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Along the fortified walls of Old San Juan ran the imagination of a wide-eyed kid every time he held sight of them. Cherished for centuries, the old city by the sea never failed to enchant the young Samuel Mejía (pronounced meh-HEE-ah) during his visits with his family, including the three fortresses watching over the city roughly a mile apart from each other. Facing the Atlantic, they are the beautiful La Fortaleza and her two fearsome brothers, El Morro and Castillo San Cristóbal. As a kid, Sam would stand atop El Morro's thick battlements to view the ocean. He imagined the old stories that told of booming cannons firing over the blue waters, when the city guarded the gateway to the New World against enemy navies and pirate ships. But growing up during the 1980s, to Sam his life seemed unadventurous. Had you visited his neighborhood on the outskirts of San Juan, Puerto Rico, you would've seen him riding his bike on any given day, often doing long wheelies along his street. He loved drawing characters from his imagination, finding inspiration while listening to Van Halen on cassette or movie soundtracks on vinyl records. Although the idea of running his own business never crossed his mind, it wouldn't be long before he would begin laying the blocks of customer service along his path.
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At the age of 16, his family moved to Georgia and settled in North Decatur. After graduating from Shamrock High School he studied mechanical drafting at DeKalb Technical Institute (presently GA Piedmont Technical College). He then moved to upstate New York to work as a volunteer for a nonprofit educational organization, where he spent 3 years learning the value of service and hard work. He later would form a family of his own and settle in northern New Jersey. While supporting his wife and baby girl, he learned more about customer service from two very different lines of business, each providing valuable lessons that would shape Home Clean Home's service to its clients.
Early in 1996, Sam became a delivery driver for Coffee Associates, Inc., a long-established coffee roaster serving restaurants and hotels in New York City and the tri-state area. A day of work consisted of 12 to 20 stops with the busier itineraries in the Big Apple. Sam acknowledges, "I quickly learned that timely response and building rapport with customers were key to building customer satisfaction." Speed and minimal interruption to the establishment was the way to be appreciated, especially in bustling Manhattan. With street parking at a premium, he would double-park his van and deliver between 50 to 200 pounds of coffee to the restaurant's basement. The owner was generally at the register, busy with customers. You offered a brief greeting, make sure they got what they ordered, collect payment, give thanks and get out of their way; then run back to the van before NYPD could pin a ticket on your windshield. In less busy restaurants there was time to build more rapport with the customer. Remembering those days, Sam says, "New Yorkers love their coffee. Many restaurants and coffee shops depended on the company's coffee to keep customers coming and ordering from their menus. When a diner called saying they needed more coffee ASAP, you hoped it wouldn't run out before you arrived, or the restaurant manager would eagerly meet you in the kitchen with a few choice words—loud and clear!" Working against the clock in Manhattan traffic was no easy task; yet he acquired new driving abilities, and more importantly, he honed his diplomatic skills. All of it proved a superb way for Sam to polish his customer service. After two and a half years, he was promoted to Assistant Plant Manager.
In spring of 2000, Sam shifted gears when he was hired by Bell Atlantic. Weeks into his job, the company merged with GTE to form a new corporation: Verizon. He worked in the landline division, engaging with customers across several states as a consultant with the sales and service department. As landlines continued disappearing through the early 2000s, Sam's job entailed closing sales of Verizon's newly developed FiOS (fiber-optic service)—a game changer at the time—providing ultra-high speed data and crystal-clear TV across the New York metropolitan area.
Although enjoying these transformative developments, Sam noticed how corporate's preoccupation with spearheading the business actually isolated it from customers, a situation that resulted in obliviousness to some customer needs and a slower response to employee feedback. Always keen on customers' concerns, Sam listened to customers, served them and made them feel valued. He appreciates the valuable experience earned at the company while, at the same time, he sees how even the largest companies have limitations. After working for 14 years at Verizon Sam says, "An important lesson I took away was how the intimacy of a small business is better suited to serve a community. I firmly realized that a business strengthens the connection to its customers when the leadership engages in handling people's concerns in a perceptive and friendly way, as opposed to solely assigning that responsibility to its workers."
