The Business of Caring
Canadian home healthcare provider Nurse Next Door first showed up in the Purple Goldfish Project at #438. They had an interesting way of handling mistakes with customers. And let’s face it, we all make mistakes. It’s how you handle them that makes all the difference. In addition to sending a handwritten note, Nurse Next Door would also send a freshly baked apple pie to apologize. Literally, a humble pie.
Nurse Next Door has two unique green goldfish. The first is the flowerbucks program. As a core value driven organization, team members who demonstate the core values earn an in-house currency called “Flowerbucks.” Each quarter the company holds “Flowerbuck Auctions” to celebrate core value award winners and auction off prizes ranging from gift cards to iPads and even trips.
The second program involves focusing employees’ personal dreams. Nurse Next Door sits down with employees to uncover their goals. They’ve been able to support all sorts of dreams ranging from learning to sail, to learning a new language, buying a home or even travelling.
Both of these programs converged recently to make one really cool story. At a recent flowerbuck auction one of their employees ended up winning the trip because her co-workers gave her their flowerbucks. They did this because they learned her dream was to travel to South America and volunteer to teach English. All she needed was the airline ticket, so her coworkers donated their own flowerbucks.
Today’s Lagniappe (a little something extra thrown in for good measure) – Here’s a video of Julia’s story:
The examples in this post were taken from the Green Goldfish Project. The Project is a quest to find 1,001 examples of marketing lagniappe for employees. Green goldfish are the little signature extras given to employees. They help differentiate a company, reinforce culture, increase retention and drive positive WoM. The book, “What’s Your Green Goldfish?” will be published on March 29, 2013.
