Recently we decided that cross training should be completed between our office and field staff here at Junk It!®.  We felt it was important that all our office staff understood the entire customer service process from start to finish so we sent John Wheeler our Customer WOW specialist here at HQ to ride along with our full service crew for a day. I also asked him to write about the experience. Here it is in his own words:

“Woke up, fell out of bed

Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup”

A day in the life from the 1967 Album Beatles album St. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

5:45am: Alarm goes off.  I’m rather slower than usual getting out of bed considering its 2 hours early. Today, I’m going to be trading in my business casual for the JuNK iT! uniform and get my hands dirty with a day in the field with the Full service crew.

6:15am: Up and out the door. Leaving from Burlington to drive into the yard in Toronto to meet the member of the team that I am working with for our start time of 8:00am

7:00am: Traffic sucks. My normal commute on a bad day is 15 minutes. Earning more respect for our drivers as the minutes tick by.

7:45am: Arrived at the yard. Parked my car and got out. I see Jawaad, the JuNK iT! worker that I’m going to riding with for the day. He looks at me smiles and says “I thought they were kidding” I’ve talked to Jawaad on the phone and know that he is a joker. This sets the tone of the day and put my mind at ease.

8:00am: We are rolling. Jawaad is driving on the highway with a lot of confidence. I’m in awe of how he is handling this monstrous truck.  Chatting back and forth about the day’s events and what I should expect.

9:15am: We arrive at our first job. It’s a business in Mississauga. Jawaad backs the truck in beside a cement truck that is unloading into the unit next to where we are working. We see what we have to do and give the customer our no obligation estimate right on the spot. She agrees to the price and we start working away.

It was a pretty big job for our first one of the day. Moving office material was interesting. While working away I found out different things about each jobs. With office jobs, there are usually long corridors and small elevators. These were things that I had never considered before. We are 15minutes into the first job and I`m learning new things as I go.

10:00am: Job is finished, I’m sweeping up and Jawaad is writing up the customers invoice. I take a step back and admire what we both have accomplished. We have helped clear out an office that was under renovations, did it in a timely matter…and not to mention I’m starting to get a little work out.

10:15am: Back on the 401 heading towards one of the many transfer stations that we use. I’m being filled in on what to expect when we get there and how I’m lucky that it’s not 25degrees out.  I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but when we got there, It made sense.

10:45am We reach the transfer station and dump our material from the first job. Seeing the truck back up, and how it is dumped was something that fascinated me. I wasn’t sure how it was going to be done, but was amazed with the ease of it.

11:00am We pass by Canada’s wonderland on our way up to our next job. It’s a house with some renovation material.  I’m trying to pick his brain about what to expect and Jawaad responds “I never know what to expect. Sometimes we get to a job and it’s way more than what was expected. Other times, we get there and it’s a lot smaller” With this comment, I start to think about my job and how I book. I’m the middle man. I’m the one that sets these guys up to go to the jobs. It makes me realize that I have a major impact on how their days go.

11:30am: Arrive at our second job. Bags of garbage and some wood from a renovation. We give the customer the estimate and I start to load the truck. Jawaad stops me and says “Let’s put the bin on the ground” Watching the bin come down into the customers driveway was nothing short of a work of art. No damage was done, the wood was put down for the bin to rest on. Perfect drop

12:00pm: Our job is done. The customer shakes our hands and thanks us. We head back to that same dump. I again keep asking all sorts of questions. It’s great to hear about the work ethic of not only Jawaad but about all of our drivers. Jawaad talks about them all and praises them.

12:30pm It’s lunch time. We pull into a plaza and find a spot to park. Jawaad backs in….BACKS INto a spot between two cars. I’m dumbfounded. (Check out our facebook page for the picture…when I took it one of the cars had left)

1:30pm: Back to one of the transfer stations that we use to get rid of the material from the second job.

1:45pm: Back on the road to our last job of the day. We hit some major traffic so this gives me some time to go over the paperwork that I’m in charge of once it reaches the office. We talk about what works well and what doesn’t on both of our ends. It was good to hear feedback directly from the source who works with our customers.

3:30pm: We arrive at our final job. It’s a big house clean out. Material needs to be taken away from all three of the floors. We get to work. Have you ever tried to take a pool table up a spiral staircase? I have and it was not easy. Couches, cabinets, tables, chairs, you name it we grabbed it. We filled up our whole 11x8x5 truck in 45 minutes.

4:30pm: In order to prepare for the next day, we had to dump what was in our truck. Jawwad stressed the importance of this to make sure the next person in the truck doesn’t have to worry about the jobs that were done the day before. Also in this category is a trip to the gas station. Filling up the truck so the next driver doesn’t have to saves time for the next day. Every little bit helps.

5:30pm: Back at the yard. We go over the paper work, make sure everything is good. We contact the office and tell them that all jobs are complete and then call it a day. I asked Jawaad how I did. He said “You’re dirty and your face got red while lifting some stuff…you worked hard. You did good”

After going out into the field, I have so much more respect for our crews. Interacting with our great customers was also a good experience. Being able to see the people we reach out to and being able to work and sweat with a crew member was extremely exhausting but very rewarding. In talking to our customers we always hear that our boys do a great job, seeing it first hand, I completely agree.