Oh, you’re very welcome. I mean, there are so many other water companies to choose from. It’s not like you have a monopoly on it or anything. Everywhere I turn, there are water vendors. I’ll be ready to take a shower and there will be five guys in suits from different water companies banging on the door, all of them trying to convince me why I should use them. Also, there’s a little kid in a Great Depression-style flat cap offering water hand-drawn from his family’s well, begging me to support him lest he starve to death. Not to mention that beautiful woman who promises to not only bring me filtered water from the Nile River, but to personally wash every inch of my body by hand.
But none of them can compare to City of Bloomington Utilities. So you’re welcome. I’ll always be your number one customer.
Some comedian did a bit many moons ago about taking a survey from the electric compnay when he moved to a new city and they asked him “how did you hear about us?”, and he said he added before he hung up “could you recommend someone to deliver my mail?”
The local Chinese food place is doing some renovations and has a sign on their door written by someone who apparently thinks “Sorry for the inconvenience” and “Thank you for understanding” can be condensed down into:
No, thank you for letting my roommate run up months of unpaid energy bills (without telling me) and then dump the account on me over the phone with no verification on my end, right before he moved out, and then refusing to solve the problem in any way other than pissing all over my credit.
I had the same reaction to a “Thank you for your patronage” sign on the door of the US Post Office when I lived in a place that did not have street delivery. OK, I suppose I could told everyone my address was General Delivery rather than renting a PO box from you guys…
This almost happened to a freind fo mine. The roommate ran up the electric bills and then decided not to pay them, but with our electric company, you can’t take a name off the bill unless it’s at a zero balance.
That sounds almost as valuable as our corporate mandated “Thank You” process. Once, at the end of a project, my boss called me into his office. He said, “I’m giving you this gift certificate to {very expensive steakhouse} for finishing project XYZ because I’ve been told we have to give these out to show our appreciation. I don’t really think it’s deserved, but you did a good job anyway.”
That doesn’t sound like a bad idea, Solfy. I would consider it a pretty nice perk to get expensive steakhouse gift certificates when you finish important projects.
I certainly didn’t mind the dinner, but it takes a lot of value out of recognizing your employees when you tell them, “you don’t deserve this, but here’s a reward.”
We’re up against the attitude (and I don’t completely disagree) that your continued employment and regular paychecks are your reward, and that’s all you should need.
Back in the 1980s, the Cleveland Clinic had a special smoking lounge on each floor in which cigarette smokers could get their nicotine-fix, even though smoking was forbidden in the rest of the hospital. On the wall was a sign that said “Thank You for Not Smoking,” complete with the quotation marks. So, while they were allowing you to smoke there, they were hoping that you wouldn’t, and trying to make you feel rude if you did.
