Signs Of General Decline

I have no social life, so it is hard for me to generalize about moral decline from that vantage point, due to my thin body of experience there from which to draw generalizing conclusions.

But, I have rich experience, current experience, in the business world upon which to make inferences, and that is what I am about to do. By the way, you partial socialists out there, moral decline among business people does not indicate that they are the only ones that do not care, are selfish and refuse to take excellent service to the extreme. The pervasive selfishness and laziness, and lack of performance applies even more so to non-workers, parasites and groupists in general.

There is a specific 8 inch, deck mounted Chicago faucet that I prefer, which is easier to install than a concealed deck-mount faucet from Chicago. The former can be installed quickly and inexpensively by a maintenance technician; the under mount variety requires a plumber to install.

In the Twin Cities there, are many wholesalers of long standing that cannot find the deck-mounted 8 inch faucet. They have the under mount ones in inventory, or can readily find these ones. The top-mount variety that I prefer is not to be found. Their part numbers were not right. Orders somehow  disappeared. I have just not been able to order  top-mount faucets.

Goodins likely has them but will only sell to plumbers, not the public. Other jobbers could not find the part number. The Minnesota Chicago faucet rep refused to give me the proper number. He was cold and uncaring, and told me just to order it from Fergusons, etc., but they cannot find the part number. It was a vicious circle, I called him back, and forced him to give me to good part number for two different models of faucets, so I could give that number to the jobbers, so they could order me the faucets.

I have been trying for three months all over town to get that faucet--no luck.

Finally, I thought of Cully's in Burnsville that I had used for hotel plumbing needs 20 years ago. The woman in sales there found the part number without me giving her any information. She had the number, ordered the faucet and it is arriving today by UPS. All was transacted in 10 minutes, and the faucets will arrive within 48 hours. Superior, friendly, competent service at a reduced price, 20% cheaper than anyone else.

Example 2: one of my clinics has two GE residential refrigerator's in their break room with non working ice makers.

I called an old and most reputable appliance repair place 6 blocks from procedure center, and no, they would not work on residential appliances. They only work on kitchen and commercial equipment.

He referred me to an appliance repair business in Eden Prairie. I called them and they said they would not work on the refrigerators. I called another western suburb place, and they demanded the serial numbers, for they would only work on appliances that they had sold to customers. I called a place in Minneapolis and they said they could work on the GE fridges but refused to because these residential fridges were in a commercial space, not a residential home.

They did refer me to Sears, and Sears is coming out today to fix the ice makers.

I spent over an hour finding Sears on the phone, and was lucky to find them.

Twenty years ago in Cavalier, North Dakota, the local AC guy would fix stoves, fridges, RTUs, the works.

Here are some ethical suggestions for these business people with such terrible customer service strategies:
1. You like saying no--get to yes, even if it is only getting me to the Sears technician.
2. Provide extreme excellent service, no grudging, minimal service.
3. Take on the jobs a little out of your niche market so that customers can get their needs met.
4. Take on the repair jobs that are not as profitable and as easy--you need to work for your profits.
5. Quit being secretive about how a customer should navigate the system to get to where he needs to be to get service.
6. Be generous, not selfish and stinting.

Enjoy your customers, and watch your business grow. Good service is a rare thing these days. I am enthusiastic about the capitalist system, but excellence, superb service, honesty, courtesy and hard work must go along with profit-accruing.