Yeah, a guy needs days like that once in a while eh?
I went to do an install today and found that I couldn't hit the customer due
to trees etc. While up on the roof I noticed that one of the dozen or so
ap's I was picking up belonged to one of my competitors.
A quick phone call later and I had an IP addy from him. Got the customer up
and running. My competitor will make some money from me, I'll get a bit
from the customer, and the customer has service. A great day all around!
marlon
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rick Harnish" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "'WISPA General List'" <wireless@wispa.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 7:16 PM
Subject: [WISPA] Refreshing Day
Well it was 10 degrees above zero this afternoon here in northern Indiana.
We have been having an issue on one particular tower and after changing
the
base station equipment a couple times in the last few days, I decided to
get
out from behind a desk and go out to some customer locations that were
still
having issues. Turned out to be some minor tweaking of settings but it
gave
me a chance to interface with some customers face to face.
It was very refreshing to hear compliments about our service and many
thanks
for bringing broadband out into the rural areas. These were a few
customers
that had very little service in the last few days. I almost feel like I
should make each member of my staff go do this at least once a month. It
really gives a guy a renewed appreciation of why we do what we do. Eight
years ago when we started this, it was very apparent. Lately it seems
like
most people expect service anywhere they are and at a very cheap price.
Normal phone conversations seem to leave me with a "bad guy" impression.
"Too Much", "not fast enough", "whaddya mean, I can't get service", "TWO
YEAR CONTRACT, no way!". Well today, shaking people's hands and seeing
the
smile on their face when everything was fixed and back to normal, takes
all
that away. Heck, I think I was happier than they were.
My last service call was to a gentleman I have known for 20 years from a
distance. He called late in the afternoon and said he couldn't get logged
on and that our installer had been there today to replace a radio. He
was
so complimentary on the phone about the quality work and attitude of the
installer and the rest of my staff, so I called my wife and told her I
would
be home in about an hour. I drove 15 miles out of town and fixed the
issue
rather quickly. Same IP address, different radio MAC address........tower
needed a reboot to get rid of the arp issue. I guess I could have done
that
from the office but this one seemed like it was better handled face to
face.
The customer was off to church as soon as I left his house and I'm sure
that
he probably told all his friends about our service and my fine staff.
Some
people just value the local support a WISP is willing to give to its
customers. It's not all about price, service like this makes customers
for
life, no matter how cheap they can buy it from somewhere else.
Oh yeah, I also backed into his mailbox on the way out the driveway. You
know, it didn't even bother him....."I'll fix that right up tomorrow, you
go
on home now" :-)
Respectfully,
Rick Harnish
President
OnlyInternet Broadband & Wireless, Inc.
260-827-2482
Founding Member of WISPA
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