The Supersized PhysEd Podcast
The Supersized Physed Podcast is dedicated to providing new ideas, activities and inspiration to our physical education field. Each week a new episode about various physed topics comes out, sometimes with a guest, sometimes it's just me!
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The Supersized PhysEd Podcast
Customer Service Lessons From Our Family Cruise
What's up PE Nation!
Ever wondered how one cruise can showcase the highs and lows of customer service? Join me as I recount my family’s recent adventure to the Bahamas, where we encountered everything from abundant food to unforgettable service experiences. I'll share some eyebrow-raising tales of poor customer service, like a PE substitute who couldn't stay awake and a 7-Eleven cashier more interested in vaping than helping customers. These less-than-stellar moments are juxtaposed with shining examples of exceptional service, like a young and helpful salesperson at Costco. Through these stories, you'll see why good customer service is a passion of mine, deeply rooted in my upbringing in a family-owned store—a theme I explore in my book, "High Fives and Empowering Lives."
But that's not all. Our cruise was made more memorable by the extraordinary crew members who went above and beyond. You'll meet Joner, a room attendant from Indonesia who remembered everyone's names with an infectious energy, and Chester, a dining room server from the Philippines whose quiet and caring service left a lasting impression. We also had the pleasure of meeting Blessing, an enthusiastic photographer whose playful nature won over my entire family, and Rodney, a sea lion trainer whose passion for his work provided an unforgettable encounter. These dedicated individuals, far from their own families, showed us the true meaning of outstanding customer service, making our cruise an unforgettable adventure. Tune in to hear these heartwarming stories and more!
Take Care,
Dave
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Hello and welcome to the Super Size Fizzhead podcast. My name is Dave and I just got back from a cruise and I want to talk about it. I want to talk about all the cool customer service things I've seen on my cruise to the Bahamas. So let's go. Welcome in PE Nation, I'm so glad you're here.
Speaker 1:So, yes, I just got back from a cruise to the Bahamas with my family my two kids and my wife and we had a great time. It was a five-day, four-night cruise. We went to the private island, we went to Nassau, and it's been a while since we've been on a cruise. So if you have never been on one, I do recommend it. It's lots of food and my daughter and son but definitely my daughter ate ice cream like it's her job and it was just, it was a lot of food.
Speaker 1:You have to be very disciplined. I'm not saying I was 100% disciplined, but well, you know it's it's. There's a lot of food around. You gotta be, you gotta be careful. So what I noticed and I'm just, I'm big on customer service. It's always been important to me, since my family owned a store for many, many years and I just notice it all the time. Customer service is just one of my big things in a positive or negative way, and there's a lot of negative, so let me share some bad ones first, and then we'll get to the really good ones, because the bad ones sometimes are more fun. So the first one I thought of was it was a few years ago. Actually, it was more than a few, it was probably a good eight years ago, I'm just guessing, probably more than five, less than ten.
Speaker 1:There was a sub for PE that was at my former school and she fell asleep right in the middle of class. It was kind of funny because we were watching her and we were on our radios and we're like hey look, she's falling asleep Because she was just sitting on the bench watching kids do laps, which she was supposed to be standing up and doing more things. But she decided to sit on the bench and when I went over there she was kind of dozing a little bit. It was just kind of like back and forth. And then finally she fell asleep and I took a picture of it to send to my principal, of course, because that was not somebody we wanted back, but it was just a really funny story and not good at customer service, of course, all right. So that was one para sub. Now I had another one at my current school that she wore her AirPod all day long in her ear and I did mention to her one time and she kind of was like okay, but you know, clearly she was either listening to music or doing something on her and sometimes she was on her phone.
Speaker 1:I've had a lot of paras again, when I say paras, I should say sub paras on phones not paying attention, not being engaged with the kids, just kind of like sitting there, waiting, doing nothing and I give them things to do. But anyways, the best one recently was when I went to 7-Eleven and, yes, I went there for a Monster Energy drink. That's my downfall in life, so this is a great one. So I went in there and a lot of times they never speak to you Like the. They just don't greet you at all, they don't say anything and I'm sure you've experienced this or they're talking to their friends or not, just whatever.
