1-800-GOT-JUNK? Educates Students at Morikami Park Elementary

Speak with wisdom like a child, so the saying goes. And that's what over 120 second-grade students from Morikami Park Elementary did on Tuesday, November 25, when they grilled me about what it takes to own and run a business. The questions covered the full gamut of those one might expect from children, including what skills one needs to have, what the duties are of a business owner, recycling and, most importantly, how do we make money.

This last question always amuses me and I respond with what I learned in high school: only one organization (no need to confuse them with the BEP) in the USA makes money, and that's the US Mint . Our job at 1-800-GOT-JUNK? is to provide our customers with the best customer service we can and if we do that, the money part will take care of itself. So often people lose sight of that very basic fact.

In 2005 my business came in top 3 for customer service and in 2006 we came in #1. Strange as it may sound, I seem to live for the opportunity to provide quality service. Aside from my standard "Happy Day" greeting, I find that the most powerful words my staff and I can say to a client are these: "Your convenience is our pleasure." So often clients are always taken aback by those words and when I consider the daily interactions I have with representatives from other companies, it seems that customer service is a dying art.

I'm just a young guy at 40, but I remember being told that customer service in "the old days" was stellar due to outgoing, friendly people who had little or no access to data about the customers they were seeking to serve. The best they could do was be energetic in their desire to serve until they could obtain the data. Today, customer service representatives have access to all sorts of data that can make any service opportunity outstanding, but words like energetic, outgoing and friendly don't seem to be in the lexicon of language used to describe the service we receive.

Anyway, its clear that teachers are saints and after my two-hour stint, I was totaly fried, but satisfied, that at least at that school, the kid sknow a whole lot more about what it takes to own and run a business. And to the boy who kept focusing on making money, I wonder if one day he'll try drilling a hole in a quarter and tying a string to it to trick the modern-day version of Defender or Pacman into giving more credits for the same coin.