Service with a smile

Of course on the Anglo Saxon blogs and journos we get the continuous criticism of the French public services. Bureaucratic, unionised and what have you.

Well last Friday I put out our wheely bin for the biweekly rubbish collection Saturday morning. Mid morning Saturday I see our bin has lost a wheel and have difficulty in bringing it back in. In the wheely bin was a polite notice apologising for having eaten the bin and advising me if I call a certain number I’ll get a new bin. I dump the notice on my wife’s desk and get on with a man’s business. My wife after a weekend in Paris reappears on Monday morning and calls the number. Because the bin is only slightly broken the rubbish service come out Monday afternoon and hey presto I now have a repaired bin ready to be wheeled out Tuesday evening all for free.

And is it only rubbish? NO it isn’t. I put a letter in the local letterbox with a quotation for a customer. I quickly realized I had made a big error. What to do? Inform the customer that I had made a big mistake before it was put into the decision process? Maybe, but it wasn’t going to cover me with glory when I was fighting for the contract, especially since I had miscalculated the postage and the customer would have to pay a fee to receive my mail. No much better to put a post it on the post box, Cher Facteur and ask that he return it to my letter box. Having held off on informing my customer I was relieved to find the returned letter in my letter box that evening. Yes I do give a tip to my facteur, this year it will be a bit bigger. I got that contract.