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Asda Perth colleague Matthew, who’s worked at the store for 12 years, regularly receives compliments and praise for his cheerful personality and willingness to help – and some shoppers will queue at his till just so they can be served by him.
Mary Needs is just one of the customers who appreciates Matthew’s help. She took to Facebook to praise him, saying: “The staff at Asda Perth are all lovely, but there is one young man, Matthew, who is very good with all customers, especially with his regular customers. He knows everyone of them by their name. He’s never ever grumpy or without a huge smile.
“l once said to Matthew you always have a smile and kind words. His reply was ‘We all have enough problems to stress about you so don’t need to see any when you are out for your shopping.”
Matthew, who’s 38, says he’s delighted to hear he’s making his customers happy, but insists he’s just doing his job.
He said: “My philosophy is that it’s nice to be nice – not just because it’s part and parcel of my job, but because it’s the way I live my life. If you are nice to people they will be nice to you too, making everyone happy. And we all need a little extra happiness at the moment, don’t we?
“I like to treat everyone as an individual and give them time and give them my services as long as I know they’re in the mood to chat. If they feel a bit down I like to say something encouraging or warm because then they might think it’s not just them going through it.”
The store’s customer trading manager Alastair Jaffary says the store have received countless compliments about Matthew’s friendly nature.
He said: “Our customers think the world of him. They will queue up just to go to his till.
“He knows them all by name and he knows what’s going on in their lives. He will know what he spoke to them about when they came in last time. He’s got a brilliant memory.
“It’s great especially at the moment when people need to talk as many will be perhaps on their own at home. Matthew may be the only person to talk to that day and seeing him is the highlight of their day.
“The personal touch from Matthew is the sort of thing that does make our customers come back to do their shopping.”
Matthew says he hopes his friendly service makes a difference to customers.
“Each customer I serve might know ten other people and if I can help make their shopping experience a happy one they might tell some of those people about it,” he said. “I know customers have a lot of choice, so never take their loyalty for granted.
“I really do love my job. It’s the people that make it, and no two days are ever the same. I love the people I work with and I love serving our customers and seeing them leave looking happy.
“The store’s the heart of the community – not only do we serve people from the city but also from the villages and surrounding area – so I think it’s important to be interested in people.”
Asda Perth GeneralStore manager Ian McMullan said: “Matthew is a true ambassador of service for our store and regularly gets customer compliments.
“He always makes a point of getting to get to know as many customers as possible. He is a passionate colleague who makes some of our elderly customers’ day as he is the only person some of them speak to in a day. Under lockdown he has a new joke a day for all his customers and colleagues.”
