In Pursuit of Paint: Barbara Sowden

Accomplishing a milestone this year Barbara Sowden, Technical Support Agent in the Technical Advisory Department has reached 11 years at PPG.

Barbara has had many achievements along the way as well. Described by her colleagues as someone who goes above and beyond to help customers in difficult situations, she works through requests in a professional manor putting herself in customer's position.

Most notably Barbara pushed her helpful service the extra mile to find the best possible solution for a once unhappy customer who was disappointed by the results of one of our paint products. Barbara received a call from a customer who was upset to find that the floor paint they had purchased had begun to flake and lift off after application. Despite efforts to explain how the situation can come about from improper use and offering replacement paint tins out of a gesture of goodwill, the story did not come to an end.

As Barbara attempted to request replacement tins at the customers nearest store she discovered that unfortunately his nearest Johnstones Decorating Centre did not have the correct paint in stock at the time. So, Barbara went further, knowing that the customer was already upset she couldn't stand to let the customer down again and she made it her ambition to secure the customer a replacement. She made calls to several Decorating Centres until she was able to locate and pin-point where exactly she could order the paint product.

After discovering which facility held the specific paint tins, she then organised it to be delivered to the customer's local Decorating Centre. Through-out the entire process Barbara reassured the customer by tracking the journey of the paint and sharing with them the updates on the products location. As all hard work pays off in the end, the paint tin eventually reached the customer. With delight the customer had his paint delivered to him and was extremely grateful for Barbara's expertise and technical advice.

The customer was so impressed by Barbara's dedication that they then declared themselves an advocate for our brands. If you have a story like Barbara's or you know someone in your team that deserves some recognition, contact the PPG People team here and we’ll be in touch soon!