The Sanford Berenberg Experience: Message of the Day

Good Morning,

My current read is John G. Miller's latest book, "Outstanding: 47 Ways to Make Your Organization Exceptional" (http://outstandingorganization.com/). This book takes what John taught in "QBQ, the Question Behind the Question" and "Flipping the Switch" (his two previous books) to a whole new level. Not only is the book extremely easy to read and follow, each of the 47 ways has both experiences and lessons which we often apply to our own lives.

After reading finishing the book I have been seeing people, actions and even myself in terms of what lessons I am applying or at times, not applying.

Chapter Five is "See Everyone As a Customer" and uses as its foundation the 360 Degree Review. John talks about how looking at everyone we interact with as our customer, as someone we can serve, we improve our organization.

This Sunday I had an experience with two different companies, one which embraced this concept and the other which did not. My Father-in-Law recently moved into an apartment from a house and asked Karen and I to move some of his stuff to our house and to the Good Will. We rented a truck from a company we have done business with before, and since they give such good service, we prefer using them. We started right after church, picking up the rental truck and driving 1.5 hours to my Father-in-Law's old residence and spend about 2 hours filling the truck before heading back to Louisville.

After returning home, and unloading the truck, we had a change of plans. A full sized bed which we planned to give to our daughter who uses a twin became a donation to go to the Good Will. My plan was to drop off the U-Haul Truck that night and get my car, which is parked by the company. With donating the bed, I had to change plans. Since it was around 6 PM and being that Monday is Karen's birthday and I would rather spend more time with her then returning a truck, I went to Good Will with the bed.

As I pulled into the Good Will, there was a lady there who looked at me and said that 'We are closed and you cannot leave it here, or we will get fined." I told her about my father-in-law moving into a retirement home and us looking to donate his goods. She then said "I have been here since 8 AM and I came in three hours early and I am really tired". Oddly, I had been up and active since 6 AM, including loading and unloading a 17 Foot U-Haul truck and driving over 3 hours, etc., but I did not bring that up.

I asked her if there was anywhere else I could bring it. She then told me "The city had a open dumping day where I could have dropped the bed off to be thrown away, but they are closed too". So, on top of her not helping me, she rubs it in that I missed another opportunity.

She did not see me as a customer, rather as an annoyance. So, I decide to leave. I even had to back my U-Haul onto a road as this lady sat in her SUV waiting for me to leave and did not allow me to pull through. Sad.

I called Karen and asked her what she thought and she suggested some courses of action which included leaving the bed by some apartment complex. I felt bad doing that as I was wearing the T-Shirt for my favorite Kentucky Chiropractor and did not want to be arrested and give Dr. Baker a bad name. (Yes, Dr. Baker, I lifted with my legs).

I decided to return the truck to U-Haul and reach out to the on-site after hours manager. As I knocked on his door, I saw he was one of the people who had helped me in the past. I explained my tale of woe to him and he suggested that he could find someone to give the bed to or keep it in a storage unit and auction it off at one of their annual actions. This man had solutions, after hours, in the middle of his dinner.

Again, I know why I do business with these U-Haul/Storage people.

Anyway, I left the bed in the truck and drove my car home to load it up with the rest of the donations to Good Will, but I will certainly not be going back to the Good Will store I visited yesterday.

I want to go to a place that will see and treat me as a customer.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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