Make 'em happy

[ptonsparky]

Asked my help today, "Did you make them happy?" "Yup, and what made her happiest was fixing the springs on her oven door." Seems the springs had come loose some years ago and she had been holding the door shut with a chair. Whatever it takes.

 

[480sparky]

Hmmm. My service call today was to an apartment building. Property manager called me and said there was some serious electrical issues in unit No. 1. That's all I had to go on.
I arrived and knocked on the door. A woman answered the door wearing a bathrobe. I asked her what the problem was.
She started her tirade.....
"Well, it all started at 6 last night. I have no heat, the stove doesn't work, and whenever I turn the bathroom light on, I lose everything!."
I immediately assumed it was something feeding the panel since neither 240v circuit worked. I found 121 volts on the red, but only 7 on the black.
So I went into the mechanical room and pulled the cover off the meter stack. Sure 'nuff, the 2-pole breaker looked like someone had taken a torch to it.
I went out to the truck, grabbed another 2100 breaker and informed the 'poor woman' I was going to shut her power off for 3 or 4 minutes. That was not what she wanted to hear.
"How can I watch TV with the power off?!?! And turning the power off will damage my receiver even more!!!"
I apologized, and told her it was necessary in order to restore her heat.
Three minutes later, I knocked on her door again to make sure everything was working. Baseboard heat... check. Stove... check. All lights.... check.

Todays' high was about 8?F. Poor woman was suffering in an apartment where the thermomoter said it was 82?, and she was barefoot and wearing a bathrobe.

If I had given her a $100 bill right then and there, she probably would have complained it wasn't five 20s.

 

[mdshunk]

It's a bad habit, but sometimes out of an almost knee-jerk reaction, I tighten the two phillips screws on a doorknob when I notice one that is very loose and wiggly. That really tickles some people, and I do it almost subconsciously, since I'm wearing bags anyhow.

On the other hand, I think I've had my lifetime's fill of people like 480 describes. People you just can't do anything right for. I have a couple customers like that, but oddly they call back from time to time when more work needs done, and they pay the bill anyhow. Water off a ducks back. It's not like they're anyone meaningful to you in your life.

 

[bigjohn67]

Everyone serves somebody

Everyone serves somebody

We live by it at our company. If it means fixing a hinge, knob, etc with a screwdriver while they are writing the check. We do it.
Alot of people are old and have no one to help out. If we go on a min. service call that takes 40 min. We do things to make them feel comfortable for the 1 hr. min. Sometimes they just want someone to talk to.
It makes us feel good. Every old person has ment something in life.
It's our job as professional servicemen to show them we care.

 

[mdshunk]

If we go on a min. service call that takes 40 min. We do things to make them feel comfortable for the 1 hr. min.

I don't know if I'd go that far. I had one guy relate to me a story of when he was working for a certain company in my town that had a similar 1-hour minimum. He asked a lady if she had any other work, since she gets an hour and he was only there for 20 minutes. He had electrical work in mind, but she had him pulling weeds in her flower beds for another 40 minutes.

 

[480sparky]

It's a bad habit, but sometimes out of an almost knee-jerk reaction, I tighten the two phillips screws on a doorknob when I notice one that is very loose and wiggly. That really tickles some people, and I do it almost subconsciously, since I'm wearing bags anyhow.

I do the same thing.

Sometimes it's the doorknob. Other times it's a cracked switchplate they never think about. Or just straightening up the porch light.

Years ago, I was packing up at the end of the day when my cell phone rang. It was an elderly lady who had lost power in part of her house. I got directions, and it turned out it was right on my route home.
So I stopped, and a pressure washer she was using had tripped the bath GFI (GFI breaker that fed other parts of the [older] home). I reset it for her, and all was good. She asked how much she owed me.
I replied, "I can't charge you for this. No trouble at all, and it was on my way home."
Now, I can hear a lot of the business guys cringing and groaning, but ever since she has been a regular customer. Nothing big, but always calling every 4 or 5 months.

Maybe she should have a heart-to-heart with the bathrobe lady.

