Compliments Make the World Go Round!

We've all, at some point in our life, gotten bad service before--and I can guarantee that we have all put in a complaint about something before as well. Its human nature--if you're paying for a service and you aren't happy with the turnout, someone is going to hear about it.  We are all guilty of doing this, and its not necessarily always a bad thing. However, if you receive exemplary service, be sure to let them know.

Yesterday I had Orkin come out and spray my house for spiders. Joe has been killing spiders here daily, and we've been having a black widow problem (outside only, thank god). Having those around in the backyard scared me with the kids--especially with Madison not being scared of spiders. We'd had a different exterminator before and it was an awful experience. They came out and sprayed my house, then told me that they would be back every other month. A week after they sprayed my house, we started seeing lots of bugs again. I called the company and told them, and they said that "its a process" and that that's normal. That didn't seem right to me, but I let it go. Then the technician started showing up to my house every few weeks instead of every other month--which meant that I was paying a lot more. One of the times he showed up and I wasn't home (which shouldn't have been an issue; he was just supposed to spray the outside of my house). I got home and saw a bill stuck in my front door, then went and saw that my backyard gate hadn't been opened (its propped closed a certain way; there was no way that he had opened it, sprayed my backyard, then closed it again). I called the company and told them that I wouldn't be paying for that visit and that I would be cancelling my service. Too many things had gone wrong and I was done. It was an awful experience and we went almost a year without an exterminator. But then we started having this spider issue.

Orkin sent a technician out to my house yesterday and he was amazing. Without having to tell him anything, he told me he was going to spray everywhere I wanted him to--something the other company didn't do even when I asked them. He listened to all of my concerns about where we were seeing lots of spiders, then got started. He went through my entire backyard, front yard, and house and took down all of our cobwebs, then started spraying everything. Because we weren't having a huge problem inside the house, he only sprayed around our doors and windows--which I was perfectly okay with. However, outside the house he sprayed the perimeter of my yard, around the exterior of my house, and in my garage (usually they don't do that). When he was all finished with everything he told me the damage: he walked into my house and with a serious face said "you had a LOT of spiders." He then told me that he had killed between 50-60 spiders while he was outside, found 2 black widows, one brown widow, a friggin WOLF SPIDER (are you KIDDING me?! I don't care if they're harmless--those things look gnarly!), cellar spiders, and a few more that I cant remember (about 8 different types of spiders). He found a few egg sacs and got rid of those, and he even found a wasp nest near my front door that I didn't even know about and took it down. This guy was THOROUGH--and I was SO happy with him. I feel so much better sitting in my house knowing that I'm not going to be seeing any spiders crawling around--and I'm confident that I wont. 

After he spent an hour and a half working on my house (usually they only take about 30 minutes), he left and said he would do a follow-up call in a few days to make sure I'm still not seeing any more spiders. I called Joe and raved about this guy and we both agreed that we are so happy that we called them. I was so pleased with this company and this technician specifically, I knew I had to call the company and tell them.

Its kinda sad that companies are so used to getting complaint calls and never any compliments. If you have a good product, you should be praised for it. This employee specifically was amazing and he was very good at what he does--so he should get praise for it. I called the company and told them how happy I was with the visit and confident that I chose the right company--and they were THRILLED. The operator on the other line told me that they don't get many calls like this, so she was going to forward it to her branch manager. That's so sad to me--that people wont hesitate to call when something goes wrong, but when something is great, they don't even think about calling. I have no idea what this guy will get, if anything, for me calling in. Maybe he'll get a star on a chart, or maybe he'll get a $20 Starbucks card. Either way, he's going to know that I called in and was very pleased with his services, and I'm sure that'll make his day.

I'm not writing this so that you go out and hire this company--because honestly, its a technician-by-technician basis (unless you live near me--then absolutely call them up and hire them). My parents are the ones who referred me to the first exterminator that we had an awful experience with; my parents have been using them for over 10 years and love them, but because I live in a different city than them, it was a completely different experience. I'm writing this to urge you to hand out some compliments. If a barista at Starbucks is overly nice and helpful, tell their manager. I shop at Target a LOT and have had some great service--and I always go to the service desk and talk to the manager--and they are always thrilled (and I know for a fact that the employees get something when someone pays them a compliment). Make someones day. We have ALL worked in the service industry at one point or another--wouldn't you have been thrilled to have your boss happy with you because a customer paid you a compliment?

Make it a goal; tell yourself that you're going to compliment someone once a day or once a week or whatever you're comfortable with. It'll change the way you think about things; you'll feel great knowing that you're making someone's day, and you'll also be focusing more on the positive things in life :) Some companies even give you free products if you call in and tell them how much you love their product (I've gotten a few different free things just from calling in and raving about them) ...go out and see what a difference it makes!