We Should’ve Left the Lights on for You
It’s late in the day and your dispatcher is trying to reach you while your arms are buried in a unit. You can feel she is under pressure to get calls taken care of. So you begin to rush on the job. You wrap up, write the invoice up and light up – right on out of there to the next call. Thirty minutes later Suzie calls you on the radio and tells you there is still a problem on the call that you just left. It registers immediately. Now your options are to be embarrassed a little bit or to be embarrassed a lot. But you really don’t have a choice. If they swing Big Mouth Bob by you’ll never hear the end of it. If you get the chance to go back it won’t be so bad.
If you are a professional technician who cares about his work, you need only be good and embarrassed once to learn from this lesson. There’s no way you’ll leave a job site again before you check to make sure you left the power on.
Always make sure to turn the power back on and make sure the equipment is either running or can run, before you leave.
Not sure if I would do it, but I have had technicians tell me that they leave their truck keys by the breaker, thermostat or switch, so it will help them to remember to energize the system. Maybe there is another type of physical reminder that you can invent to help you in this.
Photo by blmurch on Flickr
How’s Your Company at Customer Service?
The following slide show comes to you by way of Comanche Marketing. While at first glance this quick, educational piece on customer service seems to be geared for your dispatchers or CSR’s, humor me for a moment and embed yourself into the program. The take-aways for you the technician will be most evident.
Matt Michel brings up an excellent point in reference to making the statement “I don’t know.” He says it’s okay to say “I don’t know”, as long as it is followed by ” but I’ll find out.”
The ability to take care of customer concerns in a professional and caring manner is the mark of an excellent company. Keep this in mind when evaluating prospective employers or taking a closer look at the company that you work for.
A Little Attention
To follow up our column yesterday on follow up and leaving a positive impression on folks, we’ll visit Mary Moss at her job in Chandler, Arizona. There are two important lessons to learn from Mary. One, there is pride, dignity and importance in all types of work. Two, one can pay a little attention and receive a lot of attention back.
Your work – It’s not so much the job, it’s what you put into it. We all travel a road. And on this road, we travel by different vehicles. Some are content to drive the same vehicle for a very long time. They maintain and put tender loving care into their vehicle. They are most proud of it. Others work their way from vehicle to vehicle. With each vehicle they find a little something more that they like about it than the last one. But they take care of each vehicle like it’s the last one they’ll ever have. This is how you should view each job that you have.
A little attention – Think about Mary at work. How much time do you think she has to pay attention to each of her customers? Not much, right? How then, can so many people remember and appreciate her efforts? You know the answer. Mary is real. She truly cares about people and how they are doing. She can convey this sense to people within a minute or two.
If Mary can do this in so little amount of time, what do you suppose you can do when you are in a customer’s home or place of business for over a half hour? You know. Be real. Care. Show it. Have fun. The goal is not to receive attention. But you will.
You Care
We are creating a new category here called You Care. It’s about demonstrating little acts of kindness that show your coworkers, customers, associates, vendors and family that you care.
Don’t think for one minute that I am getting sappy on you. Are you a man? Can you stand squarely upon your own two feet and do something nice for someone? Even though some of your coworkers might snicker at you? Ok, enough about what other people think about you. You are a man. And we know you’d like to get some ideas to demonstrate to others that you care.
Suzie is one over worked dispatcher. She smokes too many cigarettes and you suspect that she pounds one too many beers at night. While at times it isn’t apparent, you know Suzie has your back. And she is always trying to be cheerful in spite of Bob your manager breathing down on her, the million phone calls per day, the mountain of paperwork all around her and you and your eleven other coworkers calling her on the radio – every ten minutes. Why not do something nice for Suzie?
Why not send Suzie some flowers at work? Or maybe give her a gift certificate to a local restaurant. Or maybe say thanks to Suzie for everything she does. You’ve always cared. Just show it.
