Sometimes You Just Have to do the Right Thing...

At RooterPLUS, we get interesting calls all of the time. Last week we received a very interesting call. A woman from Gainesville called and told my call taker that she had dropped a ring in the toilet and wondered if we could get it out. This is not the first "jewelry down the drain" call we have received, but there was something that made this call different. When my call taker asked for her contact number, the customer gave it to her but told us that we could not leave a message on the machine because her mailbox was full. It turns out that her son had died unexpectedly a couple of days ago and his voice was on her machine and the mailbox was full. She refused to delete any of his messages and was going to buy a new machine. The woman was in tears, which then lead to my call taker being in tears. We sent a technician out.

Our tech arrived and soon found out that the ring had been in her late husband's family for over one hundred years. Her husband passed away less than three years ago, and this is all she has left. We removed her toilet and put a camera down her line. Unfortunately, the ring was nowhere to be found. It had made its way to the septic tank. Even though we were unable to retrieve the ring, we got a call from the customer after our tech had left the home. She once again broke down in tears and said that the employee we had sent was "one of the nicest men she had ever met." This particular tech has seven (yes...seven!) children. The customer loved this and felt like she connected with him.

So now we have a very sweet lady, dealing with some terrible tragedy in her life, who takes the time to call the office and thank us for sending such a nice and compassionate technician. But, she does not have her ring back. This is where RooterPLUS can make a difference. We called the customer (I had another call taker call because the initial one could not contain her tears) and told her that we were going to come to her house and pump her tank for free. We will pump it very slowly and remove all liquids. Then we will try to use a fine mesh pool net to try to find the ring. We will go out later this week and try our hardest.

As the General Manager of a large Plumbing, Septic, Heating and Air company it is very gratifying to do nice things for our customers. This incident also revealed something else about my employees. Even though all of my employees are on 100% commission based pay, I had three of my septic technicians offer to go to this woman's house. Knowing that this might turn out to be an all day endeavor, three of them offered to basically work for free to help her out. Working in an environment that is surrounded by people who want to help others is what makes my job great.

Stay tuned and see how this plays out...

Working From Home...Not Working for Me

I always thought it would be a great gig to work from home. You know, no 5:15 a.m. alarm, no shower, shaving and getting all dressed up. I don't have to brave the cold and walk through puddles to the car. I can just put on my sweats, fire up the laptop, get some breakfast and work away. I have email and my cellphone, I can log onto GPS and see where my guys are and I can see the dispatch board and know exactly which calls are coming in. I can see in real time exactly how much revenue is coming in and exactly what we are spending out in the field. Who needs an office?

Today was the day. I was going to give it a shot. My little girl was sick and home from school, so the wife went to work and I was going to work from home. I got out of bed around 6:30 a.m. and got all ready for a busy Monday. I took some calls from managers and techs. I sent some emails and replied to others. Checked the dispatch board and talked to my dispatchers. It was now around 7:30 a.m. and I was looking for things to do. I turned on some music because it was so quiet I could not concentrate. A couple times I caught myself clicking on the "get mail" icon to see if somebody was sending me something. I was bored out of my mind! I called the wife and asked if she could work a half day. She came home around noon and I went to the office.

As soon as I walked in, the phones were ringing off the hook. Ringing phones in the service industry are like slot machines paying out tokens. That is where the money is. I saw my managers and my dispatchers. There were fires to put out. There were customers to talk to. It was exciting. I got to the office around 1 p.m. and did not take a breath until about 3:30. This is the way I like it. Some people probably thrive in an at home environment - not me.

I need people around me. I need to watch motivated people doing something that they like. I don't know if it is the energy that I need or the smiling faces. I love my job and the people that I work with. You can have your sweat pants and couch and I will take my office in Cumming, GA all day long.