Friday, April 24, 2015

If at First You Don’t Succeed...

In the news today is a report of a man who tried to rob an Atlantic City bank in 2010, was arrested, and convicted.

We do not know what his sentence was for that crime, but we know that it was less than five years of jail time.  We know this because today he was back in Atlantic City to give it another go.

He tried to rob the same bank, with (so far) the same result:  He was arrested after a brief foot chase.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

What Part of “No” Do I Not Understand?

Recently here at the Badge Company of New Jersey we needed a specific piece of equipment but did not know where to get it.  We checked the manufacturer’s web site, but all we saw was a message saying that the web site was down.  So we picked up the phone and called.

Once we got through the now-obligatory message that “for training purposes” our call might be recorded, and pressed the correct button for the product line in which we were interested, we asked the bored-sounding person who answered the telephone if he could direct us to a source for the item in question.  His response was succinct.  “No.”

That was it.  Just the one word, “No.”

Ever optimistic, we then asked whether their might be someone else in his company who might be able to help us find the product.  Again, “No.”

Realizing that this guy’s idea of customer service was not going to go beyond the word “no” we sighed, said thank you, and hung up.

Let’s see... web site not functioning, phone personnel disinterested.  Quite a business plan!

Just yesterday we got a call from an individual seeking an item that we do not supply.  But we knew where he could get it, so we pulled out that information and passed it along.  This not only made the caller happy, but it gave us a few moments to talk with this prospect about the products we do offer, and to invite him to call again should he ever need any of them.

We like to think that this is part of the reason that we have been in business for more than 40 years, while others slip beneath the waves.