Making Them Love Me

I returned to work yesterday after a two day absence, and I knew something wrong must have happened when my supervisor told me, “We miss you when you’re not here.”

“Thank you,” is what I said.

Ok, that’s weird, is what I thought.

But it wasn’t just my sup who was relieved to see me. I arrived at my first customer, who is always my first stop of the day.

“I only have three for you today,” I said, which is also weird since usually he has 10 or more.

“At least it’s here at a decent time. Yesterday we didn’t get our stuff until 4:30. I asked the driver, ‘Are these deliveries for tomorrow.’”

I laughed with the customer, but felt the frustration of the driver who had to put up that kind of comment after dealing with a shitty day.

Only three stops later, I had another comment.

“JD! You’re back! Hey, are we on your list of pick-ups?”

“No, somehow you got deleted out of it. I’ve been trying to fix it, but I think I’ve been talking to the wrong person.”

“Yeah, you know to stop, but that other guy—I had to track him down.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” he said, assuring me he wasn’t angry with me.

“Yeah, it’s not his fault either. I’ll make sure it gets fixed.”

Only two stops after that, I asked my usual polite question, “Hey, how’s it going?” expecting the usual response.

But what I heard instead was, “Great, now that you’re back.”

And later another customer: “Where have you been? It’s been a mess.”

Another customer: “Oh, good. You’re here early. The other driver was getting here late.”

Another customer: “Oh, good, our taxes! This package was given, and this wasn’t you, I know, but it was given by the other driver to the wrong address, I think across the street.”

“Oh no, I’m sorry.”

“Well it’s not your fault, but blah blah blah blah blah blah.”

“Wow, that’s annoying. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, it’s not your fault it’s just blah blah blah blah blah.”

“Right, well, I’m glad we could get it back for you, sorry it’s late.”

“Well,” she said still looking disappointed for some reason, “It’s not your fault.”

“Ok, have a nice day.”

Still another customer said to me, “We needed a pick-up yesterday and the driver never came.”

“Oh, no. Did you call it in?” This customer does not pay for everyday pick-up service.

“Yeah, I called the one-eight-hundred number.”

“Wow. I’m sorry.”

“Well, it’s not you’re fault, but it was next day air for the East coast, and blah blah blah blah blah.”

“Oh geeze, I’m really sorry.”

“Well, I’m going to have something going out today.”

“I will definitely be back to pick it up.” And thankfully, I remembered to do that.

I haven’t heard these people complain this much since I first started the route. Management sent a driver out cold. It’s not uncommon to be thrown out on route that we’ve never seen before, but generally, on a route like mine, they’ll send a supervisor to help train. This probably is no consolation for my customers, but that poor driver most definitely had a shittier two days than all of them combined.

And even though I had to deal with complaints all day, it sure felt good not to be the one complained about. Do they remember how much they hated me? That’s all over now. All I had to do was take a couple days off when they didn’t have a cover driver who knew the route.

So now my customers love me, and I love the route. I haven’t said this before because I didn’t want to jinx it (nothing is ever guaranteed or permanent at Big Brown), but I got management to take off the residential stops on my truck. I only work eight hours a day now! I’m actually looking forward to going to work today.