Customer Service “When it rains, I let it.”

“When it rains, I let it.” This is a statement is contributed to a 113 year old man when someone ask him what was the secret to his longevity. It is a simple premise, “don’t sweat the small stuff” is a currently popular saying, followed up with “and it’s all small stuff.” But how often do we sweat the small stuff, or try and stop the rain?

We have all worried about things that are really out of our control when we stop and be honest about everything. Most of us began with worrying about little things like will he or she like me, will I find a good job, will I make a lot of money? At the time they were all valid question. But as we grow and mature we realize these things are not as important as happiness.

Eleanor Roosevelt is credited with saying “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” What a profound comment in my opinion. We chose the path of life we take when it comes to our happiness. If we chose to be a happy person it is because we stepped out in our mind and made the decision we deserved to be happy.

What does any of this have to do with customer service? Simple, if your customers see you’re happy to see them and your excitement to work for them they will come back because it made them happy! It was a pleasant experience! If you have an unhappy experience are you likely to repeat that situation? When it comes to customer service it depends on how we were treated. If you’re problem is acknowledged and dealt with a positive attitude it will turn the experience around and make it a positive one.

I was recently in a business to have service done to my vehicle. Now I was out of town so returning to this location is highly unlikely. However, I didn’t have an unfavorable experience. The customer in front of me did. He parked his vehicle and came into the lobby area and asked for the manager. He was informed the young lady behind the counter was the manager by an employee that happen to be in the lobby. This customer was dissatisfied with the attitude presented by the young lady behind the counter. This is where things went terribly wrong. The employee that happen to be in the lobby cut the customer off prior to the customer being able to express his feelings and be heard. The young man, while meaning well, stopped the gentlemen from speaking handing him a customer comment card and said just fill this out and it will be sent to the district manager. The customer wasn’t done. The employee left the lobby and the young lady behind the counter had as well left, leaving one person behind the counter, the real manager. She was there trying to paint the area behind the counter. She politely listen to the customer express his displeasure with the other young lady that he was told was the manager and assured her he would not be returning.

Now I sat there thinking of what went wrong here and how would have I handled it differently? I did not witness the young lady present a negative attitude toward the customer. But I did witness the negative reaction to the customer wanting to complain. Later as I was checking out the real manager told the young lady she wasn’t worried about that guy, he was just most likely in a bad mood. Maybe, but that discussion should have not taken place in front of me. And the employee that cut the customer off from being able to express his displeasure compounded the situation but not allowing the customer the voice to be heard.

The real manager did not offer to the customer the satisfaction of knowing the young lady would be counseled in her negative attitude. She reply was "Well, I am sorry." As I said if the young lady really had a negative attitude I don’t know. But as we have heard many times, the customer is always right.

In my mind it would have taken less effort to turn this situation around and kept the customer a customer. Allow the customer to speak and be heard. Assure the customer the situation will be handled.

Instead they tried to stop the rain when the customer complained. They put up a defensive umbrella and shielded themselves from the rain. So when you see the cloud darkening and you know it’s going to rain, let it. If you deal with it correctly it will help your plants (customers) grow.  

Did you know in Culpeper Virginia it is illegal to wash a mule on the sidewalk?

Do you understand everything you know?

I am tardy posting my blog, but I was attending a NFPA 70E training class last week and as well as learning a great deal, I was gathering information for this blog subject.

I have been in the electrical field for 30+ years and have always said and believe the day I have learned everything about this trade I would quit because that would be the day I hurt myself or someone else.

Well to suggest I didn’t learn something about this trade in my training class would be a big joke. I Learned so much!!! Also I learned about something about myself, I was never this good of a student when I was younger.

As I said, I have been in the electrical trade for over 30+ years, many times I have turned breakers on and off and always as I was taught I turned my head to the side or turned my back on the larger circuits when I turned them on. But as I learned I wasn’t protecting myself at all turning away.