 

[tonyou812]

I don't know if I'd go that far. I had one guy relate to me a story of when he was working for a certain company in my town that had a similar 1-hour minimum. He asked a lady if she had any other work, since she gets an hour and he was only there for 20 minutes. He had electrical work in mind, but she had him pulling weeds in her flower beds for another 40 minutes.

sweet Sometimes I wish I could paint a room or something. Instead of snaking in four cans in a plaster and wire ceiling

 

[frenchelectrican]

one service call i went to.,, that tentent is very nice and landlord he was very mellow to me and he infored me having issue with the GFCI keep tripping for no reason.,, i say ok i will take a look on my way to the inspector's office so i only just a block away and checked the inspector office they were out for lunch so i swap my sheducle with the comuster and fix the GFCI issue.

that repair was done in 15 min and the tentent asked me can i fix the door so it stay close not stuck half way open i say sure as long nothing else is damaged. all i did put in longer screw and slove the hinges and creaking noise as well.

the tentent want to pay me i say why not you talk to the landlord and see go from there and somehow the landlord treat me very nice and somehow offer me a lunch [ kinda hard to turn it down sometime but a nice way to do it pay off in long way ] and over the time he became my regular comuster and i did service his complex pretty frequeity.

Merci, Marc

 

[hardworkingstiff]

We live by it at our company. If it means fixing a hinge, knob, etc with a screwdriver while they are writing the check. We do it.
Alot of people are old and have no one to help out. If we go on a min. service call that takes 40 min. We do things to make them feel comfortable for the 1 hr. min. Sometimes they just want someone to talk to.
It makes us feel good. Every old person has ment something in life.
It's our job as professional servicemen to show them we care.

My compliments sir!

 

[hardworkingstiff]

I do the same thing.

Sometimes it's the doorknob. Other times it's a cracked switchplate they never think about. Or just straightening up the porch light.

Years ago, I was packing up at the end of the day when my cell phone rang. It was an elderly lady who had lost power in part of her house. I got directions, and it turned out it was right on my route home.
So I stopped, and a pressure washer she was using had tripped the bath GFI (GFI breaker that fed other parts of the [older] home). I reset it for her, and all was good. She asked how much she owed me.
I replied, "I can't charge you for this. No trouble at all, and it was on my way home."
Now, I can hear a lot of the business guys cringing and groaning, but ever since she has been a regular customer. Nothing big, but always calling every 4 or 5 months.

Maybe she should have a heart-to-heart with the bathrobe lady.

I believe you did the noble thing.

 

[cowboyjwc]

I do the same thing.

Sometimes it's the doorknob. Other times it's a cracked switchplate they never think about. Or just straightening up the porch light.

Years ago, I was packing up at the end of the day when my cell phone rang. It was an elderly lady who had lost power in part of her house. I got directions, and it turned out it was right on my route home.
So I stopped, and a pressure washer she was using had tripped the bath GFI (GFI breaker that fed other parts of the [older] home). I reset it for her, and all was good. She asked how much she owed me.
I replied, "I can't charge you for this. No trouble at all, and it was on my way home."
Now, I can hear a lot of the business guys cringing and groaning, but ever since she has been a regular customer. Nothing big, but always calling every 4 or 5 months.

Maybe she should have a heart-to-heart with the bathrobe lady.

Good job sparky. I brought this up once before about how many hundreds if not thousands of dollars can be made from a simple gesture like that and guys jumped all over me. :grin:

 

[480sparky]

"Page 2...." ; (Paul Harvey)

"Page 2...." ; (Paul Harvey)

Now for, as Paul likes to say, "Page 2..."

Years ago, in my life as a waged employee, I got sent to finish a punch list on a new home. HOs had just moved in and there were a handful of small items still left to be done... a phone jack here, straighten a cover there... 1/2 hour tops for the list.

When I arrived, the HO was just leaving for work and informed me that the bath receps didn't work. I thought "Tripped GFI, that's all." I do the punch list stuff, then start looking for a tripped GFI. I found the GFI in the master, but it had no power. I checked the breaker marked MBath, and it's on.

So I start digging. I remove the GFI, and no power at either the line or load terminals. I search for another GFI (I didn't trim the house, so I thought there might be another one upstream). Nada.

I remove the panel cover and check for power at the breaker. It tests good. So I get my tone set out and start tracing the bath circuit NM. I cannot find tone in the panel. I can find all the downstream receps, and I can follow the homerun up through the attic and down the living room wall, but not into the basement.

Now at this point, I'm an hour and a half into a half-hour project, so I call the office and tell them I'm still here fixing the bath circuit. My super starts in on me.. "We sent you out there for the other stuff! Why are you wasting your time fixing something that works? You were sheduled elsewhere an hour ago!"

