Remember When Giving Thanks

As this is a short week for most of us I will keep my comments brief as well.

We all know that the meaning of Thanksgiving is to pause and give thanks for our many blessings in life. But let’s not forget some things we need to be thankful for that allow us the privilege of celebrating Thanksgiving.

We all will be thankful for the loved ones in our lives and around our tables, but what about the extended family members who are not around our tables? In today’s world we have more blended families. Some friends may be with us that are more like family than some that are our own flesh and blood. We have to learn to follow the examples put forth to us and forgive those that we feel have wronged us in some way. For that is how we can really understand the meaning of the holiday seasons we are approaching.

I was brought up in a non-denominational church as a child and even though I am many years from those teachings the lessons I learned is the foundation of who I am today. I may not agree with everyone’s differing viewpoints but I can be thankful I live in a country where they are allowed to have those different viewpoints and we are still equal.

I have yet to meet anyone from a different background that did not bleed blood as red as the blood in my body. So I urge you to remember we are all God’s Creations and give thanks for the differences, for what a boring place this world would be if we were all the same and thought or looked alike.

We must also remember that from the beginning of this country people have defended our rights to live free and equal and continue to do so today. All different types of people have stood up for those rights and some have given the ultimate sacrifice.

So I urge you to start at the top, Thank God for everything he has done in our lives, remember the ones that are not with us as we stop to give thanks. Ones who are not able to join us, ones that we have lost contact with for whatever reason, the ones that stand for us and make sure we can sit and give thanks living and past.

And I will be thankful as well to those of you who have taken the time to read the ramblings of a thankful American.

 As always I have found something to make you wonder about the writer…….A Thanksgiving Poem:

 "May your stuffing be tasty May your turkey plump, May your potatoes and gravy have nary a lump. May your yams be delicious and your pies take the prize, and may your Thanksgiving dinner stay off your thighs!" - Anonymous

Do You Communicate Like a Horse?

I have been in the service field in one form or another for my entire working life. I have worked with good managers, bad managers and learned from both.

I have also had the fortunate opportunity to be around horses for most of my life as well. It amazes me that people can’t communicate as well as horses.

If you have spent any time around these wonderful animals you understand what I mean. Horses have a silent language that if you pay attention you can learn what they are saying to one another with their ears, heads, nose, eyes and tails. Most verbal communication is for long distance communicating when it comes to horses.

Recently I was visiting my sister’s house Anna, after a short trip out of town. Prior to my trip I had been living there and was more than willing to tend to the horses to help out. So the horses knew me well, with my favorite, a Standard bred former harness race horse Zorro, picking me as his favorite as well.

The afternoon I arrived my Brother-In-Law Ken and I were sitting on the porch having a conversation. A short time passed when we heard a loud “Neigh” came from down at the barn. We continued talking and a few minutes went by when it happened again. The third call from the barn brought us both to attention. Ken stated “I better go check on them, some things not right for one of them to be calling 3 times like that.” I said I would go because it most likely was just Zorro calling for me since I had not been down to see him yet. Ken laughed and said, you think so? As I walked down to the barn sure enough there was Zorro standing at the gate and when he saw me he let out another loud neigh! He had heard me talking and was calling to me to come see him. He also knew I would provide a treat once I got there.

Horses blow into each other’s nose to exchange their scent as well as greet one another. Watch a horse’s ears, eyes, head, tail and neck and you will see a simple greeting, happiness, trust, distrust, fear, boredom, as well as alarm.

Sadly some of us need to learn to communicate as well as horses. But we need to do it with words. Everyone has heard the phrase, “don’t assume, because when you assume……” Communication doesn’t start and stop with your customers it has to be a constant communication from you to your co-workers, as well as your customers.

If your customer details information to you about a project and you do not pass along the information to the service person that is sent to perform the work, how irritated will your customer be when the service person performs work that is not desired?  Do this enough times and you will no longer have that client I am sure.

Imagine you’re in a restaurant and the server comes to take your order but doesn’t pay attention when you tell them what you want. Then proceeds to guess what you asked for when the information is relayed to the kitchen staff. Are you going to say something when you get the wrong item? Of course, most of us would. I say most because I would guess a great deal of people have gotten the wrong order at a drive thru and not realized that you didn’t get what you asked for until you were miles down the road.

Communication entails three simple things to make sure you are getting your point across when you give information or obtain information from your client.

Maintain eye contact. It expresses that what the person is saying is important. If you’re the one speaking you can tell if the person you are talking to is taking it as seriously as you do.

Repeat word for word what the person has told you or have the person you’re talking to repeat it back to you.  

Rephrase what you were told as to the meaning you understood or explain what you are saying in other terms if the information if you are convening the information.

We can’t swish our tails or turn our ears to communicate like horses do but we can take the time to give clear communications to one another. I had an employer that liked to use the phrase “I’m checking in here with you, now what did I just say?” He liked when you would repeat back to him not word for word but the meaning of what he told you.  His way of making sure what he was expressing was what you understood. We can all do that with our clients, co-workers, and service personal and in the end we get the treat we are “neighing” to get.

