Customer service. That is almost a contradiction in terms these days. From the grocery store where they wing the products by so fast that you can’t see what is going on, to the support lines where you have to dial one for English. Customer service is a dying art.
I know someone that was at a pizza place over the weekend. It was a very windy day and they went in to buy a couple of slices to go. After his purchase he took his pizza slices to go in a box. On his way out of the door the wind grabbed the door form his hands. In an effort to save the door the wind grabbed his slices instead and flung them like Frisbees. The door was saved but the slices were all over the parking lot with the empty box. The vendor merely shrugged his shoulders and grunted returning to work. Granted, it was not the fault or the concern of the shop manager but that was an opportunity to turn a negative situation into a positive. He could have offered to replace the slices and been a hero. Instead this person went without and as a consequence will not go back to that shop. And as we all know, bad news travels faster than good and this event will probably cost the shop a couple of customers.
I am a manager in a local carwash and detail shop. If somebody misses the last coin alert or just ran out of change I will always give them a minute or two to rinse the vehicle off. It is not worth sending the customer away with soap all over it. It looks terrible and might ruin the paint if it is really hot outside. By helping the customer in this way they will always come back and you have made a customer for life. We need more Nice Guy rules in customer service. Answer the phone, don’t just let it go to voice mail. From the other point of view, if someone gives you good service let them know. I was in a restaurant with my family after a long drive over the weekend and we received incredible service. The people were friendly and went out of their way. We were far from home and it was not like we were regular customers, we had never been there before. When we were leaving I told them that it was one of the friendliest restaurants that I have been to. When someone or a business does something right they deserve to know. It has always been the rule that people will give a bad review before they give a good one. I don’t believe in that, of course because I am a Nice Guy. If I don’t have anything good or constructive to say then I will just shut the hell up.
Customer service should not be a thing of the past or the passion of Nice Guys, it should be a part of any good business. If there is to be an option when you call for service it should be to press 1 to be treated decently, press 2 to be treated like a slug.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Good Times
It is almost one of the times of year when Nice Guys get to do what they do best, be Nice. The end of the school year means scholarships. And our organization hands our scholarships to deserving students. I usually do not mention businesses or organizations, but ours is a non-profit so I do not see why I cannot. I belong to our local Kiwanis club. I am two times past president and I am also the Kiwanis Advisor to two area High Schools. It is very rewarding to work with these students. The run their own clubs, set their own agenda, elect their own officers and decide what charity raising events they want to participate in or what group of people need their help. My job is only to advise them, to act as a go between for their clubs and ours. Our club raises about thirty thousand dollars a year and we give nine thousand out in scholarships. I am the one that reports on the clubs activities and hands out the awards once the scholarship committee has decided who they go to. Working with the kids all year is great. When they get enthused about a project there is no stopping them.
There have been low points when they have a hard time rallying the club or other organizations take precedence. Many other clubs have mandatory meetings and the Key Clubs lose out at these times. The Key Club is the high school equivalent of the Kiwanis club. At these time it takes a little prodding but they always come around. Ti is exciting to see their functions in the local paper and the community get behind them. They help us at our Pumpkinfest in the fall, at bike rodeos, fishing derbys and many other activities that we run. They have run many of their own like a coffee house where kids perform and applaud in the style of the Beatniks in the 60”s, dances for the elderly, walks for cancer and raising money for Unicef. It is a good organization the gives them a sense of community and responsibility, and helps them learn what volunteering is all about.
We award five scholarships to those who have worked hardest and have given the most of themselves to the organization. I have the very desirable job of calling up each member to receive their scholarship. The look of appreciation that we receive and the thank you letters after is the reason that we do this. We have made a difference in their lives and they will continue the good work later on. Hopefully, they will even join our club when they go into society and start lives of their own. This will keep the good work going on and create more Nice Guys. It is good to be a Nice Guy when you can help others, it is good to help other when they are the people that are around you, and in the end aren’t all people around us?
There have been low points when they have a hard time rallying the club or other organizations take precedence. Many other clubs have mandatory meetings and the Key Clubs lose out at these times. The Key Club is the high school equivalent of the Kiwanis club. At these time it takes a little prodding but they always come around. Ti is exciting to see their functions in the local paper and the community get behind them. They help us at our Pumpkinfest in the fall, at bike rodeos, fishing derbys and many other activities that we run. They have run many of their own like a coffee house where kids perform and applaud in the style of the Beatniks in the 60”s, dances for the elderly, walks for cancer and raising money for Unicef. It is a good organization the gives them a sense of community and responsibility, and helps them learn what volunteering is all about.