In one of the training videos a mannequin was stood in front of a panel, holding a screwdriver as if the blade had slipped and was creating a short in the panel. The mannequin was wearing a hardhat, safety glasses, gloves and a long sleeve work shirt. However, no matter what the protection, it wasn’t enough. Once the power was applied the plasma explosion completely enveloped the mannequin front and back. In less than a 1/16^th of a second the temperature under the mannequin’s shirt was at 122 degrees Fahrenheit. The plasma temperature was 35000 degrees. The pressure from the explosion expanded the air 67,000 times in a fraction of a second putting over 5000 pounds of force on the mannequin which would have resulted in breaking all the ribs or a real human.

Also the protective clothing we wear is only meant to protect us enough to receive a survivable 2^nd degree burn.

How many times have I as a supervisor been the one to put on the arc suit direct all  the others to leave the room and energize a breaker thinking if something did fail I would be unhurt.

What do we do in our daily routines that we have done time and time again thinking we were safe in doing so, only to discover we knew nothing of the possible outcome if things did not go as planned?

I have a teenage daughter that is only a couple years from getting a drivers license, here is one I have thought about when I think about her getting her license.

Something people do everyday around us and the outcome can be deadly is texting and driving. Traveling at 70 miles per hour in 3 seconds we have traveled just over the length of a football field. How long are you not looking at the road when you look down to read or type a text, just a few seconds maybe, the length of a football field at 70 mph or at 30 miles per hour 135 feet. Scary when you think about it like that way isn’t it?

Accident prevention is not only something we need to strive for but something we need to learn about. Take a few minutes and think about things you do all the time, second nature things. Do you really understand everything you know?

Did you know in Georgia it is illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole?

“What we have here is a failure to communicate!”

Those words are spoken twice in the Paul Newman film “Cool Hand Luke”. The first time it is the “Captain” or warden of the prison, played by Strother Martin, then again at the end of the film by “Luke” played by Paul Newman.

Now I must admit I am guilty of failing to communicate last week entering my weekly blog. My apologizes are extended, in no way an excuse, but I was traveling working out of a different office. I should have taken the few minutes to sit down and allow my thoughts to be put to electronic type, but I failed.

But in our world of customer service communication is the key to successful customer relationships. But it doesn’t stop at dealing with our clients we have to be in a constant state of communication.

I spoke with a co-worker in another office that is also a dear friend personally. It was in our friendship relationship that this communication took place, a venting as it were about other colleagues. Finding out information about a position change for one colleague of hers and two new employees’s transferring in to her department and she is the administrative director for her department. Doesn’t it always seem like the one person that should be in the loop is the last one brought in the loop? Now I am sure we have been in situations similar to this on one side of the situation or the other. Depending on which side we are on influences our response to the situation, but should it? No lack of communication is dangerous on many levels. How would that reflect if our clients heard about it?

I returned to my office to find a voicemail from a client on my phone with a question about a piece of monitoring equipment left on his site by one of my colleagues. He was told I would be making arrangements after a few days to come to the site and remove the equipment. I would have gladly been to the site and done so except I had no clue any equipment was installed that needed to be removed. Why this simple bit of information was over looked I do not know. But it reflects a poor internal communication which is not the image we want to present.

 Communication is one of the easiest yet hardest tasks to take on it seems. Don’t think so? Drive down the highway and drive for an hour, how many speed limit signs do you pass? Now ask a law enforcement officer how many speeding tickets are written in that same stretch of highway. The speed limit was communicated, most of us know what the speed limit is when we are traveling yet we push it and try to ignore the communicated law. I remember a police officer addressing a driver improvement class made a funny yet effective communication of this very situation. He stated to the class, “I am not blind folks, I know when I take an exit on the highway it is like the green flag is dropped at the Indianapolis 500!” Funny, yet all these years ago I remember this statement.

Communication is vital to any relationship. Don’t speak to your spouse or significant other for 15 minutes when you see them next, before the 15 minutes is up I would guess you will get a comment like, “Is everything OK?” Communicate, you were just communicated to about how important you are to them and your well being.  Three little words say a mouth full doesn’t it. Yeah that phrase normally is used with three other little words, but in either situation it does speak volumes. Just don’t use it with the police officer, it doesn’t help.

Did you know in Florida if an elephant is left tied to a parking meter, the parking fee has to be paid just as it would for a vehicle, guess I better go feed the meter.