No Longer Alone

Chapter Twenty

*Damian's POV*

    Alex and I were on our way to do a tour of the contact center, both of us dressed in business suits again, rather than the more relaxed clothing that Alex had convinced me to wear when we had been out doing other things, and I had to admit, I was beginning to prefer them to the business suits seeing the different reactions of people, or lack of reaction in the case of some people.

    Reaching the location we handed our id's to security and were issued visitor passes to be able to get onto the location as two women came to join us.  Both had friendly professional smiles on, and a quick glance showed rings on the ring finger of both of them.  The ladies were both more full figured, the shorter of the two having hair slightly past her shoulders, while the other had a long braid trailing down her back.

    "Hello, I'm Laura Smith, the Site Director here, and this is Samantha Stone, our Manager for our Learning and Development teams here."  Laura, the shorter one, introduced herself and her manger cheerfully.

    "I'm Alex Trine, and this is Damian Blake.  We are the representatives from VXB Industries."  Not many people knew what VXB stood for, though there were lots of guesses, simply Val and Xander Blake, my parents kept it simple using initials.  We shook hands with both the ladies and were doing a meeting first to discuss the plans for the next several days.

    During the meeting, it was very easy to see that this area did live up to it's friendly nature, and no one walked around the building nervous or scared to go past this meeting room even knowing there was a meeting in progress.  There was fresh fruit and other snacks set up within the room, and in the kitchen attached to this meeting room there were three different coffee pots set up, two were smaller ones, and the third a large carafe for brewing more coffee.  Samantha had shown me in and must have seen the bit of confusion, as she had a rather hearty laugh and explained.

    "We have two different types of supervisors on site that work with agents, there is my team, which are Training and OJT supervisors, and we have our production agent supervisors.  Each of these teams have their own coffee pots as some of them can get very possessive of their areas," she pauses and smiles a bit, "and we have a few that don't really see the lines and view the site as one big team.  One of my team felt the need to make sure that there was coffee on hand for you if you should want it, though she wasn't sure how many visitors we would have, she erred on the side of caution.  Be warned though, she makes excellent coffee, if you like it strong."

    Nodding, I take one of the cups left for our use and pour a cup of the coffee for myself, the rich aroma of the coffee filling the air.  The coffee itself was a perfect dark rich color without having any of the acidic aroma of over steeped coffee.  Blowing on the coffee and taking a cautious sip, it was perfectly brewed and I almost wanted to thank whoever could make such an amazing pot of coffee.  

    The women were friendly without being pushy during the meeting, and had an excellent presentation on what this particular site could offer my company, and ended the first part of this with a tour of the facility with us.  Guiding us through the areas, they briefly stopped by classrooms, greeting trainers by first name and having casual friendly discussions for a moment before moving on, until we got to one room where they explained that this was another aspect of their on the job training, how the supervisors would teach additional classes, and that this supervisor was one of their best and that we would meet her later, but simply wanted to quietly observer her training at this time.  The room was darker than the rest, with a more colorful presentation projected on the screen, it was still hard to see anything more than human shapes all sitting in seats except for one who was walking up and down along one wall with almost a swagger to her strides.

    "Excellent question Troy!  I'm glad you brought up the subject of the word happy!" Her voice was warm and passionate, rolling down my spine...it couldn't be her. "Happy is not a power word at all, contrary to popular belief, it is the most overplayed and trite word there is.  This isn't fast food and we aren't ordering a happy meal here." She paused as the class chuckled. "When I hear the word happy all I can think of is that old cartoon song 'happy happy joy joy'" her voice while still sounding of laughter took on a nasally edge as she walked along stomping to the beat.

    The whole class broke out in laughter at her antics as well as earning a few chuckles from those of us that were listening to her.

    "Providing excellent customer service is a lot like trying to impress someone that you are interested in.  If you want to get out of the friendzone and get that second date you really have to make an amazing impression with these people.  Being happy to help someone is a great way to end up in that friendzone."

    "Well if you can't use happy what should we say instead?"  One person had asked, the voice sounded like a younger male.

    "Erik, thank you for asking, and I'd be delighted to give you some fantastic words to use instead, but you actually bring me to my next question as well.  Do any of you know what some actually are some powerful words are?"  The person walking paused and watched the class waiting.

    "Delighted?" "Fantastic?"

    "Absolutely! Wonderful choices and I can certainly tell that you will be doing amazing work since you are actively listening and paying attention.  I'm thrilled to know that you are so focused on providing marvelous service to our customers."  She stressed certain words and her voice was perfect at projecting praise for these agents.  "Jill, can you give me a click please?" The presentation changed slightly, showing more information and the supervisor continued to tie together the principles she was teaching with energy, her voice changing to match the situations and keeping her students learning and laughing with her.  It seemed that the ladies knew how she taught this class because they whispered for us to remain a moment longer.

    "This is the part of the class with her that is the most interesting to me, and has had a real lasting impact on her students."  Samantha whispered to Alex and I, watching as a poem came up on the screen.

    "As you will soon learn, most of my presentations will end with quotes or poems that will relate to the topic I'm teaching you, and this one is part of a poem that has stayed with me for since high school, which was more moons ago than I want to admit to."  Chuckles and giggles met her words as she poked fun at her self. Her voice took on a more serious tone as she recited the poem, watching the class instead of the screen.

You tell on yourself by the friends you seek,

By the manner in which you speak;

By the way you employ your leisure time,

By the use you make of dollar and dime.

You tell what you are by the things you wear,

By the spirit in which your burdens you bear,

By the kind of things at which you laugh,

By the records you play on your phonograph.

    "This is only part of the poem, as it continues on to say there is no point in pretending to be what you are not, that you are going to show it in everything you do.  I've been honest with all of you about my coffee addiction, that I hate the world before my second cup of coffee, but let's be honest, since you have all had to deal with me before I was on that second cup.  I have the choice to snap and snarl at you, or to actually try and be human and show you that you as my customers are more important than my coffee addiction.  I tell on myself every day in how I talk to you if I am here just for a pay check, or if I am here because helping you is more important to me.  What do I tell you everyday?"  The class erupted in  cheers for her and laughter again, with them calling out how they saw her.  With that we were motioned past the class, and Alex caught my eye, looking back at the class and tilting his head for a second.

    We had worked together long enough to know what the other was thinking.  The pitch was the same, but almost everything else was totally different.  Neither of us was certain if it was the same woman.