DREAM COME TRUE

A Flying bin post by Elaine Bent

This is the story behind a beautiful hand-made 'Thank You' card I received in the post today...

A few weeks ago an e-mail came through from our customer centre in Galway to our Dublin office, which would in turn produce my most memorable and inspirational experience of customer service and genuine human kindness...

To Company CEO & MD

Subject: Dream Come True

Hi Niall and Gene,

One of our customers rang to see if there was anything we could do for her son who is 8.  He has an obsession of bin trucks and wants to be a ‘bin man’ when he is older.  As it’s the summer holidays, she was wondering if we could allow her son to maybe visit the yard and sit in a truck or even sit in the truck when it’s on their road emptying bins.

Our customer understands that this might not be possible but if there was anything we could do to make her son’s dream come true, she would really appreciate it.

Kind Regards

Anne

_________________________

Upon reading this email, The City Bin Co.'s CEO Gene Browne, forwarded it on to me and asked that we make it happen.

I contacted this customer immediately and told her that we would love to have her son over to our site for visit. She was stunned, she hadn’t really expected a response, let alone the offer of a visit. Excited, as only a mother can be, she could not wait to tell her son. She told me that he also had a little brother aged 6, and to her joy, I expressed that you really couldn’t bring one without the other, it just wouldn’t be right! We set the date and arranged for her and the two boys to come visit The City Bin Co.

Our visitors arrived to our office after lunch. I was surprised to be so excited to show off our yard and trucks to this family! I first brought them into our main office, where they got to meet the various office and sales staff. The two boys told us all about themselves and what they wanted to be when they grow up. Not surprisingly, a bin man was number one on the list!

Gary showed them how he manages the routes from the office and how he can see where the trucks are and which customers need to be serviced each day. We then took a trip down to the yard where we met Valdas, who looks after the yard. He explained to the boys all about washing the bins and the trucks to make sure they are sparkling and always looking as good as new. He even gave them both a turn at the power hose, which was great fun, until they tried to turn the hose on us!

After that Gerry, one of our  drivers, pulled up in a standard rear end loader bin trucks. He hopped out and over to meet the two boys. Gerry brought them up into the truck and around the yard for a quick spin before showing them how he empties the bins into the truck and then, how he opens the truck to empty out the waste!

The two boys were blow away by all Gerry had to show and tell them, this was so exciting and you could see their minds soaking in the information working overtime. Then Mikolaj, the bin delivery driver, came back to the yard in the curtainsider truck, which is used to deliver out new bins to customers. He gave the two boys a tour of his truck and explained what he does every day. This was great, the two boys could not keep the smiles off their faces. But the day was not over yet, there was still more trucks and bin types to see and more drivers to meet.

Mossie, who is in charge of the fleet, then brought them over to the sideloader truck and showed them how we collect the food waste bins. They were allowed to wheel the bins over to the trucks and even help Mossie press the buttons!! They got to move the bins around the yard, and finally we got to see the FEL (front end loader) truck lift the big metal bins over its head and empty the contents into the back of the truck. It is like watching a transformer in motion, the two boys could hardly believe their eyes, it was awesome!

After almost two hours of learning about the different bins, trucks and jobs, we relaxed with some ice-creams and two very tried, but extremely happy boys back at the office.

By the time they left, everyone who had met them, both in the office and on the yard, were smiling as much as they were and there was a glow of happiness in the company to have brought such joy to these two little boys.

Their mom called us the next day to express her thanks and to tell us that she had been sent out to the shops first thing that morning to purchase a red tracksuit!