Let’s pick a date! When’s a slow part of the year? When are people sad and depressed? My new holiday? National (try to) Make Someone Laugh On The Phone Day!”

I had to call all these different insurance companies up today. I was a tiny bit grumpy myself, because of the wonderful elevator music, and the hold times, and the need to have to do this over and over and over and over and over (put it to bad music, and you get the idea), but I wasn’t going to bring anyone else down. So… I took it out on them in sarcasm This poor woman was laughing so hard! I was calling to inquire about my general liability insurance….

Did you know, as a photographer, most clubs recommend that you have a $1,000,000.00 liability insurance in order to rent the facility to you (for a shoot, for example)?

So she confirmed the latest payment was for liability insurance, and I had started to make hypothetical situations that may need covering: “So.. this would cover when a lingerie shoot goes awry and someone accidentally is dismembered with some bad lingerie, or the model is allergic to the pudding she was wearing for the shoot…. ” This woman was laughing so hard, and said “I needed that” so I continued with the 1 liners (a cow with no legs = Ground Beef, etc…), and finally she took a breather and was like “Well now Mister Bengal, how can I help you?” and she was very pleasant.

My next call was to B&H Video I buy most of my gear from them for their wonderful service, low prices, great availability and selection, and as demonstrated today, wonderful character and customer service. I had spoken to a gentleman, and told him that the reason I didn’t get to send my RMA in 2 months ago was because I was on the road, doing the CouchSurfingOri thing, so haven’t really had much of a place to send the products back. The products that were defective were batteries for my camcorder…. the pun I used was “The trip’s actually been great so far… the only DRAIN on it so far has been the defective batteries.” The guffaw or attempted laugh sounded so miserable, that it was followed by a very genuine laugh, followed by many questions about the adventure, and then a re issuance of my RMA. Not bad at all, considering it’s 2 months late. I am a strong proponent of good customer service…. but I’m sure the humor had something to do with it. Wouldn’t the world be a much better place if each day we made one person laugh… especially if we were going to rip them a new one initially? Most of the people who have to take your calls are the wrong people to be yelling at….. they’re the poor fakwers that just happen to get paid whatever wage they get, to put up with your crap, and direct your call….. call it a human shield. Making them laugh makes you feel better, and gets you better customer service. If you can’t do it every day, let’s do it on December 16th, which coincidentally is also my birthday, and Beethoven’s! Or send a vote e-mail to CouchSurfingOri and let me know your dates… I’ll make a ton of official graphics to spread around the internet for the holiday!

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