Speaker 1:So this one, this person, never spoke to me. She she seemed to be like just working on charging her phone or something, or she was watching something on her phone and she was trying to find the charger and she was just kind of I don't know what she was doing, but it's something with her phone. So she scanned my items. I put my card in. She you know I thought I paid for it but I wasn't positive. So I I asked her, I said, did it go through? She gave me a thumbs up and vape smoke came out of her mouth. It was just like okay, I guess I'm good as you're vaping and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:And as a side note, I'm sorry my dog has been growling in the background so I've been pausing a little bit as I'm going. But if you hear some growling, that is not me, that is my dog, that's Peppermint. She's amazing and I love her, but she's driving me insane right now. So, um, but anyways, most of you, if you know me or you've read my book, know that customer service, again, is very important to me. It is actually number three on the PE nine that I created for my book, the uh. Well, originally the teacher, the chef, andockey Player, and now it's called High Fives and Empowering Lives. So contrast that with my trip to the Bahamas.
Speaker 1:And actually let me give you two more real quick. There's a guy. Again I notice these things again, positive or negative, and if they're positive, you know I try to tell people. So there's a guy that a young guy too, I mean he had to be like early twenties. We went to Costco, I guess, probably about a month, month and a half ago, and we, we, we all need new phones. Basically, we were with this is not a promotion we were with Verizon and we switched over to AT&T and they were giving a deal on like phones and everything, and that's not really the point.
Speaker 1:But the kid there, I mean I'm calling him a kid, but he was. I mean he's an adult, but you know, to me he's like a kid again early twenties. He was just so personable and I know people listen to this and be like, well, he's trying to sell you something, but he really, I mean he was, but he wasn't. He was just a nice guy. He was very friendly, very just nice to my kids, he was very helpful. He wasn't pushy. I don't like salespeople that are pushy he was just very informative. He knew his stuff and you know, I told him at the end I said you're really good at your job. He's like really, I'm like, yeah, like it's just the way you are with people. Like it's just really rare these days sometimes, you know and he thanked me for that and I told my kids that as well I said it's unfortunate that, like these days, the bar, I feel like, is set very low on customer service because people are always on their phones or they're always talking to people or they're not as friendly as maybe they could be, and it just, I mean, I hate to say that because he did a great job, but the bar is so low that people stand out really, really well when they do a great job.
Speaker 1:So so there was the AT&T one, the other one I've been meaning to talk about for a long time and I just keep forgetting to put her in a story. So there was a lady at Busch Gardens in Tampa. We go there quite a bit I mean not all the time, but a few times a year, if nothing else and there's a ride called the Cobra's Curse and it's kind of an in-between ride. It's not a baby ride, like a little kid ride, but it's not like a massive roller coaster. That's not even the point of the story, it's.
Speaker 1:You know, we see so many people that are just going through the motions, especially, you know, a lot of kids work there, teenagers and this lady was older than that. She was probably at least I don't even know 30s, 40s, and she just showed so much energy. She was just real fun, like she would get the whole. I think there's, let's see, there's four of us in one car and there's four people in the behind car, and that was it for each car. It was. It was a fast moving, like a lot of cars going, but you know she'd get people doing the wave, she'd get people. You know, put your hands up and side to side and I mean I'm thinking man, she's, and I saw her do this like almost all day, like we went back and she was still doing it. So it just it's.
Speaker 1:It's rare, it's very rare and I love that. I think it's so cool when people are just taking their jobs not just seriously but having fun with it and and being very personable. So those are my, I guess, pre-cruise stories I want to go through real quick. So now let's see if I should I make it a boomer just to transition here. So I'll make it a boomer.
Speaker 1:There's four people I want to talk about. These aren't super long stories, but four people I want to talk about on my trip to the Bahamas. So here's the first one. All right, so before I even talk about my first encounter and I'm going to go in order of how I met these people, so these workers on the cruise lines if you've never been on one, or even if you have, most of them are not from America.
