Alan Wilk 48 Hours Story

Amazing Customer Service. "See you in 6 months." "You do your job better than you are expected to do it." "And away go troubles, down the drain! Roto-Rooter." For Alan Wilk, that is not just a corny song. "I'm treating our customers like I would like to be treated." It's an anthem. "It's not lovely..." When the unspeakable happens, "...that's what we call a sewer backup." Alan comes to the rescue. Providing the kind of service you might expect from your valet, but hardly from a drain cleaner in Queens, New York. "When I come to a customer's house for their problem, it's like my house." He's the perfect house guest. "I hooked up my hose and washed out that pit for you so it won't smell too bad." Cleaning up messes he didn't even make. "Look what I got!" He feeds your dog. "Don't make crumbs." He even smells nice. "It's just some cologne. This job does get dirty sometimes." For Alan, no detail is too small if it means keeping the customer satisfied. "When I'm finished with a job, the customer may perceive I'm finished, and then I do just one extra thing like extra cleaning up. They didn't expect that. So, what did it cost? A few minutes extra time?" And he'll do anything to get to a job faster than the next guy. "That 5 minutes that you wasted may have been the five minutes that another company got there before you." Never needing to stop for directions... "Very often you may not know exactly where that call is." ...or a drink... "I don't even have to stop." ...or even for a bathroom. "I have my own facilities." And Alan always wants to look his best. "Just last Friday night I had a job where I was down in this pit for about four hours underneath this house and boy, did I get dirty. So I got undressed, took a shower, the next customer never knew how dirty I was." After eighteen and a half years as a Roto-Rooter man... "Here's that missing sock you've been looking for all winter." ...Alan knows his customers. "Do you view it as part of your job to ease their mind as well as fix their drain?" "I think I do that subconsciously. I know what they're going through and I know what it's like to be on the end of the service. So I try to empathize with how they're feeling. They're concerned only with their problem, not the kind of day I'm having." "Alan has something special and that makes his work special, too." Alan is well-rewarded for his remarkable attitude, he makes about $70,000 a year. "I think a lot of workers miss the boat, they're looking at the dollar. Money isn't everything. You do your job better than you are expected to do it, that money will follow because you're going to be wanted wherever you go." And wherever he goes, he stands as a symbol of hope. Good service has not gone completely down the drain.