Discouraged?

I have been overwhelmed of late. Every year at this time our company is swamped with problems. It seems that our customers forget everything they ever knew during their summer break. We normally log 50 support calls per day. We had one day this week with over 400. We have installations going in from one end of the country to the other. We have to order hardware to arrive on time, setup databases, schedule training, make travel arrangements for large numbers of employees, prepare invoices and secure payment, setup software and burn CDs, design complicated implementation plans, configure our system to work with every type of customer’s operating system and hardware imaginable, train people who have never seen a computer and some don’t even speak English, we must work with the extremely difficult customer staff member who does not not want to switch from what they were using and hates us and our company because of it, (It seems as if there is always one), etc etc.


Many of our customers expect, rather “demand”, the impossible. Some wait until the very last minute to let us know their needs and then want us to react immediately. They do not understand nor seem to care if we have every available person’s workload carefully scheduled for other customers for 6 weeks out. They want us to deliver product and services immediately. Then when we “move mountains” to help them, and it comes time to pay, they are in no hurry and are offended in some cases that we even dare to ask for payment.

Many of our employees are working 60-80 hours per week to address all of these problems. I am personally working 14-18 hours per day, often working all day and flying all night to get to the next problem. Most of us are working 6 days per week. Tempers flare, frustration is high, and stress is commonplace in our company at this particular time. I personally field most of the “very-mad” calls, letters and e-mails. It is no fun to be berated and made out to be incompetent, especially when very often it is as much the customers fault, if not entirely, as ours.
It really is discouraging to know that so many of our people are so dedicated and concerned for the customer, yet it seems that often we fail miserably in conveying that message to them. Likewise it is no fun to discover that a problem is our fault, and we have made mistakes, (sometimes stupid mistakes) and we have “dropped the ball” for our valued customers. I want so badly to have excellent customer service that it is almost an obsession. Sometimes when things go wrong, I come very close to just “losing it” and in fact have done just that a few
times lately. (For that I apologize). So have many of our employees.
(People are snapping at each other as if it were a snapping turtle convention or something). It is times like these that I refer to one of my all time favorite quotes. If you have worked for our company or known me for very long, you have likely seen it before.

DON’T QUIT

When things go wrong as they some-
times will,
When the road you’re trudging seems
all uphill,
When the funds are low and the
debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have
to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a
bit—
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.

When you are worried and full of doubt,
just remember that Success is failure turned inside out—

So stick to the fight when you’re
hardest hit,—
It’s when things seem worst that you
mustn’t quit.

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Did the foregoing sound like whining? Well it is and I feel much better now. Thanks for listening. I always hate to focus on my problems.
Instead I like to focus on the good things. Best of all I have available to me a wonderful, understanding friend and Father, Jesus Christ, who loves me more than I can comprehend. He is always available to help guide me through every difficult moment of every difficult day.
I have a wonderful family, friends, and own a company that is extremely successful. I have my good health and plenty to eat and can pay my bills. I have more possessions than I even really want, or can effectively use. . I watched the news last night and saw the devastation in India caused from flooding. Those poor people have
“real” problems, I have it made! I am so blessed that I am ashamed
that I whined, anyone got an aspirin?

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Proverbs 30:2
Surely I am more stupid than
any man…

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