Re: Re: Tuba Consumerism & Emails


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Posted by Matt Walters on February 20, 2004 at 10:14:49:

In Reply to: Re: Tuba Consumerism & Emails posted by bloke on February 19, 2004 at 23:26:57:

YES!!! Some Emails can't be answered. Some people must be smoking weed as they type! Example, one guy wanted to know if a new leadpipe would stop his valves from sticking; but he took 3 paragraphs to ask it. We get emails and phone calls that seem like a script from "Crank Yankers". I shake my head and pass over emails like that and long winded ones. I do that so I can help the most people I can in the first 30 minutes of the day. After that, I have to get into the repairs I need and want to do. Then as I have a chance I get around to the hard to answer and weird Emails. Some I just keep putting off until I can figure out what I can do for them. Also, an Email can be a productive use of my time while waiting for something to cool or maybe soak in a solution.

Maybe the following should be posted somewhere else, but I've had the past problem of taking every Email too seriously. Steve and I set a limit of 30 minutes each morning doing just Emails. Friday mornings until lunch, are my "catch up day" and I dig into the ones left behind. I don't get paid commission, but I beleive if my employer makes money, my paycheck won't bounce. To that point, I can worry myself silly. What if I loose a sale to my employer's business because I didn't respond well and timely to an Email? And by the way, I type slowly and hit wrong keys a lot. But wait, what about the nice family in the store who wants my help and input in buying their first tuba? Ignore them and answer more Emails? Oh wait, what about the repairs I love to do? What about that clean and service that I promissed would be done by noon today? Repairing tubas gave me my niche. When can I get that repair done? Do more Emails? How about that phone call right in the middle of a tricky silver soldering repair, or when I'm down in the buffing room covered in protective clothing and a mask? To stop and answer the phone or an Email, will cost me about 20 minutes to get my mind back on what I was doing. What if I don't stop and miss the phone call to a $6K tuba sale? In this day and age, I have to pick and choose my battles. If you have to wait a minute for me to get to the phone, I learned to get to a safe stopping point first. Don't ask. The 80/20 rule also tells me 80% of our revenue will come from 20% of the customers. But should I ignore the guy who just wants the right mouthpiece and not a new tuba? If someone has a job with so little expected of them they can sit around looking for emails to answer, God Bless them. I'm growing as a person and have learned to say "no" as of taking on too much repairs as I did about 3 years ago. Now I'm learning to prioritize my time with the Email added into the mix. I can't please everyone all the time, so I'll learn to forgive myself for the times I fail. The time spent writing this post means I have to come back in some evening to work an extra 30 minutes or so to pay for this break I took.

The internet has introduced me to an ever increasing amount of people who should be offered government paid sterilization so that they GET OUT OF THE GENE POOL!! But once in a while, I meet a gem of a person and wish we lived nearer.

Well that's my two cents on that topic. I reserve the right to learn and possibly change my mind about anything I've ever said or thought in the past. Matt



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