There’s a rumour that British entrepreneur James Dyson, inventor of the ‘ContraRotator’ washing machine, actually owns a pair of Miele Little Giants…but that’s not what this story is about.
Liz Dyson is no relation to James but is an entrepreneur in her own right, having taken on the huge challenge of turning around Deansfield Residential Care Home in rural Shropshire from certain closure to ‘Outstanding’ in the opinion of the CQC.
Having learned many early hard lessons in the unscrupulous ways that some equipment providers ply their trade, Liz approached Miele when she needed a replacement Professional dishwasher for Deansfield’s kitchen. In turn, Miele connected her with her local partner, Multibrand.
When I visited Liz for the first time, I discovered something a bit special. Nestling in the beautiful Shropshire countryside, Deansfield is home to a small number of residents living with dementia; it’s also home to chickens and hens, dogs, guinea pigs, goats and a pair of alpacas. Not your average Care Home then. But there’s nothing remotely average about Liz either. Deansfield glows with the warmth of her personality and it’s a sunny, happy place, whatever the weather is doing outside.
Liz’s brief to me when we discussed her dishwashing dilemmas prior to my visit was simple: “Tell me what we need!” Over a cup of tea, we talked over how Deansfield was struggling to manage their washing up between a big sink and a tank dishwasher and I witnessed this in action for myself. I immediately saw that a Miele Professional Freshwater machine would resolve all the issues. The promise of fast cycles, high temperatures, spotless performance and everything dry at the end was music to Liz’s ears as she could see how changing to a Miele Freshwater machine would work.
But promises are one thing, results are another. So I invited Liz down to the Experience Centre at Miele’s UK headquarters in Abingdon. And instructed her to bring the worst of her crockery to put her potential new dishwasher to the test. She had not expected this but jumped at the chance to ‘try before you buy’.
I could write reams about our day at the Experience Centre; how Liz kept exclaiming, “I never expected this!”, how her tea-stained cups came up like new once put through the PG8059 Hygiene model, how we gave her all the information she needed in a zero-pressure environment to allow her to decide how to proceed but I won’t. Instead, let’s just say that Liz was so pleased with everything she saw that she ordered her new Miele dishwasher the next day.
That was over a year ago (we’ve just carried out the first annual service check on the dishwasher) and Deansfield have become a regular Multibrand customer. Since our first meeting in 2017, we’ve have been on hand to answer any questions that have arisen with regards to laundry or dishwashing and have also helped Liz redesign her laundry room (with Miele appliances of course). She describes this improved facility as “Amazing!”
Well, you can’t say fairer than that can you?
You can read Deansfield’s CQC report below – they’re still Outstanding and in our opinion, always will be.
https://www.carehome.co.uk/carehome.cfm/searchazref/10002518DEAA
