Month: November 2010

Over the past week I have been running in to much information about happiness.

There is this story about the UK Government planning to publish the measure of their population’s happiness. They feel that measuring the level of happiness of their people could help steer policy. With such a subjective thing as happiness they had better choose the right questions to ask. If it were me, I’d be happier left alone not answering any questions. But for my mother – she would be happier to give her comments. And perhaps some positive feedback can help a great deal of people, we all like some of that from time to time.

Yesterday I ran across an interview with Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project. In this interview she makes many good and thought-provoking points about happiness, I encourage you all to take the time and listen to it. But a few things resonate with me. One of them is to commit to strengthening relationships and making friends. Our own Joe Panfalone (@EXAIR_JP) is really good at this, he will be talking about removing static electricity from a process one minute and talking about dogs with that customer the next minute. Gretchen Rubin also speaks of noticing our little accomplishments and not getting caught up in an overwhelming goal. She illustrates this by concentrating on be happier and not achieving happiness.

Then there is Leo Auffmann, a character from Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine which I am currently reading. Leo spent his every waking hour fine tuning his happiness machine. His goal, the happiness of the entire world, was what he worked on constantly. He fine tuned this part of the machine, oiled that part, balanced another part etc. all in the name of the greater good. Much to the chagrin of his wife, all his time and effort was spent tinkering with this machine – she was not happy about it at all. In the end his happiness machine burned down, taking a barn along with it. In his sorrow and mourning, Leo recognized his happiness machine had already been built, his machine was his family. Unfortunately, he had neglected them for his fantastic machine. He recognized that he was merely part of the machine, not the inventor or repairman – he was the part missing that was keeping the machine from producing happiness.

Much like the UK, EXAIR does try to measure the happiness of our customers. We ask for a “post chat survey” when a customer uses our online chat service. Many of our e-mail signatures ask for feedback from our customers as well. We have posted some of our “Kudos from Customers” at our Facebook page. Our company president makes sure to broadcast these messages at meetings because yes, we do like to hear it.

EXAIR also takes pride in our ability to treat customers well and strengthen our relationship with them. Customers are the business equivalent of friends, and we need as many as possible. Sometimes I wonder if talking about dogs with a customer is the right thing to be doing at the moment, but in the end it is the right thing. We also realize the importance of being able to help a customer out, even a bit. We may not be able to achieve the customers goal every time, but we can at least get them a step or two closer. A step or two closer should be considered a success, they do after all keep us moving in the right direction.

Of course, we cannot forget a lesson from Leo Auffmann. EXAIR recognizes that you are running around trying to keep your machine running as well as it can. We understand you may be the inventor or repairman. Plus you have to meet additional goals and tasks placed upon you. Remember EXAIR from time to time, we can help you acheive some of those goals: reducing air consumption, saving energy, improving safety, reducing noise levels. These are the little steps necessary to optimize your machine. Take advantage of our Efficiency Lab service, our knowledgable Application Engineers, and our top notch customer service. Let us be a part of your happier machine.

Kirk Edwards
Application Engineer
kirkedwards@exair.com