As the saying goes, if you don’t take care of your customers, someone else will.

Amway Hong Kong is clearly taking care of customer service, as our affiliate was recently honored by not just one but two organizations for outstanding service. 

Amway was named a “2010 Service Retailer of the Year” by the Mystery Shoppers Programme of the Hong Kong Retail Management Association.  Mystery shoppers visited Amway Hong Kong’s merchandising centers and judged our service in nine key areas. 

And Amway Hong Kong also has earned ISO 9001:2008 accreditation for achieving world-class service standards for after-sale services, home delivery and shop delivery for the eSpring Water Purifier.

Satisfying customers is our goal.  This recognition tells us we’re on our way to achieving it.

What do you know about the businesses in your backyard? We asked college students from our home town to answer the following questions:

1. What company employs more than 13,000 people worldwide?

2. What company holds 900 granted patents worldwide with another 820 pending?

3. What company’s global cause has impacted more than 7 million children worldwide through it’s One by One Campaign for Children?

4. What $8.4 billion company started with a handshake between two friends?

5. What company manufactures more than 450 products in the areas of nutrition, wellness, beauty and home care?

If you’re a life-long West Michigander like myself, you may have guessed “Amway,” but for many Millennials, Amway isn’t one of the first companies that comes to mind. That’s why here in West Michigan, we’re participating in a variety of community events that allow us to engage with a new generation of people who may not be familiar with the Amway business or our brands. One of those events is this weekend’s 131 Showdown featuring the men’s and women’s basketball teams from two local universities.

Watch this video to hear the answers students gave to our questions. And keep an eye out on the Interns Expose Amway blog for some behind the scenes footage from our roving reporter at the 131 Showdown.

More than 450 products carry the Amway name and every day, there’s work underway on new ones and improvements to those we already offer.

Ideas for those products come from scientists, researchers, marketers, Amway distributors, customers and other great minds. And many are brought to life at our Rapid Prototyping Center.

Mike Kelly, senior scientist for Durables Research and Development at Amway, says his job is to listen to people’s ideas and take them from a sketch or artist’s rendering to a 3D computer model and finally, to a working prototype.

“We think of ourselves as artisans. We build beautiful, functional things,” Mike explained. “We put a lot of attention to detail into every piece, even if it will end up inside of a product like an eSpring Water Purifier, where it will never be seen once it’s assembled.”

We do a lot of  prototyping on-site, including machining, casting, and even labeling. We have help from machines, such as a Selective Laser Sintering one that uses a laser to melt nylon powder into the models we need. We work with pliable materials; rigid materials; we can paint; stain; drill; create in a variety of colors.

When we need help, we partner with the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE), a center for excellence in rapid prototyping. We’re part of a consortium with companies like Kohler and Harley Davidson that collaborate with MSOE on the science and practice of rapid prototyping.

Sometimes multiple prototypes are developed for a single product.  For Artistry Crème Luxury/Creme LX, Mike says the lab created 22 iterations of the packaging,  including everything from the miniature spatula to the retail display case.   They were very proud of the results.

And so are we,  just as we are of our Rapid Prototyping Center –  the birthing center for Amway ideas.

You usually don’t hear our Nutrilite brand mentioned in the same company as luxury fashion brands like Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Rolex.

But that’s exactly what happened when Nutrilite was cited as one of the top global brands in Korea by Segye.com last month.  

Our Nutrilite brand may be more comfortable on the farm than on the runway.  

But then again, optimal health is always in fashion.

If you’re a fan of the AC Milan soccer team, I’m guessing you already know they scored two goals last night in their match with Cesena in Milan. But as a fan you may or may not know about the goal that went into the net after the game. NUTRILITE and Amway announced last night that they would continue the Goal by Goal Campaign in support of the AC Milan Foundation. Amway Area manager Fabrizio Suaria presented the AC Milan Foundation with a check for US $85,000, a total that represents the 34 goals scored in the first half of the season. Star player Pato accepted the check on behalf of the team and the foundation.

And now that the second half of the season has begun, every time an AC Milan player scores a goal NUTRILITE and Amway will donate US $2500 to the foundation. The money raised will fund the construction of a multi-purpose sports center for children in a depressed, at risk area of Naples, Italy.

Over the past three years the Goal by Goal campaign, as part of Amway’s One by One Campaign for Children, has donated US $250,000 to the AC Milan Foundation.

NUTRILITE is a premier sponsor of the AC Milan soccer team and our scientists work directly with MilanLab’s scientists to provide nutritional consulting and supplementation choices to players on the team.

It’s becoming clear to me how influential the AC Milan soccer team is. Because, really, if you know something about soccer, you know AC Milan. And if you know something about vitamins and nutrition, you know, and “like”, NUTRILITE.

Editor’s Note:  This post was originally published on the Interns Expose Amway blog.

Former intern, and managing editor of this blog, Leah Zuber reflects on her experience at Amway.

Miss me?

Thought so. Sam, the new managing editor of this blog, asked if I would write a post about my life since interning at Amway, and I said, “of course!”

