There are a few things that drive me mad (all first world problems I know):

Any episode of Friends; pay day lenders charging ‘000% APR to borrow £1 but calling themselves ‘Happy/ Fluffy/ Smiley’to try and mask the fact that they are just loan sharks; Trade Unions who tell me that they are taking industrial action because of the lack of work life balance for their workers as my schlep to the office takes an additional 2 hours; people who say ‘pacific’ when they mean ‘specific’ and lazy journalism.

On the last point, I just counted the BT Sports team use the word ‘great’ half a dozen times to describe a set of passes, a shot and a goal - a goal that will be forgotten tomorrow by all but the most ardent of supporters.

Now I could live with great being used to describe Paul Gascoigne scoring for England against Scotland in Euro ‘96 or Michael Thomas charging through the middle with the last kick of the last game of the season to beat Liverpool 2 – 0 and win the league for the Arsenal in 1989 but frankly, the word ‘great’ is being overused in today’s parlance.

Typing in what great means online you get the following - an adjective describing

extent, amount, or intensity, considerably above average

Clearly the last three words are key to the definition made all the harder as we have different interpretations of what above average means. For me great means I will remember the episode and still converse about it days/ weeks/ months/ years later.

I was recently asked what great customer service means and in answering I recalled something that happened to me 4 years ago whilst on holiday in Turkey --- something that I still regale even to this day.

I like to swim on holiday and so before anyone else is up, I go down to the pool and swim. There is nothing quite like an empty pool when the sun is rising and the temperature is cool. I love it, I switch off and relax. One such morning, I was ploughing up and down when my Zoggs Predator goggles split at the bridge of the nose. Suddenly, everything went from crystal clear and transparent to blurry and painful. I was gutted.

I immediately, looked up Zoggs online – an Australian company who specialise in getting people of all shapes and sizes (kids to adults) into the pool. I found out the CEO’s details (Mark Hammersley) and then wrote him a message on Linked In. I explained what had happened and how disappointed I was.

Within an hour, Mark had come back himself (not his Customer Service Head or Executive Relations team). He apologised and asked for the address where I was staying in Turkey as he would ship a pair out to me. Now that part was considerably above the average and way beyond the call of duty. I replied back and within 48 hours, I owned a new pair of Zoggs Predator goggles. It probably cost Mark more to courier the goggles to me than the goggles themselves.

So great for me is a word that should be seldom used. It describes something that is way above the ordinary with the litmus paper test being whether I still tell people about it now.

Bravo to Mark and also to his company – I won’t chose another brand ever, I have also bought my son and daughter Zoggs kit for the pool and have told hundreds of people I know about this story.

Let’s not overuse the word great (especially the lazy BT Sport journalists) – but save it for those special occasions when someone just goes the extra mile and makes you go ‘that really was great’.