More mitt with money notices*

Well, mitts anyhow if not money.  A few weeks ago somebody at our outfit dreamed up a thing called the “CEO Award.”  (CEO, it turns out, stands for “Customer  Experience Owner.”  I had to ask what it meant.)  It’s given weekly to one of the level-one techs who has demonstrated outstanding customer service as evidenced by complimentary customer feedback—letters, survey responses, follow-up, and such.  Anybody, whether manager, level-two, or level-one, can nominate any level-one tech for it.  Each week the winner gets a traveling trophy to keep at his desk for that week, and an un-trumpable pass for thirty minutes off the phones at any time he likes, no matter what else is going on or how busy the queue is.  The pass expires seven days after being awarded, so you get it on Wednesday and have to use it by the next Tuesday or it’s gone.  Once a quarter, the winners’ names are put into a hat and one drawn, to be treated to Lunch Out by the team leads.  This week was the first time the award’s been given.

I won it.  The first one ever, and I won it.

Here’s the letter the customer sent that went in with my nomination.

“Just wanted to drop you a note regarding my experience with your service rep. Sam ___________.  I don’t know what I would have done without his kind and patient service when I had to reinstall the operating system on one of our school computers.  The Hard drive failed after one year and had to be replaced.  After the technician left I was responsible for installing the operating system along with all of the drivers.  We did not receive the cd with the drivers with the 30 computers we ordered.  I spoke with two other representatives at the Empire and they briefly instructed me on what to do along with sending me to the support web site…nice, but…no where did it mention what to do if you did not have the driver cd and if downloaded, what order to install them!  Sam went above and beyond in his guidance.  I will continue to purchase Empirical computers for our school because of his service.  If I had to rely only on the other two representatives I don’t think I would stay with the Empire.  I would have had to hire an IT tech to get the machine back in working order…..”

And in case you were wondering, the “trophy” is an incredibly ugly rubber skull that somebody discovered stuck in the back of a cabinet, which was much the best place for it, I think.  It’s sitting on the shelf in my cube since that’s what you’re supposed to do with it, but looking at it I feel much like the story Abraham Lincoln told about the man who was tarred, feathered, and ridden out of town on a rail, then asked how he felt about it:  “if it wasn’t for the honor of the thing, I’d rather walk.”

* A term stolen from Variety magazine in the days when they used to use LOTS of fanciful slang.  It translates to “applause and box-office receipts.”

You must interrogate the genealogical zoom lens.  Fnord.