Jodi Wallace

Monarch Solid Surface Designs

As I have mentioned previously, I am part of the American Red Cross Disaster Teams that deploy in times of disaster. I was recently in Texas for two weeks responding to the spring flooding. My particular passion is working with clients in shelters. 

Normally, shelters are open for two to three weeks while we try and assist clients. Once a shelter population is down to just a couple of people we generally make arrangements to put them up for a few days in a motel. 

One (major size) city decided that although shelters had been open barely a week they were going to shut them down, as that is what the new mayor had promised, and he needed to show he stood behind his word. 

The first shelter they focused on closing had over 300 people staying there. For those of us with the Red Cross, shutting a shelter with that number of clients was mind boggling. Depending on circumstances, we can safely shut down a shelter when the client population is between 1-20 people. 

It was overwhelming to think the local government was going to house many people still trying to come to grips with losing their homes. Many had no support system or insurance. However, the government, in its eagerness to show the country they were making progress in recovery, wanted to close the emergency shelters quickly — but without any notice. And that is exactly what they did. The displaced people were then housed across a dozen or so area motels.

Unfortunately, the people ordering the shelter closure hadn’t thought things through completely (which happens in many situations). This became very obvious when phone calls started coming in, saying people were showing back up at the closed facility looking for food. No one from the local government had informed the clients about accessing food pantries, church relief programs or any other options for them to feed their families. Even if they had purchased food, they certainly couldn’t cook in their hotel rooms!

Although a large percentage of our clients in the shelters had jobs, many of the local businesses had temporarily closed down until further notice, so people were hesitant to spend what little cash they had on fast food. 

Thought had not been given to what families would do for meals when this snap decision was made, and the Red Cross stepped in, scrambling to set up meal deliveries at multiple locations and dealing with a logistical nightmare.

The point is, decisions made on the fly usually come with consequences. As a small business owner I understand this all too well.  

It is our strict policy that sink holes are not drilled without the customer’s faucets being present. This policy is in place for a good reason, from lessons learned the hard way. Despite this policy, which I thought I had drilled into my guys’ heads, I received a phone call from a customer not long ago. I have learned that when a customer calls the same day as an installation, it is never for a good reason!

This particular customer informed me that my installer had drilled the faucet holes incorrectly. When I asked if he could tell me exactly what was wrong he said there were three faucet holes drilled instead of one, which is what they needed.  I was really confused. If the faucet was on site we couldn’t have drilled the incorrect number of holes. 

Ah, well... although the customer knew the faucet had to be on site at the time of installation, they “hadn’t gotten around to it.” Please keep in mind the template date was scheduled a week in advance and there was a ten-business-day fabrication lag after the template was taken, before we would be ready to install. In addition, the install date had been scheduled for over a week. Lastly, the customer had signed two documents acknowledging the faucet must be on site at the time of installation.

If I had been told the customer didn’t have the faucet I would have pushed out the installation date. But I was never notified. 

The question from the customer, of course, was how quickly was I going to fix it. They obviously didn’t see their part in creating this problem, in the least. I hung up and called my installer.

If my guys have learned anything, it’s that like your mom, I rarely ask a question I don’t already know the answer to! When I called and asked about the faucet he acknowledged that it was not on the jobsite when he drilled the holes. 

Why didn’t he pick up the phone and call me like he is supposed to? I wondered. And more importantly, Why and how did he make the decision to drill holes when he didn’t know what holes were needed? To him, the solution was simple: just drill holes to match the previously installed vanity, quickly finish and move on to the next job. I was fuming as I told him this new vanity top required only a single faucet hole and if he would have followed procedures and called me he would have known this. In addition, instead of replacing an 85-inch double sink bowl for free, I would have been, per the signed contract, able to charge the customer a return trip charge to drill the holes. 

I would much prefer to send someone back to do something, than install something incorrectly that is going to cost me money. Instead of checking on what I wanted him to do, he made a decision which turned out to be the wrong one. The result? Not only would we be replacing the sink vanity top, I would now need to pay someone to tear out the newly installed vanity top, buy material and re-fabricate a new top and then pay someone to re-install the new one. It was an expensive and absolutely avoidable situation. All it would have taken was one simple call. But a snap decision was made, which turned out to be wrong. And this bad decision cost us money. 

In today’s world there is no reason for this type of mistake when everyone carries a cell phone. Sometimes I feel like a broken record repeatedly reminding my guys there is never a bad or dumb question and I will never, ever get upset if someone calls me to ask a question. Not calling and making the wrong decision? That is a crime punishable by the Wrath of Jodi, and the other guys know they want to avoid one of these “meetings!” 

As I have reassured my shop guys, time and time again, picking up the phone is never a sign that someone doesn’t know how to do their job, it’s a sign of an employee who understands that double checking to ensure they have the correct information is always the best course of action. 

Wouldn’t it be great if community leaders in a disaster situation could learn the same thing about asking before doing? Remind everyone you work with, and that work for you: it’s always better to ask first.

Jodi Wallace is owner of Monarch Solid Surface Designs in San Jose, California. She volunteers as a Disaster Responder for the American Red Cross.