After widowing, Sam needed to focus on his daughter, although it took him some time to realize it. He sought support to do so and, in the process, rediscovered his daughter as well as himself. He moved back to Decatur with his daughter in 2014. In time, he chose to start a low-tech business that busy people could need and ultimately went into the residential cleaning business. Besides managing the business, he chooses to participate in the cleaning work. This leading style helps him to better understand the workers' perspective and provide knowledgeable guidance that they can appreciate.
Having spent over 25 years serving people in nonprofit and businesses small and large, Sam is happy to serve Atlanta's communities, bringing satisfaction to his clients with the help of the Home Clean Home team, a group of hard-working friends that are like family. His years of customer service helps to provide Atlantans with a quality home cleaning service that offers good value to his clients. Sam has learned that quality customer service is built, like a fortified city, one block at a time. When built solidly and carefully, he knows it will make people feel safer and even drawn to cherish it.
Early in 1996, Sam became a delivery driver for Coffee Associates, Inc., a long-established coffee roaster serving restaurants and hotels in New York City and the tri-state area. A day of work consisted of 12 to 20 stops with the busier itineraries in the Big Apple. Sam acknowledges, "I quickly learned that timely response and building rapport with customers were key to building customer satisfaction." Speed and minimal interruption to the establishment was the way to be appreciated, especially in bustling Manhattan. With street parking at a premium, he would double-park his van and deliver between 50 to 200 pounds of coffee to the restaurant's basement. The owner was generally at the register, busy with customers. You offered a brief greeting, make sure they got what they ordered, collect payment, give thanks and get out of their way; then run back to the van before NYPD could pin a ticket on your windshield. In less busy restaurants there was time to build more rapport with the customer. Remembering those days, Sam says, "New Yorkers love their coffee. Many restaurants and coffee shops depended on the company's coffee to keep customers coming and ordering from their menus. When a diner called saying they needed more coffee ASAP, you hoped it wouldn't run out before you arrived, or the restaurant manager would eagerly meet you in the kitchen with a few choice words—loud and clear!" Working against the clock in Manhattan traffic was no easy task; yet he acquired new driving abilities, and more importantly, he honed his diplomatic skills. All of it proved a superb way for Sam to polish his customer service. After two and a half years, he was promoted to Assistant Plant Manager.
In spring of 2000, Sam shifted gears when he was hired by Bell Atlantic. Weeks into his job, the company merged with GTE to form a new corporation: Verizon. He worked in the landline division, engaging with customers across several states as a consultant with the sales and service department. As landlines continued disappearing through the early 2000s, Sam's job entailed closing sales of Verizon's newly developed FiOS (fiber-optic service)—a game changer at the time—providing ultra-high speed data and crystal-clear TV across the New York metropolitan area.
Although enjoying these transformative developments, Sam noticed how corporate's preoccupation with spearheading the business actually isolated it from customers, a situation that resulted in obliviousness to some customer needs and a slower response to employee feedback. Always keen on customers' concerns, Sam listened to customers, served them and made them feel valued. He appreciates the valuable experience earned at the company while, at the same time, he sees how even the largest companies have limitations. After working for 14 years at Verizon Sam says, "An important lesson I took away was how the intimacy of a small business is better suited to serve a community. I firmly realized that a business strengthens the connection to its customers when the leadership engages in handling people's concerns in a perceptive and friendly way, as opposed to solely assigning that responsibility to its workers."
After widowing, Sam needed to focus on his daughter, although it took him some time to realize it. He sought support to do so and, in the process, rediscovered his daughter as well as himself. He moved back to Decatur with his daughter in 2014. In time, he chose to start a low-tech business that busy people could need and ultimately went into the residential cleaning business. Besides managing the business, he chooses to participate in the cleaning work. This leading style helps him to better understand the workers' perspective and provide knowledgeable guidance that they can appreciate.
Having spent over 25 years serving people in nonprofit and businesses small and large, Sam is happy to serve Atlanta's communities, bringing satisfaction to his clients with the help of the Home Clean Home team, a group of hard-working friends that are like family. His years of customer service helps to provide Atlantans with a quality home cleaning service that offers good value to his clients. Sam has learned that quality customer service is built, like a fortified city, one block at a time. When built solidly and carefully, he knows it will make people feel safer and even drawn to cherish it.
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