Here’s an incredible story, re: SERVICE.
It’s a very interesting case study that happened just a few days ago, during Easter holidays.
Last Friday night I traveled to the countryside happier than usual… for a very embarrassing reason: few days earlier they had installed a dish on the roof to connect my house to the internet!
Painful admission of workaholism, I know…
Anyhow, I could finally navigate online in the weekends at decent speed: no more mobile devices that cost an arm and a leg and are sooooo slow, thanks to a new provider offering high speed wifi connectivity. From now on I will work with a stable, reliable signal, while kids can drain unlimited bandwidth watching their Netflix series and playing their videogames.
Imagine: it’s Saturday morning, I wake up anxious to connect, I just have a quick coffee and immediately try to access internet…
… and nothing works, of course.
Typical. How bad.
So, I call Ignazio, the electrician of the village. I don’t know him, but they told me that he was the guy who put the cable connecting the dish on the roof with the internet plug in my dining room.
“Yeah, come on, he will give me the finger…”, I tell myself while dialing his number.
Not at all: Ignazio replies, he understands where the problem could be, and he tells he will come at 3:00pm to fix. I’m astonished. At 3:00pm o’clock he arrives, goes to the roof, changes a connection, and says that everything should be ok now.
But the connection still does not work.
Ignazio gives me a piece of paper with the mobile phone number of Steve, the guy who installed the antenna. Thay had had a talk, and Steve shared his number saying to feel free to call in case of need.
“Yeah, come on, he will give me the finger…”, I tell myself again.
Not at all: Steve, at 4:00pm on Saturday before Easter, takes my call. After guiding me on the phone through a series of instructions to check the connection, he says that dish is OK, signal is OK, line is up, everything is ready to navigate… but there must be an error in router configuration.
“I’ll ask Ivan to call you, he’s a software wizard”, Steve says to me.
“Yeah, come on, he will give me the finger…”, I tell myself once again… and I start accepting the idea of spending Easter holidays with the old low-performance connectivity.
I couldn’t have been more wrong: it’s 5:30pm when my handy rings. Ivan on the other side. I can’t believe it. And he says…
… fasten you seat belts please…
“Listen, tomorrow I’ll have lunch just close by, I could come and visit you mid morning to fix”.
I – SIMPLY – COULD – NOT – BELIEVE – IT.
A geek comes to your house on Easter to fix the router??? Where am I living?! Am I in Heaven?
Here’s the proof: this is Ivan, on Easter, at 11:20 am, configuring my router.
A real myth. He quickly solved the router issue, and he gave me some more helpful tips to improve my connectivity.
Why did I want to tell you this story?
First, to say THANKS to Ignazio, Steve, and Ivan, whose arrival on Sunday morning was the nicest Easter egg surprise I could ever imagine.
But also to share a positive message of hope, against the laziness and bureaucracy in the labour world, where relationships are becoming more and more impersonal:
- YES, someone who still offers his service on Saturday before Easter does exist;
- YES, someone who comes and visit you and provides his service on Easter does exist, and he behaves like if he was doing the most natural thing in the world (“I’m having lunch 2 miles from here, there is no problem, come on, I’m glad to help…”)
For me, given my hatred for “bad service” attitude, it was a real shot in the arm.
And since reciprocity – or divine justice if you like – do exist, I also booked an appointment with Ivan next week for some services we need in our office.
So, at the end, his Easter availability will bring him some solid new business.
Moral of the story:
that’s what being passionate about your work can do for you.
How passionate are you about your business?
If you like the idea of loving what you do, and receiving gratification, I recommend you to join this family of passionate online entrepreneurs, who treat their business with the same exact attitude shown by Ivan.
They love what they do, and receive gratifications back for what they do: here is it to know more
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