The hotel had a shuttle, and we went buzzing down the street.  I mean fast.  We are in a Toyota van, similar to one you would find in the states.  We are coming up to an intersection at about 35 mph, looks like a hundred  cars are all moving across an the street, pedestrians are walking from one corner to another, lots of action.  The driver is just moving  like there is no traffic, I am stamping the floor like I had control of the brakes, freaking out, trying to figure out if I had any liability in an accident in Manila.  The driver looked over, said, "you're from the states".  Yup, and your point...  He said that in the states pedestrians have the right-of-way, I agreed.  He said not in Manila.  The person with the heaviest vehicle has the right-of-way.  He said he yielded to trucks and busses, nothing else.  He told me not to even look at the other cars, if I made eye contact they may take advantage and try to bluff their way past.  My first driving lesson.  That sort of logic seemed to work, he gave way to larger vehicles, the smaller ones let him by. 

Now, back to the mall.  I need about 1500 copies made, I am in a mall with 900 stores.  Literally.  Gigantic mall.  Ask around to find the copy place, a security guard (they were everywhere, all heavily armed!) told me to go to the book store.  So I go, they do have a copy shop, cost is $50 for 1500 copies.  So I leave the project with them, go get lunch.  I went to Teriyaki Bob's fish house, had a cute cartoon character in the window.  Don't judge your restaurant by the cartoon character in the window, it is not an indication of food quality.  Since I couldn't read the menu, I asked for the most requested sushi they had.  The waitress brought a nice selection, I soon discovered it was chicken.  Grilled chicken.  A first for me.  I asked her how that could be the most requested, she said more people ordered that then any other style.  Go figure. 

Now I have returned to the copy place, turns out they did not collate or bind the 1500 copies.  So they direct me to a collating place, about a half mile down the mall.  When I get there, I negotiate another $50 for collating, still not too bad.  Until we both realize that not only did they not collate, they copied page one 60 times, then page 2 60 times, all the way up to # 25.  No dividers, just 1500 pages that are in order, but not separated in any way.  Both the collating people and I were amazed, and then frustrated.  I had to stay and help them separate, took the entire afternoon, but we did it. 

Back to my driver.  He would take me to the company office each day, actually it was at night.  I trained a group of call-takers and they work from 10 pm to 7 am which is 8-5 Pacific time.  So he would pick me up at about 8:30, we had a 45 minute drive, get to the office at 9:15, then he would wait in the parking lot till 7 the next morning.  Sleep in the car.  The manager of the department I was working with told me to ask him to come in, they had a cot and room for him to sleep in while I worked.  He said no, he would stay in the car in the parking lot, he was a driver.  We went out to eat several times, he would eat at another restaurant, wait for us in the car. 

The group I was working with was very friendly, and they really wanted to be involved in the training.  They would get into the room early, stay late.  We would eat lunch (do you still call it lunch if you eat it at 2 am?) and I always had several people to eat with.  One of the difficult communication challenges was the money.  The average person I worked with probably made about $4000-$5000 per year.  And lived just fine.  Some of the questions we would ask were such things as how much is your electric bill.  When they got numbers of $700 per month or more, they just didn't understand how that was possible. So it was hard for them to even ask that question, we had to work on that. 

I made friends with a couple of waiters in the hotel, Darwin in the morning, Reggie in the evening.  They would hold a table for me, like I was royalty.  Called me Sir Jim.  So I was royalty.  They would come up and ask me if I wanted to try something new, not on the menu, I always said yes.  Then they would disappear into the kitchen, come back with some exotic fish that had been flash-fried and dipped in hot pepper and vinegar sauce.  Really good.  Then I would tell me group I had Lapu Lapu for dinner, or what ever it was.  They were impressed.  Here is a gringo eating local food, and I lived to tell it. 

One of the neatest things that happened was the last day I was at the hotel.  Darwin came to my table, told me he and Reggie had gotten together and bought me a gift.  They gave me a bag with 4 stuffed animals in it, one for my grandson, one for each of the dogs.  We had talked about my family when I ate, so they knew I would appreciate the gifts, it was an Oprah moment.  They said they only did that for very special guests.  So I was honored.

Another sample of people who really take their job serious.  Do you ever go to a hotel, and they have put those plastic bags in the trash can?  They never fit them in, just stuff them into the wastebasket.  So you cannot get any trash in the can, cause the plastic bag is full of air.  Frustrating.  The first day at the solar company headquarters, I saw something that amazed me.  A person was on their knees fitting the plastic bag into the trashcan.  I mean fitting.  Making sure it was tight to all the sides, the top was rolled over the trashcan lip, fitted tight to the trashcan completely.  Wow.  I noticed that in the hotel and other offices as well, it is apparently the way they do it over there.  On the fourth day I went back to the mall to do a little shopping.  Actually needed some work-out socks, just did not pack enough.  So I found a Macys in the huge mall, and had one of the most pleasant shopping experiences ever.  First, there must have been 50 clerks on each floor, sorting and straightening the merchandise.  They are all 25 years old, and weigh 106 lbs.  Don't know where the heavy, old people are, never saw them at the mall.  So a young lady asked me what I wanted to look at.  I said socks.  She walked me over, asked what kind.  I said both white and dark, a pair of each.  In fact, make it two pairs of white, one dark.  So she takes to a huge table, where there are packages of white socks and packages of dark sock, three pairs to a package.  She said pick some out.  I said, it would be great to get a mixture.  She promptly ripped open two packages, took out one white pair and replaced it with a dark pair.  Then asked me, will that work for you?  Again, just took me by surprise.  I guess they can do whatever they want, just get the sale.  Just so you know, I paid about $1.15 for three pairs, still wearing them 4 months later.  Burlington. 

Do they feel like you really care, that they are more than just a customer?  Or is an install just another install.  This is another 3 ton, we have done 3 this week.  Not in this home, this is the first time this customer has ever done anything like this before.  So it must be special, we have to let them know we are really thrilled to be involved with them.  And we should be, they are putting food on out table, paying for the cars and trucks we drive, helping us to enjoy the occasional vacation, all kinds of things.  So let the employees know that the company is glad we have a chance to work with the customer, and they are the company.

Equip the employees with the ability to really impress the customer, even in the small details.  In fact, that is where the customer will really be impressed, when you do some small item better than they ever imagined it could be done.  I saw this in action time after time; the people who did the collating and binding for me demonstrated it as well.  I left the originals at their place when I had the books made up.  They remembered where I was staying, hand-delivered the originals to the hotel the next day.      

Now, lest I forget, I do hope you have a great, family-type Christmas.  Spend some time with in-laws, outlaws, or just call the distant relatives.  But follow-up, see how they are doing, and share glad tidings with others close by.  Thanks for being part of our family, we appreciate all that you do for us. 

JIM HINSHAW
President
Sales Improvement Professionals Inc.