A little while ago I was walking ’round my neighbourhood and I noticed a bunch of trucks, lights, people, caterers, clipboard carriers, walkie-talkie-wearers, pilons, cables, craft service trucks, rigs, and onlookers. If memory serves, something donned on me at the time - I was amidst a movie set. More specifically, a TV ad set.
Thinking about it a little more, there really doesn’t appear to be any difference between a movie set and a TV ad set to the naked ‘non-movie-TV-ad-set’ eye. They’re both big, costly, infested with people doing all sorts of crazy things, and tend to stay in one place for a very long period of time.
Anyway…
That TV ad set (glad we have that out-of-the-way), happened to be right in front of the store that is the topic of this post - Rogers Video at 2204 York Avenue in Kitsilano. Imagine that!
In fact, you’ve probably seen the TV ad itself - a bunch of people dancing outside of a Rogers Video Store to SNAP!’s 1989 smash hit ‘The Power’ in a bizarre, I-think-I-am-watching-a-2008-rendition-of-Michael-Jackson’s-Thriller-in-broad-daylight kind of way.
I’ve mentioned Rogers customer service before (however, we’re not talking about phones anymore). OK, I lied - I alluded to it (Raul wrote it).
I must have rented 1,000 movies at Rogers Video over the years. And on this particular night after a great dinner at Fish, we were in the mood for a movie. And Tom, is the reason we left Rogers Video with a smile with our movies in hand.
Tom was pleasant to deal with, effective at handling a busy checkout line, and looked as though he really enjoyed what he was doing. All good things when it comes to service.
My favourite quote, which neither of us will soon forget, occurred when I commented on how the digital scanner didn’t seem to be working. Tom looked up, smiling of course, and inserted the following clever remark:
That’s what happens when you have a guy who’s half asleep and with half an hour left on his shift.
Tom didn’t fall asleep in front of us and I’m sure he was happy about 29 minutes after we left. Thanks Tom - you really made a difference by turning something simple into something fun.
So Bang the Bass! and Turn up the Treble! (Tom would want you to):
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z33tH-JdPDg]
darren
My wife and I had some serious customer service when we were at the Rogers Video in Richmond at 2 Road and Blundell about a year back… She was feeling a little under the weather, and can tend to be more honest than people expect, so when the cheerful fellow behind the counter called over a salutory “How are you doing tonight?”, you’d think he might be taken aback a bit by her frank response: “I’m not feeling very well.” Not him. No sir. He continued taking his history with the follow-up question: “Is it physical or emotional?”… “Physical”… “Oh, well maybe you should get your boyfriend to rub your tummy.”
It should be noted that he wasn’t thumbing a waxed moustache under a rakishly-tilted fedora with a book of love poems on his lap, a forest of 70s chest hair trapped behind an intentionally phallic gold medallion in the shape of the male symbol. In other words, it wasn’t a come-on wth the boyfriend in sight - it was actually *customer service*. He actually cared about her health, not to mention stating our subsequent eclectic video rental requirements (”what do you have with breakfast club alumnae, bollywood music and unicorns?”)
4.8 future don juans out of 5 (when the braces come off).