Step 1: The office receives a call where the customer states their bathtub is not draining so well. It would be our pleasure to take care of that for you. Sounds simple to us—maybe a snake, maybe the drain machine, but something in our bag of tricks will get that drain cleared and the water flowing better again.
Step 2: The technician shows up at the customer’s door armed with said bag of tricks. He is a little upset with the office because this is the third or fourth drain cleaning he’s been on in the last few days. It’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it. Remember to make Mike Rowe proud, boys!
Step 3: Tech digs into the pipes a little, finds large blockages. Apparently this job was just set on preheat.
Step 4: While that pot is warming up, the home comfort advisor pops in to check on the age of the pipes and the possible need to re-pipe the bathroom. The oven dings—by way of a hole in the ceiling— and pipes are being pulled and replaced.
Step 5: The technician returns for a full re-pipe of that bathroom. Ingredients are mixed together well—pex piping, a ladder, wax rings and Johni-Bolts.
Step 6: Set the timer to bake for one day. Turned out the temperature was too low, or the mixture needed a little extra time to set, because that one day turned into two and a half.
Everyone is getting hungry waiting for this masterpiece to be completed. This isn’t in the recipe, but it can’t hurt to show up with doughnuts and coffee. The office staff has taken a liking to this customer, and feels pretty guilty that a certain tech is stuck on drains again, so a trip to Dunkin Donuts on a rainy morning is set in motion to make everyone’s day a little better.
Meeting a customer is fun, especially knowing our techs are doing a great job to get her home’s plumbing fixed. This is not something I get to do very often— meet the customers. I talk to most of them a lot, but rarely get any time to really know them. I had a wonderful conversation with this kind lady, got to know a little about her life, learned that her husband used to run a dog kennel, and worked on a crossword puzzle together. It was no doubt an hour well spent.
I don’t think they expected me to show up that day, but I think the techs definitely appreciated the visit. It’s nice to have everyone at a company understand a little more about one another’s jobs. I’m sure it’s not easy climbing up and down a ladder in a customer’s hallway all day, just waiting for that front door to pop open. But, this is what they do to get the job done.
And, there’s no doubt that at the end of the day when that oven timer finally dings and the job is complete, they can step back and smile at a job well done. Everyone’s masterpiece may be a little different. For some it’s art, others it’s cooking, and for these guys, it’s a happy customer with a problem fixed.
