OK, I know I’m officially on holidays for the week, but I had to give credit where credit is due.

We’ve all seen a decline in the level of service in the province – a boom economy is a challenge for businesses everywhere. How do you attract and retain good employees? I don’t know the easy answer, but one company in Saskatoon has got a good one.

I popped into OTV technologies (a computer store) to upgrade the RAM on my laptop yesterday. My buddy Chris had asked me to pick some up for him at OTV while I was up here for a conference – I figured, what the heck, I’ll upgrade mine at the same time.

I walked into a very busy scene on Saturday afternoon. Oh crap, this could take a while. It didn’t. Within a couple of minutes a young guy named Thomas (young being a relative term – he is somewhere in his 20’s I would guess) working behind the counter asked what he could do for me (I won’t use his last name – I didn’t ask his permission). I explained what I wanted and that I needed them to install the RAM for me. The service guys were jammed, but he would try and see if they could do it. I let him know I was from out of town and if it was going to get done, it would have to be today. He snuck me to the front of the line.

In typical Dave-world fashion, my computer is kind of quirky apparently. It wouldn’t take the RAM it was supposed to, so we tried a different kind. Then it wouldn’t take the amount I wanted to put in (some BIOS issue – whatever that is) – the 4th time is the charm. Finally got it in and working.

While I was waiting for the service guys to work their magic, I watched Thomas work. He was polite – not in the formal, stiff way, but in a casual friendly way that still showed respect for the customer. He knew his stuff – I mean knew it cold – no matter what anyone asked him, he had the answer. He worked quickly, but not hurriedly – making everyone feel that they were special and valued – he focussed in on them each time. While all this was going on, he would take calls as they came in. Some looking for information, some complaints. He handled them all with grace and courtesy.

As I watched him work it struck me I was seeing something special. Someone who enjoyed their work and was damn good at it. I have not seen someone give service like this in at least a decade. It was outstanding.

I bitch about crappy service. It’s only fair that I praise it when it’s good. A good service salute to Thomas at OTV Technologies is Saskatoon – you earned it.

Goin’ fishing now… Dave