Josh Kerslake and a T-Bone steak

Written by Mike Johnson in Editorial

Many years ago I was a bartender. One time, on a busy Friday night I ended up washing dishes in back. We were short handed.

Washing dishes in a restaurant is pretty hectic. The water is boiling hot, dishes are flying everywhere, and the staff is literally running to get the customers food delivered to the table on time. Before the dishes get washed the food gets cleaned off in a garbage can next to a 4-station sink. It’s a big can – the size that usually sits at the end of your driveway. Anyhow, on a Friday night the can fills up to the top and needs to be emptied in about an hour. Every hour one of the kitchen staff drags it outside to be dumped.

So food is flying everywhere and I’m washing hundreds of plates when a waitress walks up to me and says “Where did the steak go?” And here is where I found myself right smack dab in a moral dilemma!

Waitress: “Where did the steak go?”

Me: “I don’t know what you’re talking about”

Waitress: “I had a steak sitting here on the edge that the customer wanted wrapped to go”

Me: “Oh boy, I must have accidentally thrown it in the garbage with the rest of the food and it’s probably buried”

Waitress: “What!!!”

After a long pause the waitress stuck her hands in the garbage can filled with food and began to dig around looking for the steak. I was in shock watching this. She found it and it was covered in slimy food from all the other customers garbage. It was disgusting.

The waitress pushed me to the side in a hurry and began to wash the steak clean under the faucet. Still in total shock at what I was watching I remained silent. I mean, none of this was making sense. Finally, it occurred to me what she was doing.

Me: “Are you actually going to wrap that up and give it to the customer?”

Waitress: “It’s fine” she said after a long pause.

Me: “No, it’s not fine, you can’t do that!” , “It’s just not right”

She ignored me and after the steak was washed with water she put it into a Styrofoam container. I quickly grabbed the container from her hands………

Me: “I’m sorry but you are just going to have to tell the customer the truth, and give them a gift certificate to cover the steak cost”

Waitress: “Give that back to me immediately” she said in harsh voice

Me: “No, I will not let you do it”

Waitress: “He’s not going to eat it, it’s for his dog” (obviously a lie)

Me: “No, No, No, what if he changes his mind?” ………. I continued talking

Me: “Look, I’m sure the customer will understand if you just tell him the truth. The only reason why you would possible do something this ridiculous is because you want the tip and are afraid of losing it. I’m telling you for the last time, if you give this man the steak I will personally walk out into the dining area and take it from the customer.”

The waitress walked away mad. She ended up explaining the situation to the customer and gave them a gift certificate. The customer understood what happened and it wasn’t a big deal. The waitress even got the tip. All is well.

It’s easy to be dirty

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that it’s easy to be dirty. It’s easy to lie and it’s easy to be dishonest. Many times money and greed are at the forefront of dishonesty. One thing I’ve learned in business is that I can avoid these situations by surrounding myself with quality people. Good people can be trusted.

I would like to introduce a fella who I trust with my business, a fella who is important to you. His name is Josh Kerslake.

Josh is a young guy, not sure of his actual age but I estimate he’s less than 30 years old. Josh is my personal sales rep for the wholesale company where I buy plumbing products for your home. The wholesaler is Able Distributing.

Why Josh is important to you

Most people don’t give it much thought but the person really responsible for quality of materials when ordering product is not the plumber, we are only as good as the company we buy from. Yes, I will stand behind everything I sell but the goal is to avoid problems before it happens. Josh Kerslake is the man who has that job. Every time I work up a bid Josh handles it. If I have a warranty issue Josh takes care of it. When I call and order a part Josh supplies it. When a customer needs a rare and special part Josh works hard to find it for you. Josh makes me look good!

It’s Josh that makes Oconomowoc Plumbing the company it is. Now, I could tell you how honest Josh is and I could tell you he has a good moral compass but those are just words. Instead, I would like to tell you about a situation that happened the other day and let you be the judge.

I had a customer that was interested in a special high priced water heating unit. The cost with labor was in the thousands. I called Josh, just like I always do, and asked him if I could sit down with the manufacturing sales rep for the product to educate myself before I sold it. Josh immediately made a phone call and set-up a meeting. The meeting was scheduled a couple weeks out and with a couple days remaining before our meeting he gave me a call. It wasn’t the usual message.

Josh was concerned. He discovered the product I was interested in had a few issues. Not the quality, the unit itself is well made, the issues had to do with warranty and tech support with the manufacture. Josh called me to express he was concerned that in the event of a product issue I might not be happy with the way things were happening with the manufacture. I listened as Josh explained.

I cancelled the meeting. This is why I trust Josh. He could of done exactly what the waitress tried to do, he could of handed you a dirty steak. In fact, he probably could of gotten away with it and nobody would of been the wiser. He didn’t. Josh was looking out for my customer. Josh makes money on commission but he never puts that in front of doing the right thing.

As the owner of Oconomowoc Plumbing I look at Josh as a partner, a friend, and an asset to my customers.