Budds Creek, Maryland, has an antique law which prohibits horses from sleeping in a bathtub, unless the rider is also sleeping with the horse. 

Swing, but follow through!

Even though we all feel like we understand the art of customer service a good deal fall short in the follow through. If we were playing a round of golf and stopped our swing just after impact with the ball that game may break a record for most swings in a round of golf. A record I hold and best every time I play. When asked if I play golf I have one reply. Only for comic relief!

No I am not a golfer, but most everyone has played baseball or softball at some point in there life. Same principle applies here as well. If we imagine playing either game and we used a glass ball, would you swing as hard? Most likely not, most would close their eyes and swing gingerly fearing in moment of impact.

Why do we react the same way when it comes to customer service? The customer isn't going to explode when we contact them. A phone call, an e-mail or stopping by to see them is a wonderful follow through that drives the hit so much farther and makes a great impact with the your customer.

Some days we may not be at our best or having our best game, but in today's world of e-mail we can still drive the ball a great distance with a quick e-mail touching base with them. Notice the sports reference we use normally in conversations like this? "Touching base", as in "make sure you touch the bases as you run around the field". Cover all your bases is another reference we use that has a sports feel to it. Over the years we have linked business with sports, but it all starts to you getting up to bat.

You can't be a success if you have no follow through on your swing in sports or business. How many companies have you dealt with that have the motto, just give us your business one time, after that we could care less if we see you again. Or we are content being number 2, 3 or 4? Does that sound like companies we want to deal with? Not really, but no service after the sale is just like having that attitude.

If you were awarded a contract with a client and afterwards you didn't take the clients phone calls or respond to their e-mails, or visit them personally, how long before the new client you worked so hard to obtain would mail you  notice that they were terminating the contract? Most likely not very long.

This seems like an over simplified way of making a point to many, but I am amazed how often I see this attitude in the work place. You may excuse it as your to busy, I will get it tomorrow, but what if tomorrow is the day your new client cancels the contract?

The repeat customer is your best salesperson. And you don't have to pay them! In fact they pay you! But getting that repeat customer requires follow through. How busy would you be if you didn't have any customers? Still to busy to follow up? Make the time in your schedule to follow through on your swing.

On a personal note, I would like to thank all of you that replied to my last post, "The strongest person I know is 3 years old." I had the opportunity to spend some time with my family and with Ally as well over the weekend. We played and laughed Ally continued to soften my old heart when she crawled up in my lap placed her head on my chest and took a short nap. It was Ally's and her big sister's birthday party this weekend (3 and 5) and she had an exciting day.

In Washington State, you can't carry a concealed weapon that is over 6 feet in length. Just how tall are people in Washington State?

“The Strongest Person I Have Ever Know is 3 Years Old”

My blog is a little more personal this week than most, but if you will indulge me, it may bring a tear to your eyes.

Like most people I have seen things on television or on the internet of amazing feats of human strength.

It was not long ago that there was a video on the internet of a group of people that lifted a burning car off of a young man that had gotten pinned under the car after a collision between himself on his motorcycle and the car. Thankfully he survived, and it was amazing to watch the by-standers that stopped their cars and come together and lift the car off this young man.

We have heard stories for years about people exhibiting super human strength in situations that save the life of someone.

But have you ever know someone that was so strong mentally that their ability to deal with a difficult situation was breath taking? When you are faced with a difficult situation in your life or at work that this person is your inspiration to overcome whatever you are facing?

I am fortunate to not have one but 3 people in my life that are an inspiration to me to realize that anything I face in life is a temporary bump in the road not the mountain I would have considered it in the past.

The first two are my Niece and her husband, my Nephew. The reason is they face situations and what would knock most anyone else on their butts, through the grace of God they face it and deal with it taking it in stride.

The third person is their youngest daughter, Ally.  Ally is 3 years old, or will be in a few days. At the tender age of 6 months old Ally had surgery to remove a brain tumor. They were unable to get it all and it has left her legally blind and has a disorder called Diabetes Insipidus.

Despite all of this in her short 3 years she is the happiest person I know. My heart melted a couple weeks ago when I walked into their home and upon hearing my voice she knew who I was and asked me to “Sit on floor, Uncle D” so I could play with her.  I do not see her often enough as they live 3 hours from me, but my voice is one she knew. She melted it again when she said, “Uncle D, Loves Me?” I know I do not have to tell you what my reply was to her.

It is humbling to look on a little child such as Ally and realize I have no reason to complain about any ache or pain I have.

When I am facing a tough situation at work or in my personal life and I catch myself complaining I stop and think, is it really as bad as I am making it out to be? Or can I be as strong as a 3 year old here and deal with it?

I invite you to read her amazing story at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/allymichellewilson.

If you’re as lucky as I am and get the blessing of hearing Ally laugh you will understand why even as touching this story is I will include my weekly strange law. I am sure I can hear her laughing, just not sure if she is laughing with me or at me. Either way I am good with it, Uncle D loves you Ally.

In South Dakota, No horses are allowed into Fountain Inn unless they are wearing pants. Great, can you find a Horse Tailor in the phone book for me?

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.