippen, Curly's dog, wearing her very attractive jumper bought from Pets at Home.