The end of the year is a time for reflection, recognition, gratitude and celebration!
We’ve worked hard all these prior months to accomplish our goals and now we’ve hopefully arrived at our set destination. Did we reach our Revenues and Collection Goals? Did we stay in control of our budget? Did we turn on a gratifying profit? All pertinent questions and concerns, but even more important, were we able to provide the highest value and satisfaction to our customers throughout the year? Did we answer “Present” to their desperate calls for help when they suffered the biggest losses during the Hurricane season, by fighting in their homes to salvage and restore what they had lost?
What about our employees? Were we able to maintain a healthy, uplifting environment for them to excel and grow?
These are the questions to ponder. They help us reassess how we can make a better difference for our customers, business partners, and employees in the coming year.
At Joe Taylor Restoration, JTR for short, one of our core values is to offer an “Unmatched Service Experience” day in and day out. What I found most interesting when I joined the company over 4 years ago, is that our definition of a customer is much larger than the individual or entity we provide a service to. Following the owner’s perspective and directive, a customer for us is everyone we interact with: a vendor, a homeowner, a business partner, a co-worker. With such broad definition, we are collectively called to treat everyone with the highest level of professionalism, courtesy, respect and compassion. This concept is the very fabric of our corporate culture, and it is engrained in everyone’s mind through continuous reminders and encouragements.
We all deeply rejoice when a homeowner takes the time to write a personal letter or a google review, to rave about how our team members treated them with such great care. These compliments shared with the entire company reignite in all of us a sentiment of pride and joy! Pride to belong to a company with high integrity. One who values everyone, and who strives to equip our production team with the best materials, tools and equipment that enable them to perform at the highest industry standards level. A company who does the right thing when the customer expresses a valid concern. And pure joy to see to what level what we do positively impacts the lives of our customers.
When hiring for the role of Collector in our Accounts Receivable Department, I find it particularly challenging for our new employees to reconcile our JTR Process with the way they have traditionally fulfilled this function in other companies. It requires a mindset adjustment on their part. We realize that our customers are dealing with a sudden unique loss in their property, and we provide a customized service tailored to their unique set of circumstances. These are not planned events in our customers lives, who may or may not be insured against such losses. We remain mindful of this when we approach our customers for Collection as we treat them with dignity and respect.
In my long professional career as an Accountant, another noticeable difference I have experienced with our JTR approach is the impact the company has on its employees’ individual and professional growth. The guiding principle here is that for our Company to grow, we all must grow individually. For this, we are encouraged to read as much as possible, which is the source of all learning, and participate in group discussions about our readings. We read about how to maintain a positive attitude even in the face of adversity, and how to remain accountable for our actions rather than shifting blame. We learn to manage responsibly upward, downward and laterally so that everyone remains accountable. We learn how achieving success in our personal and professional lives really starts with putting others first.
We evolve among people with different needs and aspirations, who can make a great impact on our lives. The more we listen with the purpose of understanding, the more we offer our unconditional support in fulfilling their needs or helping them achieve their goals, the better we become as individuals, and the greater chance we have at experiencing lasting joy as a state of being.
I can gratefully say that from the time I joined Joe Taylor Restoration, I have become, and I am still learning to become, a better person, a better manager, even a better parent for the benefit of everyone I serve and love.
-Written by Annie Russo, Controller at Joe Taylor Restoration