I received a job at my alma mater about 110 days ago. Although I truly miss Amway and the people I worked with, I love my new job in higher education public relations. My responsibilities include writing for different publications, managing and monitoring online content, and keeping in tune with digital media trends and networks.

As a former Amway intern, the list of skills, behaviors and values I learned is endless, but I’ve highlighted four that really stand out, and ones that I believe have helped me get to where I am now:

• Connect. Connect online, connect in person, connect anywhere. Make an effort to meet people outside of your normal circle. And once you make a connection with someone, build that professional relationship.
• Converse. If there’s one thing I’m always trying to improve upon is effectively contributing to conversations and sharing my ideas. When I began my internship it was difficult, but once I became more comfortable, I learned that people are very open to new ideas and suggestions, even from the “newbie” or intern.
• Always strive. To do your best. To ask questions. That list is endless.
• Be interested. If you have a passion and are truly interested in something, then success will follow. Ever hear that saying?

Ok, I lied. There’s one more.

• Listen. Listen. And listen some more. This behavior becomes very important in a professional setting where ideas and opinions are being shared on a continuous basis. I’ve learned that some situations just require open ears and attentiveness.

These are behaviors, skills and tips I picked up on during my time at Amway. What are some you learned during an internship or at a job?

It’s that time of the year, when New Year’s resolutions start to be forgotten and gyms become less and less crowded. But not here at Amway World Headquarters.

To help our employees keep those resolutions, Amway’s Optimal You wellness program hosted a fitness open house offering information, healthy cooking demonstrations and advice from Nutrilite and Artistry experts.

Optimal You has also issued a Total Minute Challenge to our Ada-based employees, encouraging them to complete 900 minutes of fitness activities in six weeks. We’re also offering on-site health screenings to help our employees identify possible health risks.

With an on-site fitness center open 24/7 and all these programs, all our employees need to meet those New Year’s resolutions is the resolve!

Editor’s Note: This blog post originally appeared on the Amway Answers blog.

My grandmother is 92 years old. Although she lives in the dollar-using United States of America, she still says “Look after the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves.” My mom, who never dealt in British currency, prefers, “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

No matter your idiom of preference, there is always a time to save and a time to spend.

We are a company that lives and breathes entrepreneurship. A few of our online critics have accused us of turning a blind eye to training our distributors about the expenses involved in starting, managing and growing a successful Amway business. We take issue with that.

Training new distributors to track, manage and even lessen the expenses related to their Amway businesses is important to us. Without giving too much away, here’s how we do it:

• Millions of Amway distributors have free access to a state-of-the-art, multi million dollar sales training program. Some courses are delivered in person; others online via the largest electronic Learning Management System we’ve ever had. The content in some courses comes directly from Amway; other content is delivered by people who sponsor others into the Amway business.
• One of the courses offered is “Basic Business Administration,” covering financial management and offering a number of easy-to-use templates.
• One of the templates we provide is an accounting journal for logging all financial transactions. We encourage distributors to record everything. We show examples of expenses, like purchasing catalogs and samples; making photocopies for a sponsorship meeting; paying for gasoline or cab fares; and even paying for their home Internet service.
• We are constantly developing new tools and courses. One of our newest, Analyzing Your Business, is a full-blown workshop designed to help distributors understand every aspect of their business. A big part of this? Entering and studying financial data – including expenses!
• We encourage distributors to take a close look at the profitability of their business; to compare different scenarios of spending and structuring to grow their businesses; and to find ways to reduce their biggest expenditures.

Good financial management can make a big difference between a successful Amway business and an unsuccessful one. We want all distributors to be successful, which includes being profitable.

That “blind eye” doesn’t exist. In fact, we’ve got a magnifying glass out – promoting and constantly improving on this category of training.

Suat Eman and FreeDigitalPhotos.net provided the magnifying glass image.

The achievements of exceptional Indian women were center stage last week at the  India Today Woman Summit & Awards in Mumbai, presented by Amway.

The summit featured big name speakers like Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi and Marianne Pearl, widow of slain journalist Daniel Pearl.  But the real stars were the winners of the India Today Woman Awards – 12 women representing the arts, business, sports, public service and social activism.  Amway India sponsored the “Woman of the Year” and “Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year” honors.

The event was created, in the words of India Today Group Editor in Chief Aroon Purie, to “not only acknowledge the contribution of these women but…also allow the newer generation of women, to learn, share and experience what it takes to be the best.” 

And that’s something we’re proud to support.

Beauty on the go? There’s an app for that!

Introducing the beautycycle™ Skincare Recommender, now available on iTunes.

Find your element, and reveal your beauty. Discover a new approach to skincare and colour that captures the power of the elements in five complete collections – air, water, earth, fire, and colour – to care for skin’s ever-changing needs and reveal your beauty in the most elemental way.

What’s your element? Answer a few simple questions to determine the elements that work for your skin with beautycycle skincare, exclusively from Amway.