AMTonline Blogs

In addition to my editorial duties with AMT magazine, I have also taken over as editor for another magazine here at Cygnus – Light Truck and SUV. This month I am working on a cover story on the team from Galpin Auto Sports (GAS). You may have heard of GAS. They do the MTV show Pimp my Ride. They bring a beat up car into the shop and do a total makeover on it. When it leaves, it usually has lots of customizations including new interior, entertainment system, engine and paint job.

 During the inverview with GAS president Beau Boeckmann, I asked him what the secret of his success was. “Make sure you always put your customer first,” he said. “If you work to make money, that money may not come. If you work to satisfy your customers, the money will always come.”

Simple words, but something to think about. We must always do our best and go out of the way to please Our customers. And remember that customers aren’t just those customers that come in the shop. We can also have internal customers. For example, the paint shop has customers in the other departments that are counting on them doing a good job. If we let down our customers, our business will hurt.

I got to spend a lot of time with the technicians at GAS. There are some very talented technicians in the shop. But it was quickly evident that the success of GAS is due in large part to the employees’ positive can-do attitudes. Every single employee knew the importance of excellent customer service, and they all went out of their way to make sure every customer was 100 percent satisfied. Combine that with their high level of talent, and you have a recipe for success. It’s easy to see why they have enjoyed the success they have had over the years.

Thanks for reading!

Joe Escobar

Many of you saw the images this past week of a piece of space debris traveling in space near the space shuttle. The shuttle’s return was delayed in order to inspect the vehicle to ensure the floating object was not a critical piece of the shuttle that had broken off.

In the end, the shuttle got the OK to return to earth, but the piece of debris was never identified.

As conscious as we are about foreign object debris (FOD) in aviation, I imagine that NASA would be ten-times more sensitive. So I find it funny that NASA could not rule out if the debris was a tool that had floated away from the shuttle bay. Is there no tool accountability in space?

A few years ago I met an editor for a space magazine. He told me that there were thousands of pieces of space debris orbiting around the earth. I had never thought about the problem of space debris before, but soon found out it is a big problem. NASA’s Orbital Debris Program office says there are approximately 11,000 pieces of space debris larger than 10 centimeters known to exist. If you think that is a high number, hold on it gets worse. NASA says that there are more than 100,000 pieces of debris between 1 and 10 centimeters. If you go smaller than 1 centimeter, it estimates there are tens of millions of objects.

NASA says these objects are traveling at average speeds of 7 to 8 kilometers per second. Can you imagine the damage that could be caused by a softball-sized piece of space debris hitting the shuttle or the international space station going that fast?

Kind of makes the danger of foam falling off external tanks during takeoff seem kind of small.

If you want to learn more about space debris, you can visit www.orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov.

Thanks for reading!

Joe Escobar

I am writing this blog entry while on hold. You see, I am trying to book award travel to Dallas in a few weeks. I want to fly Midwest Airlines because they have a nonstop flight from Milwaukee with their nice comfy 2×2 seating.

I started off by calling Midwest Airlines to see what flights were available. I only have enough miles with Midwest for two of the four tickets I need, so I wanted to check for seat availability and flight times. Here’s how that call went:

1. Call toll free number.

2. Press award travel option.

3. Talk to an agent who helped me with flight availability, and booked my two tickets using my Midwest miles.

Total time – about 10 minutes.

Next I had to call Northwest to use Northwest miles for the other two tickets on the Midwest flight (they are partner airlines). Here’s how that call went:

1. Call toll free number.
2. Say “Award Travel” to automated attendant.
3. Enter my Mileage plus number on my phone keypad and press #.
4. Say “September 22” when the auto attendant asks for departure date.
5. Say “Milwaukee” when the auto attendant asks departure city.
6. Say “Dallas” when the auto attendant asks arrival city.
7. Say “October 2” when auto attendant asks return date.
8. Say “Two” when the auto attendant asks for how many travelers.
9. Yell “NO” when the auto attendant confirms that I want to go from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Krakow, Poland on September 22 returning on October 2.
10. Say “arrival city” when auto attendant asks what part was incorrect.
11. Say “Dallas, Texas” when auto attendant asks for correct arrival city.
12. Say “yes” when auto attendant confirms that I want to go from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Dallas, Texas departing on September 22 and returning on October 2.
13. Yell out loud when a recorded voice says something like “Due to a high level of calls, we cannot complete your call at this time. Please try again.”
14. Total time so far, 15 minutes – and they hung up on me!
15. Call toll free number again.
16. Repeat steps 2 through 8.
17. Say “yes” to confirm I want to go to Dallas etc…
18. Hear about the high level of calls and that I will be put on hold. Approximate time to talk to agent: more than 15 minutes. At least they didn’t hang up on me!
19. I have written all of this blog up until this point while on hold. After 30 minutes of holding, a NWA agent by the name of Chris answered the phone. The rest was written after I got off the phone with Chris.
20. Confirm to Chris that two of us will be flying to Dallas, etc…
21. Tell Chris exactly what Midwest flights numbers I want to be on (thanks to the friendly help from Holly at Midwest earlier).
22. Have him book my flights. Total time on phone with Chris – about 5 minutes. Total time trying to book award flight with Northwest – around 50 minutes.

OK, now they wanted me to hang on for an automated survey on my experience. Now I could let them know how I felt about this whole fiasco!

First question: “Without influence on how you feel about Northwest Airlines in general, how do you feel about the service you received from the Northwest reservations agent? Press “1” if you are extremely satisfied.”

Well, I had to press “1.” After all, when I was finally able to talk to a live person, he was extremely helpful and courteous.

Next question: Well, there wasn’t any other question. That was it! No “How do you feel about the time you had to wait to speak to an agent?” or “How do you feel about the automated attendant we are using?” or “How satisfied are you with your overall experience?”

There you have it. A tale of two different customer service experiences. You be the judge.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Joe Escobar

I was with my son this past weekend doing some shopping for school clothes. He told us he wanted some new jeans for school.

So off we went to the mall to go back to the store where he bought his last pairs of jeans. He likes the fit of that brand and doesn’t want to get any others at this point. So he went to the shelves and he picked out two pairs. He went to the dressing room to try them on.

As we were checking out, I was amazed at the price of the jeans. Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I find it even more amazing the condition of the jeans. They were worn, faded, and had holes in them. “Heck”, I told my wife, “Maybe I should rummage through my closet. I probably have a couple hundred bucks worth of jeans in there that are faded and have tears and holes in them.”

But I guess that’s the style of the day. Kids are used to picking a pair of jeans off the shelf and getting that used broken-in look and fit right away. A few years ago you would pull a stiff pair of dark blue jeans off the shelf and wear them with that “new jean” look for a few months until finally they got broken in and fit pretty good. Then, after a few years, they became extremely comfortable with a few holes, tears, and not much of the original dark-blue color left.

Unfortunately it seems some of the younger mechanics coming out of school have the same attitude towards a job. I recently talked with a director of maintenance who told me quite a few job applicants would come in for an interview dressed like they were going to the beach. They would then turn down a job offer (if they were lucky to get one) because it only paid $15.00/hour.

Although you may be able to buy a worn pair of jeans with holes right off the shelf, you can’t expect to come out of school and be a seasoned mechanic. Be patient. Everyone will know that you are the new guy. But if you go in with an open mind and positive attitude, others will be more than willing to help you fit more comfortably into your new job. Career success will follow naturally.

Thanks for reading!

Joe Escobar