We award five scholarships to those who have worked hardest and have given the most of themselves to the organization. I have the very desirable job of calling up each member to receive their scholarship. The look of appreciation that we receive and the thank you letters after is the reason that we do this. We have made a difference in their lives and they will continue the good work later on. Hopefully, they will even join our club when they go into society and start lives of their own. This will keep the good work going on and create more Nice Guys. It is good to be a Nice Guy when you can help others, it is good to help other when they are the people that are around you, and in the end aren’t all people around us?
Friday, April 27, 2012
Poorman's Compensation
Workman’s Compensation. It should be called Poorman’s Compensation. First of all you have to wait, and wait to see a doctor so that he can give his diagnosis of what has happened. Then there are the forms. Then you have to send copies of whatever pay you are still getting, if any. Then if you boss gives you a weeks pay when he doesn’t really have to, it throws their whole precious schedule off. I was injured six weeks ago and have received two checks from the Poorman’s Comp people. At least that is what they are making me and my family, poor. Two weeks in a row and I have received nothing. The idiot in charge of my case takes Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays off so there is no way of getting in touch with him. Then when I do have time to try and reach him he is always in meetings.
It is bad enough that I only receive sixty percent of what I was making full time, at least give me something. It was hard enough making ends meet before this. Now I have to wait, and wait, and wait for sixty percent if I am lucky.
Of course I am sure that the Poorman’s Comp idiot is deeply troubled by our situation. I am sure that he is losing sleep over the plight that we are in.
I am on twenty hour weeks of light work and my doctor has just told me that it is not healing fast and it will be another month of light labor. If I can at least get a Poorman’s Comp check I would feel a bit better about this situation and maybe pay a bill or too.
OK. I am whining. If I am living and breathing I should shut the hell up, so I will.
For today.
It is bad enough that I only receive sixty percent of what I was making full time, at least give me something. It was hard enough making ends meet before this. Now I have to wait, and wait, and wait for sixty percent if I am lucky.
Of course I am sure that the Poorman’s Comp idiot is deeply troubled by our situation. I am sure that he is losing sleep over the plight that we are in.
I am on twenty hour weeks of light work and my doctor has just told me that it is not healing fast and it will be another month of light labor. If I can at least get a Poorman’s Comp check I would feel a bit better about this situation and maybe pay a bill or too.
OK. I am whining. If I am living and breathing I should shut the hell up, so I will.
For today.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Obsolescence
You don’t have to be a Nice Guy to be annoyed by planned obsolescence. It almost seems to be a trademark of a successful American business. We see it in appliances, automobiles, outdoor equipment, power tools, the list can go on and on.
I think that it is even more annoying when coupled with a developer that increases their profits by using substandard materials that are designed with planned obsolescence in mind. We bought a house thirteen years ago. A beautiful house that we had built to our designs. We could not afford many upgrades, we choose to upgrade the carpet pad because this makes the cheaper carpet last longer. It did. I installed all of our boxes for the ceiling fans and all of the extra phone and cable boxes before the sheetrock was up. This saved us a lot. Most of the materials in the house was guaranteed for ten years, which was when things started going wrong. Our roof needed repair and after researching we found out that the brand that they used is involved in a class action lawsuit. Great, we will wait years for that.
I like performing maintenance on things that we own, it makes them last longer. When I tried to drain the water heater that was installed I found out that they bought the cheap model with no drain, with no drain the sediments build up and ruin the heater. So, I guess we will be replacing that soon, just like our neighbors. Our windows, well, we can see through them, that is a good thing. If they are not locked the top will not stay up, they make horrid noises when we use them, and the company that made them does not exist anymore. I bet the builder got a real good deal on those. The bathroom fan/vent was vented into the attic. I am glad we found that out before we got mold. I am not a fat guy by any means and the utility closets are so narrow, (cheaper doors) that I cannot fit in sideways to retrieve what I want to. When the house was being painted the painter actually broke the door by accident because he got stuck and panicked. Some of the light fixtures that were used on and in our house we found at an area chain hardware store for around two dollars. They did not even put back steps leading out of our sliding glass door. We found out this was illegal when we took a picture of our house for insurance and they saw it. Of course, being a Nice Guy I just made a set of stairs.
They made a beautiful house but not to last. Meanwhile, he makes so much on these houses he does not even need to use the bank anymore for financing. He built a 130 house development and did this out of his own pocket. It does not bother me that he has done so well. He is a good person and I know him, have done work for him, but I wish he could have put more into his houses.
This episode taught me the difference between a builder and a developer. A builder might cost you more buy in the long run, there will be less planned obsolescence to deal with.