Speaker 1:There's very, very few, is very rare you find anybody from America and that's not a I don't know, I don't know how to explain it. It's not a bad thing or a good thing or whatever. It's just most of them are well, I don't think they get paid super well and they're gone from their families In this case I'm going to talk about in a moment, 10 out of 12 months of the year and most of them are from. It doesn't mean they're poor, it just means they're from maybe not as rich of countries as the United States, and so it's very rare to meet somebody from a semi-wealthy country. As a matter of fact, the only two people that we at least that we that we were introduced to, that we knew of, there was one Canadian on the like, on the what do you call it? Entertainment crew, I guess, and the main cruise director was Australian, raised Australian, she's very nice, her name's actually Savannah, just like my daughter, so they got a picture together, of course, but most of them are from.
Speaker 1:I met a lot of people from the Philippines, indonesia and other countries. Again, that's just how it works out. That's again, I think it's between the pay and the time away from their families families. You know, these are incredibly hardworking men and women and you know, I think they all are. Everybody I met was kind, but these people were our personal people, I guess, or like the personal attendants, and they were just amazing. So that's kind of my long introduction that I probably should have said beforehand.
Speaker 1:So let me start with the first one. So our room attendant was named I say was because it was on the cruise, but his he is named Jonair, he's from Indonesia and I asked him about, um, his, just where he's from and everything like that, and um, and I know you know they're working on tips and trying to get promotions, but he was exceptional and I seen him with other people and he was still exceptional. He just stood out among his colleagues. You know, I could see him interacting with other people. He was just so. His energy was just contagious, his laugh, he was just loud and not in a bad way, he was just so happy to be there and so kind. And you know, I asked him. I said you know what's, you know where you're from and whatnot your family and he told me again it's 10 months on, two months off for 17 years. And he didn't look that old. I said would you start when you're five? You know, he said no, he started when he was 18. But he is.
Speaker 1:He was a toddler at home. He's a 15 month I guess you'd call that toddler right 15 month daughter at home. And he's, by the time he sees her again, she's going to be. You know, I don't know what he said, I think it was almost two and a half Cause he just started this, this round of this, this cruise. You know, whatever this this round, I guess. So you know, just, I was like, oh my gosh, I can't imagine not seeing my kids, especially my toddler, for that long. But he's, you know, he's doing it for his family, he's working hard for his family. So here's some of the things he did.
Speaker 1:Now, being on cruises before, I know that they are always good. The room attendants are good at creating what do you call them Like towel animals. So he did that to my kids. They brought their stuffed animals so he would try to match them these, their towels, white towels and put little um to match my kids' animals each day. Um, all of them kind of do that, but you know, I love that little touch, I do Um. He just he was always there to if we need anything. He was always kind.
Speaker 1:Um, one of the main things that I noticed and this is one of the hardest things for me is he knew everyone's name in the hallway and it was like right away, like he was just hey David, how are you? And my son is David also. Hey David, but I hear him say that to everybody in the hallway and he had a long hallway. It wasn't like five people he had like I don't even know he had to have. I'm going to guess here. I'm going to guess he had 50 people, 60 people and he knew all their names and this rotates weekly. I mean, all of a sudden you know right now, as I'm recording this, I'm sure he has brand new people there that he knows all their names and I think that's the key. He knew all their names and he was so friendly and he loved his job and he worked hard and so I just want to definitely give a shout out to Jonair. So he is number one.
Speaker 1:Okay, number two is Chester. He was our dining room server. He was from the Philippines. He was fantastic. Every time we would sit down for dinner at night he was not as loud and energetic as Jonair, not even close. For dinner at night he was not as loud and energetic as Jonair, not even close. And I didn't get the feeling he liked the limelight because they did some little like the dining room would do some dances and songs and things and he kind of would not want to do that. He'd be like oh I was busy, he's busy serving and things like that, but so he did it more of a quiet way. But he was so kind and caring and he was. He was soft-spoken and that's okay.
Speaker 1:I tell my students that all the time that I was very quiet as a child, like when I was their age I mean people who knew me, maybe a little different, but in large groups I was very quiet and I still am in big groups and especially around adults. I was very quiet and I still am in big groups and especially around adults. So it was okay. That's okay to be not loud and energetic and crazy all the time and not be on quote unquote all the time. But Chester, he attended to our every need. He would always call his, I guess, water person over to fill water or he'd always service just so kindly. It's hard to explain. He smiled, again, a soft smile, all the time. He didn't want the limelight, like I said, and guess what? He knew our names, he was, and he.
