A Tight Wrap Makes All The Difference
Hey, what is going on? I am down here in, shoot, I'm pretty close to Sun City, but we can call it Phoenix.
I look at this, there's weather out here. It's freaking amazing, nice and warm. This is what I'm talking about. I don't think you need ice in any place but a cold drink. And I've been running around doing my thing with the truck today. And I had this load where it was cardboard, and the shipper did not secure the cardboard to the pallet effectively enough. And I'm driving through Vegas, and I had to hit my brake a little harder than normal because a traffic situation happened. And I remember thinking, "Oh man, that couldn't have been good." And sure enough, today I find out that the cardboard slid off the pallet and it kinda got ugly. In a couple places in the truck.
And the first thing that comes to my mind is... I saw it when I went to pick it up. I can see that they're not doing enough to secure their product to the pallet. And by the way, everybody always tries to blame the driver when anything happens. It's always the driver. Almost never is. But he always gets the blame. You know, it's like that Cheech and Chong thing, "I never do nothing wrong, oh, but every time I get the blame." Anyway... a little side note.
The thing is, if you're going to do something, especially if it has to do with your product or service, people talk about going the extra mile. Well to me that's the norm, and I'm not talking about doing extra things. I'm talking about just doing what it takes to make sure that you don't have a problem like that. Maybe a few more wraps of plastic around that stack and the stuff wouldn't have been able to slide forward.
But I know for a fact, if they would've put this, these plastic straps that they have, and strapped down that cardboard to the pallet, nothing would've happened. Because this stuff's heavy. It's heavy, but it's slippery. And so, you know, I hit the brake, and it all, just slid right off.
So when you're doing anything in your business, do what it takes to make sure that you get the job done the way it's supposed to be done. Just because your name's on it. Screw refunds, and bad press, and all this. None of that stuff matters. What matters is, did you in your own mind, meet your own standard, which is making sure that everything is taken care of. If you're not gonna do that, I recommend you run a laundry or something where you don't have to have to do too much. But even then you've got to clean the place up, and you have soap in the dispenser and all that.
So if you've ever had a problem (and who hasn't) with a product or a service that didn't work right, I'm sure you can pick out at least one or two instances where the business bent over backwards to make things right. "You know what, that did not turn out the way it was supposed to, let us take care of it." And I am equally confident that you could find one or two instances where they're looking at you like, "Well, you know, tough. That's just the way the ball bounces, the cookie crumbles, whatever. So if things didn't work out for you, we're sorry, but have a nice day."
And that is no way to run a business, as far as I'm concerned. So in your day to day, put out that little bit extra. You will make people so happy, especially if something goes wrong, and you fix it for them.
When you do things the way we show you how, you’ll have far fewer things to fix.
That's what I got for today. I hope you're having a beautiful day like this, wherever you are.
Till tomorrow, I'm out.
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