What Happened to the Notion of Customer Service?

Today, I have been thinking a lot about customer service, as I'm struggling to get through to the company that manages the apartment building where I've lived for 15 years.

The Freelancers
There's the Handyman, who doesn't work for the company. He's great. He does a good job, and then he's gone. There's a lady who comes in and vacuums the common hallways once each week. She's reliable and efficient. She does a good job, and then she's gone. There are two groundskeepers who come once per week, mow the grass for 15 minutes and go. They're reliable and efficient. They do a good job, and then they're gone. They're freelancers like me. Freelancers understand how important it is to keep our customers satisfied!

The Employees
And now we come to the employees. That's where all goes wrong.

There's the Caretaker, who takes care of next to nothing, and certainly not this building. He seems to have only two purposes - showing vacant apartments to potential renters and painting the suite, badly, the morning they're trying to move their stuff in. His voicemail says "I'm sorry this phone is never answered in person. Leave a message." Why bother? He doesn't call back.

There's the Property Manager. I've met him once - that was April 1, five months ago, the evening he knocked on my door to deliver my notice of rent increase personally. While he was here, I decided to show him a couple of problems I have in the suite. I figured if I was going to pay more rent, I wanted these things to be fixed. (I don't know where I got the idea they'd fix anything, but, well, I tried.)

Here is a picture of my disintegrating bathroom vanity with the doors that fall off. The darn thing is rotten, through and through. This is what I showed the Property Manager the night he visited me, four months ago. At that time, I requested it be repaired.

Anyway, I have followed up with the property management company on this problem with my bathroom vanity very gently but quite diligently for five months - first with monthly inquiries, then with weekly inquiries, and now with bi-daily inquiries. It turns out the Property Manager never answers his phone either, so I've been leaving messages on his voicemail. Unfortunately, he seems to have taken customer service lessons from the Caretaker.

The Management
Yesterday, I phoned the company, and spoke to the receptionist, to ask for the name of the person senior to the Property Manager, and she pumped me until I finally told her the story. She was very understanding and sympathetic, and she promised to pass the message along to both the Office Manager and the Senior Property Manager, and that one of them would call me back before the end of the day. Nuh-uhn. Nuthin!

So today, I phoned the Office Manager, again reaching an answering machine, and again explaining that this has drawn on, and I just need someone to call me back and provide me with a status report. Nuthin again. Why am I surprised? I got her name and number from the company's website, where I read all about how well they take care of their customers - the apartment owners. Not the apartment renters. Apparently, I'm not their customer.

Take my advice - never, NEVER rent anything managed by MacDonald Commercial Realty. It's excrutiating.

Sistahs!

Isn't it amazing how small a world this is!

Last evening I attended a meeting of my fellow SendOutCards.com folks, and of the dozen or so people who attended, three of us were Virtual Assistants!

Teya is a Bookkeeper and Personal Assistant. She and I had met before at my very first SOHO Roundtable breakfast, but at the time we met, I wasn't quite ready to start forming alliances. Mary is a Business Angel, and it turns out she participated in the Self Employment program 3 years ago. She was very enthused about the program, by the way.

The thing that surprises others is that, when VAs meet, instead of raising hackles and marking territory, they bond and form teams to share information, resources, secrets...

Teya, Mary and I will meet next week at the Red Onion for a "Getting To Know You" lunch and information sharing session. I can't wait!

Anticipation!

Today, I'm painfully conscious of the SE Program's requirement that new applicants be launching NEW businesses (meaning they must never have received money in those businesses), so while I have a lot of "friends" that I've been "doing favours" for for the past few months, while I await the start of the program, I cannot invoice anyone for my work until the program is underway.

I'm so looking forward to the point - and it's coming soon! - where I can begin to replenish my bank account, pay my bills, invest in the technology and services I need to support my endeavours, get my hair done, and maybe even order in pizza.

Here's a bit of advice to those who come behind: Make sure you have a bit of the ready put aside. That rainy day would be so much easier to get through if you're not counting pennies to pay for the necessities, and maybe even a little more!

Greetings

Greetings, hello, and welcome to my blog.

I'm Linda Olsen, and I'm President, CEO, and General Factotum of O2S2 - Olsen Office Support Services.

This is a new business for me, launched after another "restructuring" made it possible to finally pursue my dream of being my own boss, making a successful living using my skills gathered over the years. With 18 years experience providing executive assistance to senior executives in engineering, real estate development and construction, and non-profit, I have gathered quite a range of skills, particularly when added to the 17 years I spent with Eatons, where I learned about customer service and sales.

Before I jump in to this business with both feet, though, I will learn to be a successful entrepreneur, spending the next 10 weeks in classes, followed by 38 weeks mentored support. I'm so excited to have been accepted into the Self-Employment Program at Westcoast Community Enterprise, one of nine in the lower mainland sponsored by the HRDC.

The SE Program has proven to be extremely beneficial - typical success rates for new entrepreneurs is about 30%, but with this program, that success rate jumps up to better than 95%.

With this program, I am confident that I can make a success of my dream. (But I need you to wish me luck anyway!)