November 22, 2014

►    Customer Feedback:   A Seasonal Service and Repair Report Card was received from Glenn W.  in Hollis, NH who had a service call on his pool filter.  He rated us Excellent on all points.  “Initial call handled expediently.  Prompt return & schedule by tech.  Same day visit for evaluation, and repair next morning.  Provided options & “clean up” work.  Offered follow up.  Excellent work!”

►    Advertising continues from last week:  “Family Fun Specials”.  Everything else continues, also.

►    Remember, Thanksgiving is next Thursday, and we will be closed.  Because we love our team members.

►    Our Black Friday/Plaid Friday/Small Business Saturday specials run only 11/28 to 11/30 (Friday to Sunday).

►    I received a nice compliment the other day.  I have heard something like this before, but he went on in much more depth this time.  Pat O’Keefe, owner of EZ Test Pools (three stores) and D&P Construction, told me that he has never seen customers so nice and so loyal as our customers.  How does he know?  Nine out of ten people that we send to him to shop for a liner buy one from him – and generally without shopping anywhere else.  Our customers are more likely to buy from him than his own customers.  If we say that D&P are good, that’s good enough for them.  And they are very nice throughout the process.  Very high praise from someone who knows better.

►    New Policy:  Mia is responsible for all store design changes and moves except, obviously, internal moves in the furniture department.  That means ONLY Mia.  She will coordinate with Dennis, Pat, and anyone else who needs to be involved.  She will determine who, what, when, how, and why.  If you have ideas, feel free to discuss them with her.  And if she has not told you, and the acting manager what is to be moved, you do not need to do it.  In fact, do not do it.

►    In 2013,we emailed 36 water test results to 29 people.  In 2014, we emailed 10 tests to 9 people.  Your opinion (leave me a note).  Fewer people have us email results, or fewer of you are giving me the copies?

►    Billiard Service Request forms ask for directions to the job site.  Full directions are not necessary, unless it is a new development that is not on GPS.  However, it still needs the last several feet of the directions:  house color, or what you can see from the road.  Why?  Because GPS tells Matthew roughly where the house is, but not exactly.  Some houses are not visible from the road.  Some driveways look like a road.  Many of our customers live in the sticks.  So never write “can be found on GPS”, have the customer (not you) write what Matt will see when he gets there.  We prefer that to be in the customer’s handwriting.

►    From the Hippo:

Ironies:  As Americans know, Canada’s health care system, funded largely by taxes, is dramatically less expensive than America’s.  Well, unless you’re a dog.  The Canadian news service CTV reported in February that increasingly, pet owners in Winnipeg, Manitoba, are making the 120-mile car trip to Grand Forks, ND, because U.S. veterinarian prices are significantly lower than comparable services by Canadian vets.  One Winnipeg family, facing a $650 teeth-cleaning plus blood work for Jackson, their Shitzu, took him on the road trip to Grand Forks, where the bill came to $205.

►    Internet Humor:

• “May I borrow your record player tonight?” a man asked his neighbor. “Sure, you want to listen to some music?” “No,” he answered, “I want to have some peace and quiet.”
• A mother saw her three year old son put a nickel in his mouth and swallow it. She immediately picked him up, turned him upside down, and hit him on the back, whereupon he coughed up two dimes. Frantically, she called to the father outside. “Your son just swallowed a nickel and coughed up two dimes! What shall I do?” The father yelled back, “Keep feeding him nickels!”