I have a vacant staged listing that is pending. Every-time I have a meeting for various reasons at the house in escrow, I have to get there ahead of time and turn on the air conditioner to cool-off the place. It works extremely well when activated. I open doors, window shades etc. and conduct my business at hand.
MULTI-TASKING
We are having 100 degree weather lately. Going from indoors to outdoors all day long is a chore but doable. As I was getting ready to leave, I got into three very important conversations. One on the phone with my seller and two in person. All handled very well. Ah, but a problem was looming I did not see
THE BOO-BOO
I lost focus on the big picture while handling the little picture in the moment. Add fatigue, wanting to move to my next stop and being in a hurry to leave, I forgot to do one thing. TURN OFF THE A/C! Consequently, it ran all night and the next morning too. $$$$$$$$$$$ out the door!
SET TO MAXIMUM ON
But that is not all. I never set the temperature to a certain degree when I turned it on. I just put it on MAXIMUM cold to get the quickest cooling period going. So, all night long, it maintained close to 60 degrees while it was 75 outside. The thing never shut off!
WHEN IT RAINS...IT POURS
Not only did this run up a bill for electricity, but I also put at risk blowing out the condenser on the unit. If that is not enough, the seller of the home just happened to be passing by the next morning, heard the fans going, stopped in and shut it down...That's how I found out...gulp!
Imagine my surprise when I read the following email:
I am a little upset with you. You left the A/C on – set at 60 degrees – and it ran all day yesterday and all night long. It did not cycle, it just ran and ran. Thankfully I walk every morning at 4:30 and heard the unit running and turned it off. But what if I hadn’t done that? The A/C would have continued to run for how long??? In addition to the strain it put on the condenser, it is going to cost me a significant amount of money. I expected you to be more attentive!
THIS CHICKEN CAME HOME AND LANDED HARD
My heart sank, my butterflies did somersaults and I was shaken to the core. Immediately I was filled with regret and thought to myself exactly what happened. I side-stepped my systems. I short-cut-ted and when offline when it came to leaving the premises...let me explain...
THE ROUTINE WORKS...if you work it
I usually and without fail, check all doors and windows, plumbing and room to room before leaving which includes lights off, doors locked etc. Then, I set the alarm and off I go. Well this last meeting I had was intense and emotional causing me to weaken my system and procedures and skip a step or two
Here is my response to my client:
Thank you for telling me this...I go by the property twice day so one of us would have caught it. I am very sorry about this. I remember now how I got distracted toward the leaving part when I was talking with the roofer and then I requested a one on one with the buyer agent. We went into so much detail I lost the bigger focus. Count me in for $100 toward this billing. You shouldn’t have to pay for that. Again, I am sorry for this
RECOVERY
He responded with a hearty thank you and we all moved on better for it and in my case wiser too. It's not so much the $100 offer to offset but I believe the rapport gained from two people to honestly be able to share below the surface feelings comfortably in a mature professional way
THE NECESSARIES OF LIFE
Correction, feedback and input is necessary for growth and advancement of ones personal self. Often it can smart, really hurt, I mean give off a really bad owee but only to make the message hit its target area. Once responsibility is taken, the growth and results follow and all remain better for the experience
ANTE-UP
Now, to the next one, whatever it may be..I say...bring it on! Why? I am still a product in development and I look forward to my next life lesson. It is the price we pay (gladly) for the life experience, the problems that come with living and learning
Thank you
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