I wouldn't have thought possible...

I know that Roger gets sick and tired of hearing it; but I just can’t help myself.  Any time we drive to Toronto, I’m asking the meaningless rhetorical question of how anyone could spend their life in this grid lock that seems to paralyse every road, street and highway.  Roger has heard all this from me hundreds of time.  He patiently ignores by outbursts and waits for me to return to normalcy.  Which usually happens when the car is pointed back towards Waterloo.

It is a bright and sunny spring morning in Waterloo County.  I have picked up Roger and we’re driving into work – chatting about everything and nothing as we always do.  I’m only half listening.  Slowly my attention is drawn to Roger complaining about the amount of salt the Township puts on the winter roads.  Here it is May and we are talking about the salt they used last winter?  Apparently so.

A few years ago, Roger was so consumed with this irritant that he put together a petition demanding that the Township either stop, or severely restrict, the amount of salt used on the winter roads.  The salt usage was being accused of destroying a strip of grass and landscaping that bordered the properties on Roger’s street.  Roger got all his neighbours to sign the petition.  That, in and of itself, doesn’t mean anything.  Wouldn’t you sign just about anything to get an angry crazed 7 foot 800 pound man who is frothing at the mouth back out your front door?

 Roger took his petition to the Township office where he was directed to the lowest possible level of clerk to discuss the “salt issue”.  “Oh, we couldn’t possibly stop using salt on the winter roads.  We would be sued if anything ever happened....”  And it slid downhill from there (I guess they hadn’t used enough salt).  Talk about “rubbing salt into the wound”.  And proving, again, you can’t fight City Hall.

The only outcome of the petition was that Roger’s anger towards road salt has been intensified and continues to roil and boil within him.  Even to the point where, on a glorious beautiful day, when all we should be thinking about is how good it is to be alive, we are nagging about salt on the roads.  I wouldn’t have thought it was possible.

Lost in the Dust....

We admit it. Not that there is much point in trying to deny it – as anyone who knows us would immediately see. Roger and I are a couple of old farts. It wasn’t always this way; once we were younger than you are now. Time is a cruel master.

This is not intended to be a rant by another old guy about how things were better “back in the day”. Maybe there were; maybe they weren’t. Who knows.

A while ago, Roger called a Customer who had done us favour and Roger wanted to thank him. When he called, he got voice mail. As it was a personal message, rather than leave a voice mail, Roger hung up with the intent of calling back and speaking directly to the Customer . After an appropriate period, he tried again. When he called, he got voice mail. As it was a personal message, rather than leave a voice mail, Roger hung up with the intent of calling back and speaking directly to the Customer . After an appropriate period, he tried again. When he called, he got voice mail. As it was a personal message, rather than leave a voice mail, Roger hung up with the intent of calling back and speaking directly to the Customer . After an appropriate period, he tried again. When he called, he got voice mail. As it was a personal message, rather than leave a voice mail, Roger hung up with the intent of calling back and speaking directly to the Customer .

You get the idea....

The problem is this. With the passage of time, we no longer know what the etiquette or the protocols are in this situation. Do you keep trying and have the Customer think you are stalking them? Do you leave a voice mail that never conveys your appreciation as well as speaking directly to the person? Do you send an email – what we would think is even more impersonal than voice mail. Do you drive over and bang on their office door and say; “Thanks!” That might be a little over the top.

We don’t know how to properly handle a situation like this today.

We have been left behind – lost in the dust of history.


(Old age isn’t so bad – it has its advantages. I get to ride on the bus for a discounted fare. If I ever took the bus.)

You always make me look good...

We have one particular Customer that Roger has been working with for a long time; ever since this person was buried in the depths of a large organization.  Since then, with hard work, leadership, insight, and people skills, he has elevated himself to various senior positions; now to the point now where many “not for profit” organizations come knocking on his door for him to join their Board of Directors or Steering Committees.

All along that journey, he has worked with Roger.  He says, “You always make me look good....”

To us, that means 2 things.  Firstly, he has the confidence that Roger will deliver something that reflects well on him.  Secondly, he doesn’t place any restrictions on what Roger should do.

Normally, he and Roger will sit down and informally discuss the situation to be addressed.  Roger gets a feeling for the audience that is being directed and a general idea of the budget.

That leaves the door open to Roger’s imagination and creativity.  He tries to come up with 3 – 4 suggestions of what he thinks might be appropriate.  Then the Customer picks the one that he feels is most appropriate.

Roger doesn’t tell anyone he does it; but I have seen him in these situations always try and add a little something extra to the chosen solution.

Deliver more than what you promised and you make your Customer look good.

