|
Cherished for nearly four centuries, the sandstone-block walls surrounding Old San Juan stand as robustly above the shores as when the Spanish built them. All along the walls ran the imagination of a wide-eyed kid every time he held sight of them. The old city by the sea never failed to enchant him during his visits with his family, especially the strongholds that so majestically overstayed their mission: La Fortaleza (the governor's residence) and two of the most imposing fortresses you will ever walk through: Castillo San Felipe del Morro and Castillo San Cristóbal. He was captivated by stories that told of booming cannon fights over the blue waters, when the city defended the gateway to the New World against enemy navies and pirate ships. Growing up during the 1980s, however, to young Samuel Mejía (pronounced meh-HEE-ah) 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 the blocks of customer service would begin to be laid in his work.
|
|
At the age of 16, his family moved to Georgia and settled in North Decatur. Through a culture shock, he spent his last year-and-a-half of high school at Shamrock High (presently Druid Hills Middle School) and went on to study 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. This training taught him to work with one key objective: bringing satisfaction to others, a goal that would feed his own satisfaction. 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. With no GPS in those days, you relied on paper maps to find the fastest route until it became etched in your brain. Sam acknowledges, "I quickly learned that timely response and building rapport with customers were key to building customer satisfaction." With parking nearly impossible in Manhattan, he recalls double-parking his van, unloading anywhere between 50 to 200 pounds of coffee and taking it to the restaurant basement. In busy coffee shops and restaurants, speed and minimal interruption to the establishment was the way to be appreciated. The owner was usually at the register, busy with customers. You offered a brief greeting, make sure he got what he ordered, collect payment and get out of the way; then run back to the van before NYPD could pin a ticket on your windshield. In less busy restaurants there was more time to exchange pleasantries and 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 deliveries to keep customers coming in 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!" Honing diplomacy skills while working against the clock proved a superb way for Sam to polish his customer service skills. After two and a half years, he was promoted to Assistant Plant Manager.
In late 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 newly branded company: Verizon. He worked for the company's 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 new fiber-optic service (FiOS) to provide ultra-high speed data and crystal-clear TV across the New York metropolitan area. This major push for fiber-to-the-premises connected fiber optics directly to individual households and businesses, eventually making it the largest end-to-end fiber region in the nation.
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. Despite the high-pressure demands of the job, Sam was keen on customers' concerns, listening to them and doing everything he could to make 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 in 2012, Sam would need 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 experience 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 one block at a time, like a fortified city. When built solidly and carefully, he knows it will make people feel safe 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. With no GPS in those days, you relied on paper maps to find the fastest route until it became etched in your brain. Sam acknowledges, "I quickly learned that timely response and building rapport with customers were key to building customer satisfaction." With parking nearly impossible in Manhattan, he recalls double-parking his van, unloading anywhere between 50 to 200 pounds of coffee and taking it to the restaurant basement. In busy coffee shops and restaurants, speed and minimal interruption to the establishment was the way to be appreciated. The owner was usually at the register, busy with customers. You offered a brief greeting, make sure he got what he ordered, collect payment and get out of the way; then run back to the van before NYPD could pin a ticket on your windshield. In less busy restaurants there was more time to exchange pleasantries and 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 deliveries to keep customers coming in 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!" Honing diplomacy skills while working against the clock proved a superb way for Sam to polish his customer service skills. After two and a half years, he was promoted to Assistant Plant Manager.
In late 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 newly branded company: Verizon. He worked for the company's 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 new fiber-optic service (FiOS) to provide ultra-high speed data and crystal-clear TV across the New York metropolitan area. This major push for fiber-to-the-premises connected fiber optics directly to individual households and businesses, eventually making it the largest end-to-end fiber region in the nation.
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. Despite the high-pressure demands of the job, Sam was keen on customers' concerns, listening to them and doing everything he could to make 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 in 2012, Sam would need 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 experience 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 one block at a time, like a fortified city. When built solidly and carefully, he knows it will make people feel safe and even drawn to cherish it.
|
|
|
|
|