* 0

I am a firm believer in good customer service.  After years of working with the general public, smacking a smile on my face and following up with delightfully charming small talk, I believe I've paid my dues.  

Now I sit, tucked amongst the nerds, in our cubicles with such high privacy walls I've often thought about pulling a George Castanza and setting up a napping nook under my desk to see if anyone would notice.    My guess is no.  Especially after that extra long coffee run I took with Ems & A the other afternoon without anyone batting an eye.  What?  It was SUNNY!  And 75!  Anywho, despite the welcome nature of not having to deal with the general public, or any public for that matter, I've never forgotten what it's like to be on the front lines, and so, for that very reason I believe I'm an EXCELLENT customer.

I always look people in the eye, smile and say good morning, afternoon or evening and ask them how they are.  I am friendly, understanding and a good tipper.  And today karma paid.  Me.  Back.  Thank you karma! 

• The girl at Stumptown remembered me AND my order!  

• The T-Mobile guy and I had a full on phone conversation about Texas barbecue, the Northwest and my upcoming trip to France.  He was VERY excited for me and after what felt like an hour of chit chat, I finally had to say "OK!  Actually that's the REASON I'm calling.  Will my phone work over there?"  

I was on such a roll that I started optioning out of the normal automated phone drills and pressed "*" or "0" in order to talk to a real live person.  Preferably one from Texas that knew about barbecue and was falling all over himself telling me how WONDERFUL life was.  Do customer service reps now come with a side of Prozac?  Or did they figure out how to automate them and make them sound like real humans?  Because ...

• The water filter people, helpful!
  
• UPS, helpful!
• Zappos, helpful!

And then my last call of the day.  And it was even related to work!  Which, how appropriate, right?  To actually do work and stuff between the hours of 7 and 4?  Stellar employee right here, peeps.

I strutted in, high on kindness, even forgetting to bring my pen, paper and requisite financial calculator, to which luckily my boss said "we just need your brain."

Which, um?  Man do I have him snowed.

We dialed into the conference call line, listened to the hold music and sweet message "if you experience any difficulty, please press star zero" before entering into the CRAZY.

We were debated, pressured and essentially told we were monsters for not lending a company a few million dollars in UNSECURED credit.  Hello, company?!  No. Way. In. Hell.  I TOO would love what is essentially a credit card with a few mil on it, especially with all the SHOES I've been buying lately.  But put up some collateral and then we'll give it to you, m'kay?

Sorry, too finance-y?  Yes, I thought so to.  Which is why halfway through the call, I pressed mute on the speaker phone, looked around the room and said "since we're experiencing 'difficulty' I say we push star zero and see what they recommend?  It has worked for me ALL day."