Skip to main content

Service: Do You Want Fries With That?


All I wanted was something to drink, nothing more. It was a warm summer afternoon, and I’d been walking what seemed like a million miles –that might be a slight bit of hyperbole –to visit the sights of a well-known city here in this great country of ours.  As my thirst was getting the better of me, I happened upon a nationally known fast-food restaurant that was literally across the street from a huge tourist attraction –not only was the location a prime one, there were no other fast-food restaurants nearby so competition was next to nothing.  

When I stopped in, it was close to lunch time, so the restaurant was understandably busy with a mix of locals and tourists –the line was one of the longest I’d ever seen for this particular “brand”.  As I was waiting to place my order, I noticed that there were four or five registers mounted at the counter, but the manager only had two of the registers running. That seemed odd.  

The person in front of me in line had just stepped up to the register and proceeded to place her order –I could almost feel that drink touching my lips and being poured down my gullet to satisfy my building thirst.  Bingo, the person in front of me finished her order and stepped to the left to await her number being called, so I approached the worker who had been placed in my path to take my order –I’m at the gates of thirst Shangri-La. Without even looking at me, the worker reached into her pocket, extracted her cell phone, looked at it for just a moment, and then tapped a couple of keys on the register before walking away from the counter –she never once looked up at me. What?!!!  Eventually, I was funneled over to the remaining open register to place my order and shuffled over to the left to await my number being called –I ordered ONE drink, and it took ten minutes to get it, because they only filled the orders in sequence rather than by availability. 

In the real estate and mortgage world, there’s a TON of competition –you can’t swing a cat around without hitting another agent, and everybody has a brother or an aunt who has a mortgage license. However, once an individual has waded through the masses and chosen you and me to help her purchase a home, the competition is relatively non-existent.  At this point, it’s our responsibility to provide a service –and do it efficiently and effectively.  

If we’re good at what we do, we’re busy, right? That’s not a bad thing. Nevertheless, what do we do to assure that our clients don’t feel like they’ve been shunted into a long line with only one or two registers open?  Or, are we so full of ourselves and our own awesomeness that we feel our clients should be counting their lucky stars to have us as their agent and advocate?  The manager at the fast-food restaurant, in my estimation, could have been much more successful if he or she set up a system that showed the clients that they were the priority –more open registers, workers who stayed at their post, orders filled more efficiently.  Regardless of our given titles, we’re all managers of our own “nationally known fast-food restaurant” in a prime location with relatively no surrounding competition –do we just settle for what comes through the door and stays to eat, or do we focus on each individual client’s needs and work to assure we aren’t keeping anyone waiting?  And to think, all this from my need for a simple drink!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Definition of Insanity (in Real Estate)

More than a couple of years ago, I witnessed something that makes me laugh and cringe at the same time.  Having lunch at a local restaurant, I spied a real estate agent and a loan originator having what I would characterize as a “first date”. I couldn’t help but overhear little snippets of their conversation, and as far as I could tell, things were going relatively well . . . at least until the agent asked the LO this question: “So, do you like to sit at open houses with agents?”  I immediately looked to the LO’s face awaiting the response.  I didn’t need to hear another single word coming out of the LO’s mouth because his face said everything:  you would have thought the agent had asked him if he enjoyed bobbing for apples in a pool of acid judging by the look on his face.  While his face was communicating complete revulsion, his lips said, “Yes, of course.”  And that’s when I looked over at the agent’s face to see, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Time for a New York-Style Housing Fix

Previously, I’ve written about a man who works in our office who lived in New York City back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s – let me assure you that while that does seem like a very long time ago, it’s not nearly as far bac k as when the wheel was invented and humankind learned to harness the power of fire. If you’ve been to New York City recently and blissfully walked around Harlem to get chicken and waffles at Sylvia’s on Malcolm X Boulevard between 126 th and 127 th Streets or stopped in at Keybar on 13 th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A to wedge yourself into a cozy corner next to their notable fireplace, you wouldn’t get a sense that these areas were once . . . not as welcoming and glitzy as you now see them. Our office mate has told some fairly interesting stories of living in those and other areas of New York City that give a much different sense.   In the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, no matter how many great things you heard about Sylvia’s food, 127 th Str...
Post a Comment
Read more

Change: the Only Sure Thing

Which headline is better for grabbing your attention and prompting you to read the article to which it’s attached: “Credit Reports to Exclude Certain Negative Information, But Read on to See if This Even Applies to You” or “ Credit Reports to Exclude Certain Negative Information, Boosting FICO Scores”?   Obviously, the former is less than tantalizing while the latter makes you say, “Tell me more!”   I was in the “tell me more” camp, and the folks at The Wall Street Journal sucked me into their vortex. The development, set to go into practice on July 1 st , is certainly a departure from how the Big Three (Experian, TransUnion , and Equifax) have done things in the past, but it’s not going to wave a magic wand and make bankruptcies, foreclosures, short sales, etc., go away.   It’s sort of a bittersweet development.   Let me explain: Many tax liens and civil judgments will be removed from people’s credit reports if they don’t include a complete list of a...
Post a Comment
Read more