A LOT OF WORK... and a little play (Part158b)

A LOT OF WORK… & play too (Part158b)

Elle didn’t like to be around me when I was in a bad mood so I decided to make it easy on her and told her I was going to letter the racecar when I arrived home. I figured I wouldn’t have to give up any of my new found ‘money’ that way. I’d be out of her sight and would be productive at the same time. It worked out in another way because the rest of the crew weren’t planning on being at the shop and it would make it easier to letter without people on and around the car. After all of the partners had agreed on the colors and number to use I’d designed the layout. I’d made up a sketch but until it was actually applied to the car there was no way to know how it would really look. I was trying to find a way to make our car stand out against the competition, at least as far as it looked. Most cars were of one color and the only contrast was the color of the number on the car. When I finished one side I was really pleased which changed my mood considerably. I finished up around 11pm or so. Driving home I couldn’t wait to see the car on the track.

The package from Morris arrived during the noon hour. I’d told Bret about the choices I’d made and when he saw the box next to my desk he wanted to see what was in it. I wanted to open it in front of Hobie, to get his reaction. I’d told Bret what the items were to somewhat appease him but he was like a kid at Christmas. I caught Hobie’s eye as he returned from lunch and he waved me into his office area. I knew I had to be careful with my presentation so as to not upset him. I laid the premiums/gifts on his desk as I removed them from the shipping carton. I was waiting for a comment but none came. Finally he asked the question I’d been waiting for. Pointing to the mixer and drill… “They have to cost more than $10, don’t they?”

The next ten minutes or so was taken up with me describing Morris and his business. My emphasis was on the fact that these very same gifts had been purchased and given away by some of the large city banks for almost a year. With that fact acknowledged I told him how they got away with it and how Morris was prepared to do the same for us in spite of our small size. I could see that Hobie was uncomfortable with the concept but I hammered on the point that our competition wouldn’t have premiums/gifts any where near as nice. If we (the bank) wanted to make a statement in our new area this was the way to do it. As I talked I felt like I was a clone of Morris with his ‘hard sell’ tactics.

It was fairly obvious that he didn’t like the deception but he suggested we take the premiums up to show Bert. That, in itself, was a plus. Bert, who was a ‘by the books’ manager, rejected the concept right off. However, in what was a complete surprise, Hobie took up my argument about wanting to make a statement in the new area. Bert still wasn’t ‘sold’ but accepted Hobie’s suggestion to take it to the branch committee. With a mortgage committee meeting scheduled for the next day it would only take a few phone calls to have the branch committee there as well.

You already know my feelings about the Trustees and especially the fuzzy thinking that they’d shown in planning for the new branch office. There was one member that I felt would go for the concept and he, although not chairman of the branch committee, had a fair amount of ‘pull’ and could possibly convince the rest of the committee. I walked out of Bert’s office feeling somewhat confident.

My posiitive ‘vibes’ were eliminated when Bret told me that the bank was “off line” meaning our data was not being sent or received by the the data center. An immediate call to them brought forth the news that they had contacted the phone company to run a  full check on all the phone lines that carried the data between the two places. The center had no idea how long it would take. My first reaction was that my complaint to Albie from the night before had gotten some action but… at what cost.

Thankfully, lobby traffic was slow. It was fairly easy to appease customers who were upset since each one could be given individual attention. On the back side of that was the tellers would have to re-enter all those transactions when communication was restored. By the end of the day we still were still ’down’ and I was unable to get any kind of an answer when we’d be operational. It was a case of getting what I wanted but without having figured in the ‘cost’. On my way home I wondered if my implied threat to Albie had been wise.

There was no change in the status of the data communications the following morning. Even though we were not all that busy the re-entry items were piling up. When a number of calls to Albie were not returned I ‘pulled rank’ and called his boss, Bruce. He said he was unaware of the situation but would have an answer by the end of the day. It was definitely not what I wanted to hear but at least it was something.

When I saw the Trustees who were members of the mortgage and branch committees headed for the elevator I got a bit apprehensive. Even though I’d done the ‘dirty work’ of ferreting out the premium/gifts, it was Hobie who would present them. I had mixed emotions about how hard he would push for their acceptance. I knew at least two members of the committee who would vote against them. They had shown their preference for cheap when choosing the premiums/gifts for our first new account campaign. For me, all I could do was wait.

To be continued...