All businesses and their leaders at one point or another have situations they are not proud of. It is how they respond that marks them out as truly customer-focused from those, who merely pay lip service to or are visibly disinterested in their customers, at the extreme.

My local Virgin Active gymn experience in Chelsea has suffered from 12 years of inadequate capital expenditure (current and past ownership) and a revolving door for those managing the place. The nadir this past week (mould, machines under repair, whole facilities “out of order”) moved me to contact Robert Cook, Managing Director via email. To his credit, I had a call to my mobile phone within 5 minutes apologising for the unacceptable standards, letting me know immediate corrective action and appropriate investment is happening this month.

In a world where social media offers an instant platform for venting our feelings but rarely a meaningful improvement in our lives, it is nice to see a leader leading, attuned to the needs of his customers and willing to do something instantly about their inconvenience.