Speaker 1:One day we actually didn't go. It was four nights. One night we didn't go because we were, uh, they were doing um, deal or no deal, and they do it before like they do twice. They do kind of an early one and late one and we want to go to both and we wouldn't have had time to go to the dinner. So, anyways, that's not the point of the story, it's just we missed one night and of course we came back the next night. He's like, oh, where were you guys? And we were talking to him about that, and again, just the kindness and his smile and everything, it just, it really um, it really got to me in a totally different way as Jonair, but it just is just as effective.
Speaker 1:So, anyways, chester's number two, okay, number three, I'm going to say two photographers, um, I did not catch the female's name. I saw her a couple of times, um, very quickly, um, but I do want to mention that there were a lot of outstanding females. The ones I'm talking about mainly are males, because those are the ones we interacted with in these cases, but we had some amazing female people like attendants and photographers. In this case, the photographer first I want to talk about again, I did not catch her name. She was a photographer upstairs as well as in the dining room where we were with Chester, and she was just really funny, I guess, and kind, and she had a great smile, she, I think the thing that got her, that made her remember us so well, was that when we were doing the formal pictures my son's hair is really long now in his eyes and they kept trying to get him to move his hair out of his eyes and he knew I was getting kind of like not mad at him, but I was just like, dude, get your hair out of your eyes, and she just found that funny. So every time I saw her in the hallways or saw her at dinner or stuff. She always remembered us and just tried to get him to laugh and get his hair out of his eyes, things like that. It's just, you know, kind, and she remembered us.
Speaker 1:But the other one I want to talk about is another photographer. His name was Blessing. I love that name. I didn't catch where he was from, but he. First of all, there were many photographers. There were photographers all down this one hallway. They had all different backdrops especially. I mean, it was all throughout the week or most of the week, but it was especially during the formal night that everybody was trying to get pictures.
Speaker 1:And, um, yes, I even wore a suit and tie. I look pretty good. But uh, by far he was the best. He was just and he was young too. He was so, um, and he just called my daughter, princess. He's like, okay here, princess, let me help you over here. And I'm sure he did it with every girl or daughter. But just very kind, very funny, he loved his job, he was very personable and he did some funny poses with us, things like that. Now, other people did the same thing, but there was something about him and my wife. He went back to him and said you know, you're our favorite, because he was like the first one and we went down the line and he she just goes, you're our favorite. He's just very gracious about that.
Speaker 1:So as I was thinking about these people and I still have one more to talk about I asked my wife I go what Cause she knows I'm going to. She's like you know, I'm going to do a podcast about this or, like, write about this. What was it about these people? And I specifically asked her well, I really asked about all of them. I said what made you go up to Blessing and tell him you know, he was our favorite. She's like he's just, he's so friendly and he loved his job so much. And I'm like, yeah, I agree it's hard to quantify it, but it was just something about him.
Speaker 1:The other thing I was going to mention about him was the following night. We saw him in the hallway. We weren't dressed up as far as ties and suits and stuff, but he had a soccer ball. He was kind of holding a soccer ball and I said, hey, bless him, show me some tricks, what can you do? And he started juggling a soccer ball and all the little kids and kids were all around and they thought it was really fun. So he just showed that fun side of himself. It was great. It was just a great, wonderful person to meet. So again, his name is Blessing and he was number three.
Speaker 1:All right, so our final person is his name is Rodney, and our best or to me and actually my whole family, the thing we did that was the most fun was we did a sea lion encounter and her name is Charlotte, by the way. The sea lion, she was amazing. So Rodney is the trainer there. He's one of the trainers and he was just amazing. He was funny, engaging, smart, he made a lot of jokes. I was the first one he had go up to Charlotte Because Charlotte came out of her. Well, they're in a I don't want to say a cage, but basically a cage. They go in the water and then he had her come up and then pose for pictures. And I was the first one. I was like the guinea pig of the group and we were with a lot of people, a decent amount of people. It was like 10 of us total. Actually it was less, I think it was four. My family was four, then maybe like four more or something like that, but I was the first person.