Down the Road for Italian

We went down to Toronto last week to do sales calls. I think because I wasn’t complaining about how bad the traffic was that Roger rewarded me with Italian food at lunch. There is always 1 thing that makes me happy - Italian food.

I don’t know how he does it, but Roger seems able to find every “hole in the wall” Italian eatery in the greater Toronto area. This one, like most, is located in a strip mall. When you walk in there are a few tables and a scattering of chairs that all looked like they came out of your Grandmother’s kitchen. But almost every seat is taken – most by construction guys as they seem to know the good places to eat.

This is cafeteria style ordering so no table service. The menu is listed on a couple of white boards attached to the back wall. There is a row of food warmers displaying today’s various daily offerings - none of which seem to match what is written on the white boards. There are 3 – 4 middle aged Italian women busily ladling servings onto Customer’s plate. They are bantering back and forth with their Customers; theses must be the “regulars”. For me, I can feel their frustration with some old guy holding up the production line while he is trys to make a decision. What should I pick?

I make my selection (meat balls and ravioli with extra sauce) and carry my plate to the Lady behind the cash register. She waves me away.... “No, no – pay when you leave”.

Roger and I grab the last table and scrounge some chairs. The room is loud and happy. The food is simply and wonderful.

Too soon the plate is empty. Roger goes back to the Lady behind the cash register. “What did you have....,” she asks and Roger rattles off what we ate. If you really have to, they’ll take your credit card; but cash is preferred.

I have been in the business of business for more years than I can remember. My habit is to look at what businesses do well and what they do poorly. I marvel because this is just such a simple concept.

Good food, nothing fancy, prepared by people who enjoy what they do and served to people they see as friends. No expense for table service; the Customer picks up their food and returns the dirty dished to the kitchen. And reward your Customer with your trust; let them tell you what they owe. The result is that they are busy.



Seems so simple. What I don’t understand is why everyone doesn’t do it.

Consequences

You learn something new every day. Do you know how many characters are displayed by your telephone with “call display”? Apparently, around here, the answer is “10”.

I had to call my daughter from work. She was laughing at me (again). “I wasn’t going to pick up the phone,” she said. 

“Well, why not,” was my question. She can be difficult at times. 

She laughed and told me; “Call display showed that there was someone calling me from “Exposurbra”.

“Exposur bra? Who do I know from Exposur bra? Who would ever use the name, "Exposur Bra?”"

Truncate the name of our company, “Exposurbrand,” to 10 characters and see what you get.

What can you say? Reminds one of “The Law of Unintended Consequence."

The last day of school...

When you are in elementary school, the last day of the school is an exciting and expectant time. You can’t wait for the prison doors to be thrown open so the inmates can rush out and run free all summer.

And it’s an exciting time at Exposurbrand. But for different reasons.

Often Teachers will order our “purposeful trinketry” as a way to send their Students off on a positive note. Last June, one particular Teacher ordered T-shirts to give to her Students – the school’s logo on the front and the kid’s name on the back. To be handed out on the last afternoon of school. An order like this is more complex than what you might think. You have to make sure you match the right colour (they offered three different colours) to the right style ( 2 different styles offered) to the right size to the right spelling of the name. What we do, which we hope will minimize errors, is to have each Student fill out an order form. In the case at hand, we asked the kids to include their home address on the order form as well.

Understand that we don’t do the printing on T-shirts but send the order out to a local company that (usually) does a great job of silk screening for us. When we send out the order, we give them a summary of what we need and when we need it. In this case, it was imperative that the shirts be back to us at least a week before the end of school. That gives us a comfortable “margin of error” in case something goes wrong. And, of course, it did.

“Can’t get the red colour you need”, was the first delay; “the material should be here in a day or two...”. Then their paint dryer breaks down and it’s another 4 days before they get the spare part and find a mechanic to install it. We are getting more and more frantic. The worst possible situation is staring us in the face. It won’t only be the cost of 30 shirts that will never be delivered but stay in the shop to forever remind us of this mess; but more importantly, how we have let down our Customer. Finally, at 2:30 PM on the last day of school, they call to say the shirts are ready. We scramble out of the office and race to the silk screener, pick up the shirts and then sprint over to the school and arrive at 3:30 PM...

...To be told that school is let out early on the last day of school. The Teacher is coldly understanding; but not in the least happy.

This is when you really have to respect how Roger runs his business.

We spend the next 3 hours, using the addresses on the order forms and a GPS unit, running all over the neighbourhood and sprinting up the front steps of every kid’s house to deliver their shirt. You should have seen the surprise, pure joy and smiles on their faces.

No money made that day; but we drove home happy.