Watching the Today show with my morning coffee, I caught an interesting--and alarming--segment devoted to the (omni)presence of germs on shopping cart surfaces.  E coli, strep...you name it, the cart's got it.

Enter the antibacterial wipe, placing our fingertips at one step of near literal tissue remove from our antagonists.  All well and good but the onus is still on us to swipe and wipe; Bashas' Supermarkets in Phoenix ups the ante in our war against the germs by running all of their carts through a Pure Cart system, a sort of Hot Zone carwash that delivers a germ-free cart to its driver-in-waiting.

That's fantastic, proactive customer service, and in its way, a challenge to every customercentric company out there.  What can we do to clean your cart?

Sherwin Williams just released a notice indicating that new VOC laws are effective in MA 1/1/09.  This doesn't affect our clients, except positively - cleaner air, inside and out, with no compromise on the quality of coatings we use.

Interestingly, MA is the last New England/Mid-Atlantic state to enact this new standard, 4 years behind NY and NJ.

This standard references OTC compliance, or Ozone Transport Commission, bureaucratic long hand for 'smog doesn't recognise state lines'.

We at Catchlight are glad to embrace this new standard as part of our focus to reduce our corporate carbon footprint.

There's an occasional visitor to our neighborhood in Brookline, a rather unkempt van owned by a painting company; below the company name is the slogan 'We show up'.

At first I laughed, mildly contemptuous of such a trite selling point.  Upon reflection however, credit is due.  A simple promise, but one so often broken by the contracting trades.  I wonder how successful they are at keeping their promise?

A friend in California shared his frustration with occasional performance issues and suggested he change his company slogan to '...we'll get it right eventually'.  A carpenter friend suggested we change ours to 'Sober, and on time'.  Catchy, that one.

For now we'll stick with the aspirational 'A professional company, passionate about painting'.

Deep thought: no customer service provider worth his or her salt should ever use the phrase 'like I said.'

If you'd explained it clearly enough the first go round, you wouldn't need to say it again; if your customer's merely being obstinate, kill them with kindness.

I'm proud to write that in the year plus I've worked here, I've yet to hear that phrase let loose by anyone wearing a Catchlight logo.  I may have used it once, but I was talking to a friend about how much I hated the Monday night CBS lineup.  And I was on lunch, so it doesn't really count towards 'the residential painting companies who practice great customer service' portion of the ledger.

From the pen of Kate B, one of our crackerjack interior painters:

Asked to explain how it is to be a female in the male-dominated residential painting industry, I contemplated the question and came to the conclusion that it’s not very possible to remain the female stereotype in this trade. 

You won’t see me with manicured hands: the only paint on my nails is whatever color I haven’t managed to scrape off from work the day before--and that’s on what nails are left after cracking off from the dryness that comes with sanding or the filing that comes with caulking.  I’m in men’s clothing every weekday and during my off-hours feminine clothes are chosen with caution to avoid highlighting the bruises on my shins that come from hitting the steps of ladders or the paint on my elbow that I didn’t happen to notice while scrubbing off the other remnants of the day.  My hair is out of my face with the use of bobby pins often set in place without a mirror.  Makeup doesn’t exist. 

I’m not complaining, mind you – I chose this and continue to go with it.  I’m not going to sacrifice another 5 minutes of sleep to do the foundation and eyeliner thing to have it down my cheeks with my sweat by 8am.

However, despite all these things, I am still a girl and I am finding that being the female of the species has its advantages in this field.  I can fit inside small closets and in corners to paint.  I can sing along to Heart on the radio and I won’t get made fun of--at least because I’m singing female vocal parts…I can’t always comment on my vocal quality.  And although I often joke that the reason they hired me was to vacuum and clean up after the guys, I have never been made to feel inferior by any of the Catchlight crew.  They have all given me the opportunity to learn the tasks at hand.

So although I may not have the chance for my hands to be soft or my legs bruise-free right now, in these past five months I have found myself growing steadier and faster in my work, and I never would have made it this far if not for the support and encouragement from my co-workers here at Catchlight.

As we move into the early autumn and New England's green gradually cedes to brilliant fall colors, incipient chill, and ideal exterior painting conditions, we at Catchlight would like to highlight the expert work and superb customer service of Eraldo, our longest-tenured foreman and an ace with the brush under the summer sun.

As Mrs. S., one of Eraldo's customers, says: "he is just so wonderful!"  We agree, Mrs. S!

A recent conversation with a local homeowner and longtime customer served as a great reminder that our customers are not only the lifeblood of our business, but also our responsibility.

Mrs. S. called our office after hours with some immediate concerns about ongoing carpentry work on her bulkhead.  We were able to speak shortly thereafter, and I was struck most by the genuine note of thanks she sounded for listening to her message and returning her call.  "I'm so glad you called," she said.  "I felt like I had nowhere to turn."

Our business, our responsibility...our privilege.

Can we tawk?  We can tawk, right?

Lean in real close.  We're friends, after all.  And just between us friends, we know full well there are a lot of shortcuts on this big blue orb, and a lot of companies that have made a lot of money taking said shortcuts...

To that point, we spill a fair amount of virtual ink here in an attempt to set ourselves apart from the pack, and I like to think we do a decent enough job at that.  But we surely haven't spent enough time talking about the men and women who are inextricable from any and all successes we enjoy as a company--our painters.  Quite simply, they are the best: scrupulous, honest, dedicated craftspeople who are wholly committed to doing things the right way, however arduous--and sometimes tedious--that process may be.

We look forward to introducing our painters to you in this space over the coming days, and we invite you to check back early and often to get to know the true front line of our committment to craft and our customers.

T minus 12 hours and counting until July 1, which date we at Catchlight will honor by...

Continuing apace on our exterior projects.  Dog days of summer indeed, and yet, light at the end of that tunnel: we're pleased to note that over these next months, we'll be revamping our website in an effort to make our services, portfolio, text, and yes, even this blog, more user-friendly.

So as the air grows ever more stale and heavy, we invite you to follow along with our changes and, as always, feel free to add your thoughts and comments.

In contemplating both the relevance and utility of a mission statement, I/we have hesitated to resort to the typically hyperbolic declaratives that afflict even the most mundane business.

In our industry, 'Sober and On Time' might pass for inspiration but the intellectual giants who walk these halls seek a more noble truth.

Tom Watson, Jr, the founder of IBM, summarized their corporate 'basic beliefs' as follows:

• Respect for the individual: for the dignity and rights of each person in the organization.
• Customer service: to provide the best service of any company in the world.
• Excellence: the conviction that an organization should pursue all tasks with the objective of accomplishing them in a superior way.

So with thanks to Tom, we will be appropriating these beliefs as they nicely synthesize our own perspectives and purposes.