I think that it is even more annoying when coupled with a developer that increases their profits by using substandard materials that are designed with planned obsolescence in mind. We bought a house thirteen years ago. A beautiful house that we had built to our designs. We could not afford many upgrades, we choose to upgrade the carpet pad because this makes the cheaper carpet last longer. It did. I installed all of our boxes for the ceiling fans and all of the extra phone and cable boxes before the sheetrock was up. This saved us a lot. Most of the materials in the house was guaranteed for ten years, which was when things started going wrong. Our roof needed repair and after researching we found out that the brand that they used is involved in a class action lawsuit. Great, we will wait years for that.
I like performing maintenance on things that we own, it makes them last longer. When I tried to drain the water heater that was installed I found out that they bought the cheap model with no drain, with no drain the sediments build up and ruin the heater. So, I guess we will be replacing that soon, just like our neighbors. Our windows, well, we can see through them, that is a good thing. If they are not locked the top will not stay up, they make horrid noises when we use them, and the company that made them does not exist anymore. I bet the builder got a real good deal on those. The bathroom fan/vent was vented into the attic. I am glad we found that out before we got mold. I am not a fat guy by any means and the utility closets are so narrow, (cheaper doors) that I cannot fit in sideways to retrieve what I want to. When the house was being painted the painter actually broke the door by accident because he got stuck and panicked. Some of the light fixtures that were used on and in our house we found at an area chain hardware store for around two dollars. They did not even put back steps leading out of our sliding glass door. We found out this was illegal when we took a picture of our house for insurance and they saw it. Of course, being a Nice Guy I just made a set of stairs.
They made a beautiful house but not to last. Meanwhile, he makes so much on these houses he does not even need to use the bank anymore for financing. He built a 130 house development and did this out of his own pocket. It does not bother me that he has done so well. He is a good person and I know him, have done work for him, but I wish he could have put more into his houses.
This episode taught me the difference between a builder and a developer. A builder might cost you more buy in the long run, there will be less planned obsolescence to deal with.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Some Day
Being injured and on Workman’s Compensation sucks. Being on WC because the boss did not want to get health insurance sucks even more. When he bought the business, I was asked if not having insurance “was a problem” and I said that I was 50 and yes it was a problem. The owner before him had it. He ignored me. A year ago I started to complain that I was becoming overwhelmed and we either needed another person or lighten the load. He ignored me. Now I find out from the doctor that if I had gone to get checked out it would not have gone this far and I would not be in continuous pain and wearing a spinal brace. I have tried to be a Nice Guy through this whole thing but it is getting hard. We were living paycheck to paycheck before and now I am getting 60 percent less than before. I maintain the business and keep it running while he stops by to collect the money which takes about two hours a week. This business was a novelty to him. When he bought it he said that it was so that his boys would have something to do when they got older. They were toddlers when he bought it!
Jobs are hard to find right now, even for Nice Guys. It does not help when you have physical limitations put on you for the job you have done for over two decades. It is a little hard to train for another job at my age when people look at you and see someone who they think might retire in a couple of years. Because of the damage to my back I have a hard time to even sit for long. If I had only been a dick and demanded that I get health insurance I would not be in this situation. There must be a dick training course for Nice Guys, I need to find it.
I went on a small trip with the wife this past weekend, just to get away. I ended up driving for almost five hours which is not biggie. This was the first that I learned about the limitations that I have for sitting. I wore the brace while I was driving but it only seemed a little sore. The next day was agony. No matter what I did my back was all stiff and sore. After going to the therapist today, she explained that this could be as bad as overdoing it at work. Great, I can’t even sit in a car without pain. And this month, we have to take trips with our children to colleges to check them out. One is a seven hour one way drive. If we had a van maybe I could lie in the back for the trip.
Some day, Nice Guys will be able to speak up not get into the crap that I have found myself in. They say that the meek will inherit the earth, aren’t Nice Guys meek?
Jobs are hard to find right now, even for Nice Guys. It does not help when you have physical limitations put on you for the job you have done for over two decades. It is a little hard to train for another job at my age when people look at you and see someone who they think might retire in a couple of years. Because of the damage to my back I have a hard time to even sit for long. If I had only been a dick and demanded that I get health insurance I would not be in this situation. There must be a dick training course for Nice Guys, I need to find it.
I went on a small trip with the wife this past weekend, just to get away. I ended up driving for almost five hours which is not biggie. This was the first that I learned about the limitations that I have for sitting. I wore the brace while I was driving but it only seemed a little sore. The next day was agony. No matter what I did my back was all stiff and sore. After going to the therapist today, she explained that this could be as bad as overdoing it at work. Great, I can’t even sit in a car without pain. And this month, we have to take trips with our children to colleges to check them out. One is a seven hour one way drive. If we had a van maybe I could lie in the back for the trip.
