A Compliment For A Job Well Done

[Clara Bow]

I have a little etiquette question related to the wild, weird, wonderful world of work.
The Direct TV repairman had to come to my house the other day to do some work. He was very nice, very professional and even let my son come watch (and patiently looked at all of son's toy tools. Son was so enraptured he invited him to dinner, LOL!) him do his work. He was here a few minutes early (!) and was done as quickly as possible and all was well. I was very pleased with the service.
Well, we had a little billing hassle (we weren't supposed to be billed due to having a service contract) and hubby and I called Direct TV. When I talked to the service division I made sure I complimented the repairman by name so they could foward it to his local division. And we gave a compliment to the original person handling our problem when he had to refer us to a supervisor. Long story short, we got everything taken care of and the people we talked to were beyond courteous.
Now. Should I call the local office that our repairman came from to let his supervisor know I was pleased with the service, or should I just leave it in DirectTV's hands? They said that they had passed my compliment along, but I want to be sure this guy gets the kudos he deserves.

[Madd Hatter]

I would call the local office.  There's no guarentee (sp, sorry) that DirectTV will forward the message and this way you know that he will recieve the compliment.  I'd also let the local office know that you did tell DirectTV, but you just wanted them to know also what a great job the serviceman did.

[JoyinVirginia]

I would recommend you write a brief note to local office praising repairman. Having verbal comments passed along is one thing, but having written feedback at the local office may carry more weight.
Joy in Virginia

[Lunadiana75]

Call the office and talk to his direct supervisor.  There isno way to know if your message was passed on, and managers always love to hear from happy customers.

[dawbs]

Call (or write) the local office.
(I know as a CSR, if I sent a message saying "customer X said to say that Jim-Bob is doing a swell job", Jim-Bob's supervisors ignored me...because they assumed I had a working relationship/friendship w/ Jim-Bob (which, often I did, but I didn't fudge the complaints/compliments!)

[CutebutPsycho]

I agree with everyone who said contact the local office! There is no way to know for sure if DirectTV would pass on the message. Also I agree that sending a note is a good idea.

I had a gentleman do this for me once, and my boss was the Premier of the Province that I live in so it was an EXTRA good compliment. It made my whole MONTH, let alone my day. So in turn, I do this for people who go above and beyond the call of duty.

[Lizmo]

I, too, agree with contacting the local office.  I'm sure that they will love to hear from you!  I have worked in guest service for a long time, and I know how great it is to hear something GOOD when normally you just hear people complaining!!  Let everyone know about your great serviceman!

[Clara Bow]

That's exactly what I'll do. I didn't want to appear too gushy, but I do want it noted that we were very pleased with his work.

[AndreaBeth105]

Along with agreeing with everyone else that you should def. call the local office and praise the repair man, I have some additional insight to add.  I've had some friends work with directTV and since each individual is an independent contractor, it gets very competetive for the best jobs, etc.  If the repair man's direct supervisor knows that repairman is doing a great job, supervisor might push more work repairman's way instead of giving it to someone else. 

Also, as a side note, those free service calls are worth very little to the repairmen; they get paid far less for them than for new installs and hook-ups.  So the fact that the repairman was so polite speaks a great deal about his character.