James Cochran’s Blog

Another fun week here. When I started this week out last Wednesday I posted this to my diary:

Seems like I’m tired everyday I wake up. Got more Access work dumped on me today. Came home and we watched Wizard of Oz. James seemed to love it. I think Lucie smiled and laughed at me today. Although she could have just been cooing.

Last Friday we went out to dinner with some of my family I never get to see. My Uncle Tom who owns Archers Spot in Bloomfield Indiana ordered a steak that came out gray. He told them, “If this is medium well, then bring it to me medium.” Of course what do they do? They bring out a bloody steak. It was seriously raw. It was all down hill from here. I understand Tom’s stance but it was uncomfortable. Threats of throwing things on the floor and, I’m pretty sure, throat punches were flying everywhere. Luckily there were no actual throat punches. We ate, it was fun seeing my family, and we left. And as I wrote in my diary…

I guess that will be the last time we go to ocharleys with him

The weekend was pretty good. The Colts lost in the playoffs but I had an awesome time with some of the best people in my life watching the game. Then the next day I was able to play guitar in church which hasn’t happened since before James was born two years ago. We went to Jonathon Byrds for lunch after that and since the kids got to take a nap so late and it was so difficult to get James down I decided that I deserved a nap of my own. Unfortunately that meant I had to take two Tylenol PM that night to get to sleep. Monday morning came and I was hating myself.

Tuesday brought us a big snow. I came home and had to shovel the driveway. I remember when snow used to be fun. Now it’s just tiring. Fear not though, tomorrow is a day off and so is Monday. Big four day weekend and I look forward to taking James out in the snow and loving on Angi and Lucie. Come back next week for the exciting details…

Something not well known about me is I love customer service. I don’t mean in the sense that I love receiving good customer service, although that is also true. I find the topic of customer service fascinating and I have ever since my days working fast food as a teenager. There have been many books and 3 or 5 day conferences on the matter but I believe it boils down to two simple truths.

1. Whatever your motivation for being gainfully employed you would not be able to accomplish that without your customer. For instance, if you work so you can take your significant other out to dinner and a movie then you shouldn’t be so upset when that customer or client calls you at 5:45 on a Friday night and demands a precious 45 minutes of your time when your trying to get out of there to pick up your significant other. Without that customer you wouldn’t be employed and you would not be able to take anyone out that night. So cherish that time with your customer because you wouldn’t be who you are without them.

2. This one is for all those people who don’t believe you have a customer and number 1 doesn’t apply to you. Simply put, EVERYONE has a customer. If you didn’t then there would be no reason for you to be working. You may think, “but I’m just a volunteer at this little film festival!” Depending on your role either the people coming to the festival or the people who brought the movies are your customer. If you, the attendees, or the movie makers weren’t in the equation you would have a terrible flop of a film festival. If you’re volunteering then you should understand customer service that much better because at least some of your motivation is to usher in a good experience for movie makers and viewers alike (and probably catch some awesome free flicks).

The reason that we have to have books and training sessions on customer service is because it’s so hard for some people to understand these 2 simple truths. If we could just realize that everyone has a customer and without that customer your entire well being would collapse the work of goods and services would be much better off.