439 training reviews
20 years in business
Call us on: 01457 858 877
Here are some of the things which most irritate us, and how we avoid them:
| Irritant | How we avoid it |
|---|---|
| Pestering | If you've made an enquiry, we assume that you're adult enough to follow it up yourself if interested. So you won't get streams of emails or phone calls asking you if you've made a decision yet. Please don't misinterpret this as lack of interest - we're just treating you as we like to be treated ourselves. |
| Ethical trading | Not many companies are unambiguously evil, but tobacco companies must come close. We do not accept work from tobacco companies. |
| Sales people | One of the things we dread about enquiring about any service is getting a pushy salesperson, who'll do anything to get commission (in Borat in Kazakhstan this memorably included negotiating the number of gypsies that a particular car could kill at different speeds). We don't employ sales staff, and don't offer commission - if you ring us you'll get a Wise Owl doing his or her best to give you honest advice. |
| Aggressive invoicing | You know the scenario - you book a service or buy something, and the invoice arrives by return of post. We fervently believe that you shouldn't have to pay an invoice until after you've received our training - then you've got a chance to dispute payment if you're not happy. Invoicing in advance for goods or services not received is just really bad manners. |
| Automated phone lines | BT must be the worst offenders, but everyone's doing it … except us. When you call Wise Owl, you'll get a human at the other end of the line between 9.30 and 5pm about 99.9% of the time (in the rare event that all 3 of our lines are busy, you'll get an answering machine). You won't get an automated message system; we don't have one. |
| Waste | We were fanatically recycling waste long before it became fashionable. We take all our cardboard and plastic to Houghton's in Audenshaw (they are open to the public), and our paper, plastic bottles, tins and cans to the local Tesco. We don't have company cars as a policy, just one shared pool car (Billy the Honda). All of our training centres are deliberately in city centres, to encourage people attending to travel by public transport. We don't, however, have a long printed and bound environmental policy - why waste paper? |
| Junk mail | Whether it arrives by email or by post, junk email is the scourge of modern life. We send out 2-3 email newsletters each year, when we have time. If someone asks to be removed from our mailing list, we do it immediately, acknowledge by email and then never send that person general emails again. Oh, and we would never, ever, ever give out your details to anyone else. Ever. |