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a very fond memory
as i was working ebay this evening, selling my dolls, another story, it brought back memories of 7 wonderful years of working for Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association. this non profit organization was founded by david rockafeller in 1958. its mission was to make downtown manhattan a vibrant working community. i worked there from about 1983 -1990. there were 3 of us in the office, our president mr justin murphy, a wonderful, wonderful man and boss. he was already 79 when i started working at d-lma. then there was pat his secretary of almost 20 years when i started working there as their full charge bookkeeper. in seven years i only missed one day and that was because my street was flooded and i could not get out of the house that day, needless to say i loved the job. pat worked monday thru thursday and on fridays i left my bookkeepers desk and was his secretary.
mr murphy was so good to his girls, as he called us. our wages reflected the fact that he valued the work we did for him and it had to be top notch. in seven years i was never a penny out of balance, couldnt be, i had to write a financial report once a month to our financial committee. all our members were the top executives of all the largest institutions downtown, the head of the financial committee was a bank cfo. we had over half a million in dues that i was responsible for keeping invested at the best rates and if you all remember the 80's paid high interest on money market accounts and we kept moving the 6 month mm accounts to make the most money. i was responsible for the budget and working with our accountants to close the books at the end of the year. the accountants started inviting me to their office once a month to enter our books into their computer and they would give me a lemo ride home to staten island on those days. my boss was on the board of directors at the lower manhattan cultural council and hired me to help out there for awhile.
the days mr murphy didnt have a luncheon appointment he took his girls out to lunch, that is if miss jean was wearing a dress or suit.....i ended up wearing suits everyday to work, lol. he wanted us to look as snappy as our work looked. i still remember the day he took us to windows on the world, i remember after a scary ride to the top, i ordered fish and it had bones that ended up in my mouth and how i carefully got them out of my mouth and into my napkin without to much fuss. and the day i watched the world trade center go down on television, i remembered my lunch on the top of the world trade center.
pat died of lung cancer shortly after mr murphy retired and she asked me to stay on till she could return to work, but i stayed till she passed away and then i left to open my doll business. i can honestly say it was the best job i ever had.
p.s. i can hear mr murphy now, scolding me and making me rewite this the right way.
posted by
overtherainbow
on August 14, 2015 at 10:05 PM
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Re: gh
Hi jean, Yea it's pretty bad. I'm waiting for do-it-yourself support prompts in Hindi.
posted by
Gheeghee
on February 2, 2015 at 7:36 AM
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Re:
BRRRRRRRRR.
posted by
Gheeghee
on February 2, 2015 at 7:33 AM
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Krisles, 100% agree. I just replied to TAPS. comment and I think it holds true here. In a society ever increasingly built upon instant gratification, the long-term success of anything suffers and people get less and less for their money.
posted by
Gheeghee
on February 2, 2015 at 7:32 AM
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TAPS., that is so true! If they had any brains at all they'd realize that pride in service will provide more long term profits. No one thinks in the long term anymore.
posted by
Gheeghee
on February 2, 2015 at 7:30 AM
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gh
well i want you to know you made my day, a new face on my comment page, how fun. also i feel the exact same way you do about customer service.....i have turned everything off, my phone, my satilite tv and got a new internet server, they are no better than the old one. full of promises and nothing after you sign. yes, i complained when i use to get phone calls from real people on the other side of the line and now it is just a recording, pretty soon it will be if you are displeased with your service, tough....you will not be able to contact anyone. how sad. lol
posted by
jeansaw
on January 31, 2015 at 2:11 PM
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So no warmth less staffed. And I've misplaced my winter vest.