Speaker 1:He's like, cause I was the first one in line. He's like oh, go take a picture with her. I'm like I was a little scared because I didn't know. It was the very beginning of the thing, the encounter. So I went up and I'm like what is this? Is she going to bite me? Look what's going on here. So he's, he's like. He's like, don't worry, I, you know, I, it's my first day I learned things on. You know, I said, well, how'd you learn this? He goes on YouTube and stuff like that. You know, uh, but Charlotte was so well-trained and, um, he was just telling us how he came to do that and, uh, tell us a little bit how he trained her. And, oh my gosh, this, this, I don't want to go into every. I wish I could go into everything that Charlotte did, but you know she would clap on command, she would uh make faces like smile and she would give kisses all the time. Um, the one lady got a kiss on the lips and you know he's like oh, you know, french kisses are extra. You know you gotta pay extra for those. And he's just so funny and knowledgeable and he shared his passion with us and, um, you know, he just loved his job. You could just tell.
Speaker 1:And, of course, you know all these people. Um, well, I didn't. I should have tipped the photographer, but I, you know, we, we tipped all these people because they, they deserved it. Um, we, you know, we want to make sure we recognize them. Um, I should have tipped blessing, though, but, um, there wasn't really a, I don't know, it was a lot of people around, it wasn't? I don't know, I just didn't think of it at the time. But, um, I'll definitely recommend him. I do have a survey to fill out, so I'll recommend him as well. But, you know, rodney and all these people are just, were just phenomenal, and I appreciate all their help. And, again, that was the best part of our trip was the was Charlotte the sea lion. She was amazing, and it's time for your cowbell tip of the day. Rip nation.
Speaker 1:So your tip of the day is to think about some things here. First of all, none of these people that I mentioned are rich, but they're common denominators. There's common denominators there that I want you to think about. They love their jobs, they're passionate about their jobs, they love helping others and, by the way, they know people's names. I think that was the biggest thing. They knew our names. I know not Rodney and not Blessing, because they were very brief encounters I know I just said encounters for the C-line but Chester and Jonair, they knew our names and it felt great.
Speaker 1:Now I have trouble with this. I'm going to be the first to admit I'm not an expert on knowing names. I have a thousand students and I know a lot of you do. I used to have more than that, actually, in my former school. So there are a lot of students, I know, but there's a lot I don't. And so one of the things I like to do is I like to study the yearbook from the previous year. And then, of course, kindergarten coming in is a little different story. But you know, when my daughter was there, I'd be like I'd ask her or another student, be like hey, what's that, what's her name again? Or what's his name again, just for a little help.
Speaker 1:I do feel bad asking kids their names after you know they've been with me for a couple of years, like that. Just it's kind of rude honestly. But you know they don't understand that. It's just really hard. But I think the main thing is this is learn their names. You know, be passionate about your job, love your job, love helping others. Again, I have to work on that. So I don't know about you. I know some people are great at knowing their names and some people only have one class at a time. Again, I know it sounds like an excuse, but again, having 100 kids at a time, I don't know everybody's names. And that's on me. I'm going to work harder this year. That's one of my main things. I just want to know their names. I want to know them. So, anyways, work on that, think about what you need to do for this coming year. So that is your cowbell tip of the day.
Speaker 1:Thank you everybody for tuning in. I really do appreciate it. By the way, if you're not on my newsletter, I'm kind of revamping it. I'm going to put out a newsletter every other Friday. It's called Five Boomer Friday. I used to do these a long time ago on my podcast. I do things I like different strategies for PE, just different books I'm reading or documentaries. I'm watching things I think are cool, my current obsessions that maybe could help you, or maybe I just want to talk, I don't know. But anyways, join the newsletter if you haven't already. It's called Five Boomer Friday and, yeah, have a great day, week, weekend, whenever you're listening to this. If you're in the summer and it's getting closer to the end, like me, enjoy your time and then get moving with your you know your, your program. That's what I'm definitely working on. So, yeah, we'll talk soon and you guys and girls are awesome for PE Nation. Let's keep pushing our profession forward, thank you.
