Nice Guys Are Always First In Customer Service Arena

Did you hear about the latest study that showed that “disagreeable” people in the workplace made more money than their more amenable coworkers?  Apparently, if you’re tough to work with and a man, you’ll make $10,000 more than your fellow male peers.  If you’re a woman and tough to work around, you’ll make $2,000 more.

Doesn’t that just seem wrong on so many levels?  I wonder if it’s a similar correlation to the theory some folks are falsely operating under that to be negative is to appear more intelligent or sophisticated.

I don’t know about you, but negativity and hatefulness repels me.  I’ve been mocked for being a Pollyanna and have stared back countless eye rolls when asked how I was and I’ve replied “awesome.” I can’t help but also think that organizations that pay disagreeable employees are either sure that those individuals have no contact with customers or they’re confused as to why they’re losing money.

I love a deal.  It’s great when I’ve found a good bargain or “stacked” some coupons in a shopping trip, but no matter how good the deal, if the employees of a store are rude, I’m not going back.

Fortunately, we have some incredible folks working in Neosho.  They may be employed by national chains, headquartered thousands of miles away, but these individuals still conduct themselves as our friends and neighbors.

A good example occurred earlier this week at Lowe’s.  The Marble homestead remodel has moved upstairs.  As I wrote about recently, the twins repainted their rooms.  Our attention has now turned to carpet and window coverings.  We’re nightly visitors at Lowe’s.  Some nights we don’t buy anything, but look at various products, trying to get a read on what appeals to two fifteen-year-olds.

On our last trip we were ready to make a window shade commitment.  Our plan was simply to purchase the blinds and leave them for sizing.  But within minutes “David” was at hand ready to cut them to order while we waited.  He and Big Al enjoyed a chat about fishing and fathers; David has just spent the day fishing with his father, and had scheduled a night shift to catch up on hours.

Within a few minutes we walked out with three set of custom-cut shades and a pretty good feeling about David and Lowe’s in general.  Good customer service and kindness always win the day. 

Go forth and paint young men...

I’ve written before about things I’ve sworn I would never do as an adult. I’ve never gone camping. Big Al didn’t exactly have it written into our wedding vows, and I would hate to think that it would have been a marital deal-breaker, but we had some serious pre-engagement talks about faith, family, and our shared no-camping sentiment.

Most of my “nevers” are personal idiosyncrasies. I never watch horror movies. I can’t turn them off in my brain when I go to bed and if I’m up I make enough noise for the whole house, so it’s in everyone’s best interest to keep my brain scary thoughts free.

There are a few “nevers” that we’ve just learned. For example, I should never pack. I hate to pack. I’ve always said I will never move from our house in Western Hills. It makes me nervous to put everything in boxes. If you’ve ever seen my work desk you know I like all my notes and papers spread out in front of me.

I also should never be allowed to paint. I am horrible at it. You will see every painting mistake on each patch where I’ve worked; brush strokes, runs, see-through patches. I’m over-the-top talented at bad painting. So I never do it.

For the past 15 years the twins have happily shared a room. There are three sets of twins, currently living, on my side of the family. I have girl-twin cousins, now in their 30s, and my sister had a boy-girl set of twins two years after our set was born. We’ve always thought the boy/boy combination led to their closeness. I can count on one hand the number of times they’ve disagreed since they were babies. So they’ve always been content to share the same four walls.

But now it seems appropriate for them to have their own room. Big Al thought it best for them to personalize their space as well. The guys picked out their own paint color down at Brown Paint & Propane, with David Freund mixing in a little bit of teasing about our turning loose gallons of paint to two teens.

I happily headed off to work last week, with Big Al taking a couple of vacation days to supervise. Every hour or two I would get a picture sent via text message, showing me progress on the wall, advancement on the trim.

The last picture Alan sent was of both boys in Logan’s room, paintbrushes in hand, grins on their faces…only a few drips of paint on their skin or clothes. They were obviously proud of their accomplishment

Now comes the hard part, moving and unpacking things back in their now separate rooms. I think the boys would rather paint the whole house instead. Looks like we’ve finnaly found something they inherited from me.

