“I knew Walfinch had a great reputation, which carries weight when you are talking to people”

Greg Renk, Walfinch franchisee for mid and south Buckinghamshire, chats business, burgers and going beyond expectations

If you had been in hospital for weeks, what is the one thing you’d ask for when you got home? A good book and a hot bath? A home-cooked meal perhaps? For one lady in the care of Greg Renk’s Walfinch team, it was Mcdonald’s. 

“We had been caring for a lady in her 70s for some months when she went into hospital for three weeks,” Greg explains. “She was very concerned about her dog Peachy, so while she was in hospital, our carers checked her house every day and took Peachy out for a walk – in their own time.

“The day she was discharged, the carers went to help her settle back in. The fridge was stocked, and she was delighted to get back to a clean house and a happy Peachy, but when the carers asked if there was anything else she wanted, she said: ‘I’d love a McDonald’s!’”

So, after a quick visit to the drive-thru, she was delighted. When hearing this story for the first time, Greg’s reaction was not just amusement. “I was so proud of my care team for going the extra mile to make her homecoming so happy,” he says.

And this is not just a one-off occurrence, Greg explains how his team specialise in this sort of thing. He explains: “We have been looking after a lady who has dementia, and though she has lived in England for 30 years, she has recently started to revert to her native language, which was making it hard for our carers when they wanted to remind her to take her dinner out of the microwave or ensure she filled her kettle before trying to make a drink.

“The carers came up with the idea of ‘prompt cards’ which had an English word on one side and the word in her native language on the other, made with the aid of translation software. Now if she does not understand their message in English, they show her the card with her own language on it. She beams whenever they do it.”

After being left wanting with the care his mother received, Greg launched his Walfinch franchise in 2020.

His previous experience as a consultant in the care sector left him no doubt which company to choose. “I knew Walfinch had a great reputation, which carries weight when you are talking to people, so when I wanted my own care business, I knew which franchise to choose,” he says.