Home Depot

Hey all,

I am writing this for the second time. I was trying to move my posting to a Word document and poof it was gone.
Then it took me awhile to get my foot out of monitor and now here I am.
Things, as you might imagine, are busy at the Gammichia's. It has been awhile since we have had a newborn in the house.
David, who is 10 days old today, (isn't that crazy having a 10 day old in the house) and who is a very good baby, makes a lot of noise. Now for you parents who have forgotten and for you people that don't have any kids, babies make a lot of noise. It is hard to explain, but it is not a cry it is just a lot of grunts and hisses and nose and mouth stuff. It is not that bad to a well rested human being but to someone that hasn't slept in about a week, it is a little tough.
You just want to yell, "Will you just SHUT UP and sleep."
One of the things we are dealing with at our home is the other kids.
I mean just because you have a baby doesn't mean that Luke isn't going to have some sort of quiz and/or test every day. It doesn't mean Madison will stop wanting to swim and Noah will stop wanting to ride bikes.
I have made it a point to make sure the other kids are taken care of. I want these kids to be excited about having a new baby brother not resentful.
I will let you know how it goes.

I watched the Count of Monte Cristo this weekend. It was better than I thought and that is all I have to say about that.

I finished my book this weekend...finally. It was called the Power of One.
It was a long book, and it took me forever but I stuck with it. Also the reading time at the Gammichia house has significantly gone down.
At the beginning of the book, as a kindergartner, he was being picked on by a bully. So he took up boxing. And since then he wanted to be the Welterweight champion of the world. This was the theme of the whole book; they must have said it 1000 times. This was his goal through elementary school and high school. He boxed competitively for at least fifteen years and never lost a fight. It was like the crescendo was building and you feel like it was going to be this Rocky ending. But it went to another story line and they just ended.
It was weird. Like the author looked at the book and said, "hmmm. This book is getting long let's just end it." (I know, kind of like some of my blogs).
It was pretty good though.

I have already started another book called Tweaked. It is a much faster read.
Remember I read a book called the Beautiful Boy. This was a book about a father who is dealing with a kid that is on Meth. The story from when his son was a boy getting in trouble for drinking at nine years old to in and out of rehab when he was 15. And the torture it is on the whole family. It was a great book.
Now Tweaked is the son, the addict, writing a book from his perspective.

Okay Home Depot.
I don't know about you, but I love Home Depot. Not just like but LOVE. I have really thought about getting a job there over the weekend because I just love stuff.
My wife loves going to the grocery store and I love going to Home Depot.
Now I am not a technical guy. I am not someone that fixes things. I am not someone that builds things. But I want to be.
My father never did anything like this.
My father never fixed things. He never built things. He never did anything.
I, on the other hand, do or try to.
I lay sprinkler systems. I put up shelves. I hang hangers. I have now tried to do more wood working. Now that I have a garage, I built my own work bench. I love love love it. But enough about me.
About a year ago I started noticing something about Home Depot. I started the think it was really going downhill. I would go there and there wouldn't be a single employee around.
I would literally walk around looking for help, and when I did find someone they would say, "let me get Bill who is suppose to be in charge of this department."
Things were not in the areas where they should be. I was starting to get ticked because Home Depot is my store.
I even started to go to Lowe's more (which is right across the street) but I felt like I was cheating on my lover.
But in the last couple of months Home Depot is changing back to the store I fell in love with.
(Now this maybe just me being weird because I asked my assistant and she said she hasn't felt any difference)
Home Depot seems to have recommitted itself to service. Now I am not talking about service but real service.
There is people everywhere just smiling. There is someone standing at every aisle greeting you as you walk by, hoping you are coming into their aisle so they can help you. Staff coming up to you asking if they could help you.
I went in the other day and asked if they had such and such and the guy walked me to the item.
The store is clean. Every item is in place. People smiling. People willing to help.
Lots of "Thank yous" and "your welcomes" and my personal favorite, "it's my pleasure".
Now I am thrilled by the sudden turn around.
I am thrilled that Home Depot started to realize it is not just the stuff in the store that makes people want to come to their store. It is the people.
Just ask the Ritz-Carlton. It is not just the room. Yeah it is nice but The Hilton has a soft bed and a flat screen too.
It's the guy opening the door saying "welcome." It is the porter smiling. It is everyone there with the same MO, that makes you feel welcome and want to spend the extra money to have that feeling again.
Now I get that feeling when I am buying a $.28 pvc coupler.
I am super sensitive to good service because that is what we do at our office. SERVICE ABOVE SELF.
And it is not just Home Depot. I went to McDonald's the other day. Now I haven't been to McDonald's in forever but I was having lunch with Noah at his school and he hasn't stopped talking about this toy that they give...a docugon or something like this.
The woman took my order and said, "Thank you so much for your order. I look forward to serving you at the first window."
WHAT??!!!!
She was so nice. This was an experience that I won't soon forget. I just sit and think about how great that was.
Are you doing this at your office? Are you making people remember you?
Are you forgetting what people are coming to your office for? If you said to get their teeth fixed, well then you are missing half of the equation.
They want to feel welcome. They want to feel special. They want to know that you care about them and their teeth.
If you are not, this is your wake up call.
Make them fall in love with your office again. I don't care if it cost a little money. I don't care if you have to stay after work and do something. Have a front office meeting and charge people up. Do it now. Your practice is depending on it.
Service...Live it, love it, breathe it, sleep on it, think about it.
Home Depot did.

Have a great Wednesday,

john