The Employee: JR Johnson

Location: East Texas

“Down and desperate.” That’s the words used by Longview dispatcher Darryl Moseley. The subject line in an email from Kid Kountry, a daycare center in Longview, in their service request reads like this: “Need back up ASAP.”

You can’t teach the sense of urgency that JR Johnson has as a veteran technician. With nearly 40 years in this business, he knows a thing or two about what it means for a customer to be completely down. However late it might mean for a return home, he’s up for the challenge.

The Organization's Need.

Nothing but a screen with a green light was visible for the users at Kid Kountry. What was diagnosed as a main controller down (not an uncommon occurrence but certainly a debilitating one for users), became a race against time for JR and the ETX service department to meet the urgent request from the customer.

As the clock rolled past 3 p.m., JR was in the East Texas town of Beckville, a good 40 minute drive from Longview up Highway 149. It would have been easy for him to say, “can I get to this thing first thing tomorrow morning, boss?” But he didn’t.

The Team's Approach.

Service Manager Justin Harper organized for technician David Olliff to meet JR in Kilgore to hand off the new main controller. From there, JR could head to the customer site and get them back up. It was a well-coordinated effort, highlighted by JR’s propensity to minimize customer downtime at all costs.

“JR has been doing this for years. Whatever the need is, he always jumps in without a second thought,” Justin said. “His consistency in stepping up time after time is much appreciated as a manager.”

Side note: Within the last month, JR was called to repair an MBM cutter which he had little (to no) experience with. He poured over the manual from front to back and troubleshooted relentlessly before finding the solution. 

JR arrived on-site at the daycare and installed the new main controller before the end of the workday. Mission accomplished. Sense of urgency sustained. Ask JR about this, and he’ll give you his typical nonchalant response.

“That’s my job. That’s what I gotta do,” he says. “The customer needs to be up, and that’s all there is to it.”

What Made them a Raving Fan? 

“JR could have said, I’ll get to it tomorrow. He does stuff like this all the time, he’s constantly working late,” Justin said. “That customer was begging to get the part put in that day, and thanks to JR, we made it happen.”