I tried to explain that the bath circuit did not work, and the homerun was not in the panel (the breaker marked Mbath in the panel was really a kitchen circuit). I still have a 'new one' installed on my 'backside', if you get my drift.

So what happens? They send me to my next appointment, and send someone else over to fix it. Now, my thinking is, I already have the problem figured out and have come up with a solution. Now they're sending me away and someone else is coming to, in effect, re-troubleshoot the problem and re-engineer the solution. I have never understood that decision to this day.

Page 3: I talked to the guys who ruffed the house in a couple weeks later. They told me that they were running homeruns at the end of the day, and had one run that they couldn't get through the holes they had drilled, so they decided to leave it until the next day when they got the drill out again to finish it up. They forgot about it, and never did it. The HR ended up stuffed into the LR wall by the insulator and never made it into the basement.

End of story: I'm the idiot in the eyes of my boss.

Rant over.

 

[Rewire]

Now for, as Paul likes to say, "Page 2..."

Years ago, in my life as a waged employee, I got sent to finish a punch list on a new home. HOs had just moved in and there were a handful of small items still left to be done... a phone jack here, straighten a cover there... 1/2 hour tops for the list.


Now at this point, I'm an hour and a half into a half-hour project, so I call the office and tell them I'm still here fixing the bath circuit. My super starts in on me.. "We sent you out there for the other stuff!

End of story: I'm the idiot in the eyes of my boss.

Rant over.

I tell my employees that when you get to a job and are asked to do something outside the scope of what you were sent for call me.I need to know how long they will be at any one job so that I can keep a schedule if a job I believe is only going to take 1/2 hour turns into 2 hours then I need to know this at the onset so I do not schedule someone to be somewere they will not be when I told the customer.Also I may have additional information on a job like why the bathroom recep has no power or why the dishwasher does not work it may be something I am aware of and do not want you to work on as I have someone else scheduled to complete it or I am awaiting material.

 

[electricguy61]

Taking care of the customer's needs is always good business.

We do a lot of service work in a large (5000 population) retirement community, and we'll do almost anything they ask (other then sewer work).

My guys look professional (no tattoo's, facial jewelry, smokers, Marilyn Manson tee-shirts), wear booties, use runners and drop cloths, and always clean up any mess.

I don't do any advertising but a once a year ad in the community phonebook. The development office recommends us all the time.

As things get slow in new construction, I'll still have work.

 

[iaov]

I have had a lot of repeat buisiness from happy customers and a lot of new buisiness from people who have talked to happy customers.I think it is just as important to fix the customer as it is to fix the problem. Tightening a couple of door screws or putting on a new switch cover without charging for it is an investment in the future of my company.:smile:

 

[Energy-Miser]

We live by it at our company. If it means fixing a hinge, knob, etc with a screwdriver while they are writing the check. We do it.
Alot of people are old and have no one to help out. If we go on a min. service call that takes 40 min. We do things to make them feel comfortable for the 1 hr. min. Sometimes they just want someone to talk to.
It makes us feel good. Every old person has ment something in life.
It's our job as professional servicemen to show them we care.

Well said, I like that attitude. I would hire an electrician with that kind of attitude in a heartbeat, as it is probably an indication of all else that they do and how they do it. e/m

 

[Energy-Miser]

I do the same thing.

Sometimes it's the doorknob. Other times it's a cracked switchplate they never think about. Or just straightening up the porch light.

Years ago, I was packing up at the end of the day when my cell phone rang. It was an elderly lady who had lost power in part of her house. I got directions, and it turned out it was right on my route home.
So I stopped, and a pressure washer she was using had tripped the bath GFI (GFI breaker that fed other parts of the [older] home). I reset it for her, and all was good. She asked how much she owed me.
I replied, "I can't charge you for this. No trouble at all, and it was on my way home."
Now, I can hear a lot of the business guys cringing and groaning, but ever since she has been a regular customer. Nothing big, but always calling every 4 or 5 months.

Maybe she should have a heart-to-heart with the bathrobe lady.

I am one business guy who does not cringe or groan at this story. Nothing works better than good will in expanding a business. We are all consumers too, whether electricians, business owners, etc. and want to be treated fairly. e/m

 

[tonyou812]

Im a sucker for the old lady. I gave this lady a really fair price and helped her set her phone clock and clean out her garage a little and brought her Panera pastries.