posted by
BC-A
on January 31, 2015 at 1:41 PM
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Well, this hits on a few of my favorite rants and if I start I'll go on for hours....the last years of my formal working years were as a customer service and quality manager and I am passionate about these issues....and my work now is on the phone with people all over the country....plus I do all my shopping online and all my business electronically, etc. Mainly, I am of an age that I grew up with one phone company, (actually there were party-lines), no computers, no cell phones. So, my perspective is quite broad on these issues and I think I have the background and experience to say without any hesitation.....customer service is the biggest joke, but most tragic in my opinion, on American business, in the last twenty years and it is has more money thrown blindly at it than probably any other problem.
posted by
Krisles
on January 31, 2015 at 12:11 PM
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Things are not the way they used to be. Not often do you find pride in service anymore. Everyone is to busy trying to make a profit.
posted by
TAPS.
on January 31, 2015 at 9:13 AM
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C C T ... oye!
posted by
Gheeghee
on January 31, 2015 at 8:57 AM
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Re: GG
Naut, 1st thanks for the title, added it now. Glad you write on the topic, as the mass-media mythos needs debunked something fierce.
...and isn't it a happy coincidence that the problem divisions at my old company were, in fact, the largest divisions (largest and shrinking, thanks to lack of customer retention).
posted by
Gheeghee
on January 31, 2015 at 8:54 AM
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Re: It may be that all the wonderful electronics and computers around us
Great observation. It's turning people into mindless automatons. Who wants to discuss a matter with a machine?
posted by
Gheeghee
on January 31, 2015 at 8:48 AM
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Isn't it a nightmare? This makes me want to write another post about a CS incident and my credit card account...stay tuned!
posted by
Gheeghee
on January 31, 2015 at 8:46 AM
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Jimmy that is so true! We complained about that all the time... It was a cluster when a customer called without an account number. No one thought to ask for an address or phone #, if they even thought at all beyond "transfer call, get out of my queue".
posted by
Gheeghee
on January 31, 2015 at 8:44 AM
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FSI it certainly has.
posted by
Gheeghee
on January 31, 2015 at 8:41 AM
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I so agree Amanda. Thanks for reading!
posted by
Gheeghee
on January 31, 2015 at 8:40 AM
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Yes the only thing that appears to get my broadband and phone working is the magic words. (I will pay if it is my fault,) I only found this out after 6 frustrating days of no contact.
posted by
C_C_T
on January 31, 2015 at 12:33 AM
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GG
I have this hypothesis - the larger the corporation, the poorer the customer service. Am I going to start a research project to verify that? Nope, LOL...But I have reduced my expectations for good service to near-zero - that way I'm never disappointed... 
BTW: Since you clearly have an interest in these matters, I suggest just one book, certainly one of the very best on the topic: Ibn Warraq (a pseudonym), Why I am Not A Muslim. The title is a deliberate take-off on Bertrand Russel's Why I am Not A Christian, although that, in a sense, is beside the point. Warraq's book is a scholarly but hard-hitting book, with oodles of excellent references...One for your growing list...
posted by
Nautikos
on January 30, 2015 at 5:20 PM
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It may be that all the wonderful electronics and computers around us
have people convinced that it is great to do everything like programs. I think of the movie, TRON... I fear the Users are trying to emulate the Programs.
posted by
Ciel
on January 30, 2015 at 3:54 PM
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I just love this post...Almost everywhere a person goes or tries to get customer satisfaction, it is a Blood Pressure rising experience. Wiley gets so frustrated, it cannot be good for him. ..But the mu-sac on the other end of the phone doesn't care.
posted by
Kabu
on January 30, 2015 at 12:47 PM
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Yeah, 'customer service' ain't what it used to be! And sometimes, within those divisions, it's the left hand not telling the right hand what it's up to! No software in the world seems to be able to curtail that concept . . . 
posted by
JimmyA
on January 30, 2015 at 12:42 PM
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Customer service does seem to have become a lost art.
posted by
FormerStudentIntern
on January 30, 2015 at 12:07 PM
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I think cell phones, texting and the internet have ruined face to face communications.
posted by
Amanda__
on January 30, 2015 at 12:04 PM
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