Some day, Nice Guys will be able to speak up not get into the crap that I have found myself in. They say that the meek will inherit the earth, aren’t Nice Guys meek?
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Blogette
Short blog today. Just dropped our children off to go on a trip to a neighboring country. My wife and I are ‘running away’ for the weekend. I was a Nice Guy and resisted the urge to embarrass them by taking pictures in front of the bus, although it is a parental privilege. They have a camera and will get us plenty.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Cats
Our first house was way out in the sticks. Our back yard was 1600 acres of swamp, the only neighbors on that side were moose. Each house on the street had about two acres so there was plenty of room between the houses. It was a quiet neighborhood and we were at the end of a cul-de-sac. It was a good house to raise children in and animals as well.
We had one two cats when we moved there. One had come from our apartment and the other was from a friend that moved and could not have animals. Our neighbor did not believe in getting their pets neutered so guess where they ended up. Under out stairs having kittens. Well, we like cats so being Nice Guys we took the kittens in and had them fixed. We approached out neighbors and explained the situation to them and after a week their cat was gone. They said that they knew of some friends that had a farm and she was in good care. We took this as truth and went about our lives. A couple of weeks later we went on one our trips to the local Humane Society. We did this often to bring in supplies, blankets and to see the animals. While we were there we recognized a long hair calico cat. It was our neighbors. We were shocked that such a good natured cat should be discarded like this. So we did what Nice Guys do, we brought her home. We had to pay for half the cost of getting her fixed but now she was with her kittens. So at this point we had five cats. We love cats, remember. We also had a dachshund who was fond of terrorizing the cats but being short of stature did not fare well at this, he soon learned. After a while word must have got out that we had cats at this out of the way home because they started just showing up. People would drop off cats and drive away. At one point we had seventeen cats, most of which stayed outside, were not totally crazy. We did not want the population to get out of hand so we made a deal with the local Humane Society and they helped us pay for the cost of getting the cats fixed. It was quite a task to catch all of them to do this. I ended up at the doctors once, nothing major.
Not only did people drop off cats but baby squirrels and birds as well. What are we supposed to do with these? We are Nice Guys, not veterinarians. We found places that would take them and brought them in to be brought back to health and released. Luckily our population stopped at seventeen, in fact, because of the Fisher Cats it declined. It was a hassle but we felt we had to do what we did. If we had not there would have been thousands of cats in ten years. A friend of mine that hunts offered to take care of the excess felines but I could not do such a thing. Our children used to watch as seventeen cats milled around the sliding door waiting for food. It was really quite entertaining.
We have three cats now. Three lazy, freeloading hoodlums that we would not do without. Two tabbies and one black cat.
When a Nice Guy finished a day with the usual rabble it is nice to come home to an animal. Cats or dogs they are always happy to see you and they will listen to anything.
We had one two cats when we moved there. One had come from our apartment and the other was from a friend that moved and could not have animals. Our neighbor did not believe in getting their pets neutered so guess where they ended up. Under out stairs having kittens. Well, we like cats so being Nice Guys we took the kittens in and had them fixed. We approached out neighbors and explained the situation to them and after a week their cat was gone. They said that they knew of some friends that had a farm and she was in good care. We took this as truth and went about our lives. A couple of weeks later we went on one our trips to the local Humane Society. We did this often to bring in supplies, blankets and to see the animals. While we were there we recognized a long hair calico cat. It was our neighbors. We were shocked that such a good natured cat should be discarded like this. So we did what Nice Guys do, we brought her home. We had to pay for half the cost of getting her fixed but now she was with her kittens. So at this point we had five cats. We love cats, remember. We also had a dachshund who was fond of terrorizing the cats but being short of stature did not fare well at this, he soon learned. After a while word must have got out that we had cats at this out of the way home because they started just showing up. People would drop off cats and drive away. At one point we had seventeen cats, most of which stayed outside, were not totally crazy. We did not want the population to get out of hand so we made a deal with the local Humane Society and they helped us pay for the cost of getting the cats fixed. It was quite a task to catch all of them to do this. I ended up at the doctors once, nothing major.
Not only did people drop off cats but baby squirrels and birds as well. What are we supposed to do with these? We are Nice Guys, not veterinarians. We found places that would take them and brought them in to be brought back to health and released. Luckily our population stopped at seventeen, in fact, because of the Fisher Cats it declined. It was a hassle but we felt we had to do what we did. If we had not there would have been thousands of cats in ten years. A friend of mine that hunts offered to take care of the excess felines but I could not do such a thing. Our children used to watch as seventeen cats milled around the sliding door waiting for food. It was really quite entertaining.
When a Nice Guy finished a day with the usual rabble it is nice to come home to an animal. Cats or dogs they are always happy to see you and they will listen to anything.
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