Neosho's Bright Future

When I moved to Neosho I was just 21.  Working in public relations at Crowder would be my first job out of college.  A few weeks before the position began; I came to town to look for a place to rent.  I remember stopping to eat a quick bit for lunch at one of the restaurants on the Boulevard.  It was a hot August like now, and sitting there I looked out across the highway at the high school. 

I remember thinking how nice it was that the school seemed to be at the heart of the town and that the football field was immediately next to it.  Even though it would be almost 10 years before I would have kids, I daydreamed a little about how nice it would be for my children to one day attend Neosho Schools.

My decision to start my career here was based as much on how impressed I was with Crowder as how hopeful I was to become part of Neosho.  I never regretted either decision.

Crowder was a great place to work for almost two decades.  And now for almost 25 years I’ve called Neosho home.  I’ve often compared our Western Hills neighborhood to Neosho in general.  It’s small enough that everyone knows everyone, but big enough that folks aren’t “in your business” all the time.  But at the first sign of trouble, people will flock to you, climbing over each other to help.

Neosho is the type of place where folks are just waiting to do something good.  A perfect example is the Hope Chest project at Mills Furniture.  The ripple effects from that effort are now felt far and wide; both in terms of those who have helped find and fill the chests along with those on the receiving end.

Last week Neosho’s Bright Future’s program kicked off.  Once again, there was no denying that Neosho was ready to answer the call.  Neosho First Baptist was filled with eager parents, dedicated teachers and fantastic community leaders all waiting to hear how they could become a part of this program that has so positively impacted the Joplin school district.

Each and every speaker that morning spoke from the heart.  Representative from the school, athletics, business, the court system and Neosho churches spoke about what ministering to students meant to them and how they saw Neosho’s Bright Futures program being a key factor in the success of our district.

There are so many ways to help: having lunch with a student, volunteering at a school, sponsoring a classroom, or even a school.  The organizers of Neosho’s effort have purposefully left portions of the next steps open.  They want to make this program – Neosho’s program; meet the needs of our students, here and now.

Get involved.  Check out “Bright Futures Neosho” on Facebook or call Neosho schools, 451-8600. 

Neosho is a great community with a very bright future.

Hacked

Every new parent quickly learns not to criticize the parenting skills of others, saying or thinking along the lines of “my child would never do that…”  Just as soon as those words are out of your mouth the universal jinx law is fully engaged and your preciously perfect little angel is on a collision course for that exact same act you only moments early mentioned with disdain.

Or who hasn’t chuckled as someone tripped or stumbled in your path, only to do the exact same shuffle step or trip just a short distance down the road. 

It’s simple.  Don’t criticize.  Don’t mock.  Don’t be cruel.  We live on a circular planet.  What goes around comes around. 

I’ve also observed that it’s best to the thankful in generalities.  Be thankful for your friends.  Be thankful that your home is intact and you had food on the table for dinner.

Don’t sit on the edge of your bed, like I did, on an otherwise perfectly good Saturday afternoon and think to yourself – smugly – I am really fortunate.  My email has never been hacked. As a matter of full disclosure I should state that I tried to take it back.  I closed my eyes.  I shook my head.  I tried everything to start up my mental eraser, but it was too late.

Overnight, actually at 1:52 a.m. on an otherwise perfectly peaceful Sunday morning, my email, the exact same account only hours earlier I had thoughtfully appreciated was hacked.  Most every one of my public-relations-professionally packed contact list got the now classic message that I was in Spain and needing money. 

By 7 a.m. my phone was hopping with calls and text from friends.  Eager to alert me to the crazy activity of my email outbox.  I can’t stress strongly enough how mad I was by the virtual invasion.  I was livid.

The reactions from friends and family lasted all day Sunday and well into Monday.  Gratifying were the friends who were quick to let me know that they knew it wasn’t me because of the poor grammar contained in the body of the message.  Thank you.  That was possibly the only bright spot in the situation.

I eventually found humor in the friends who contacted me to say they had sent money.  Seriously it scared me to death the first couple of times I heard it, but after the fifth or sixth message and the barely contained giggles I got it.

"Note to  self" everyone: if I ever get stranded out of the country, it would absolutely be in Jamaica.  And if I lose my wallet, I won’t be complaining about it.  “No worries ‘mon.’” I will take up my first-ever waitressing gig and consider it a sign from God I’m supposed to stay.

For now I’m thankfully home, well-funded and enjoying an empty in-box.