Customer Service Maze: Advocating for Personal Touch in a Tech-Driven World

Ever faced a customer service conundrum that left you more tangled than headphone wires in a pocket? Join us as co-hosts Cynthia and Rick unravel the intricate web of customer service, sharing personal experiences and a wealth of knowledge that could save you from your next support snafu. Battling through the underbrush of automated phone systems and slow live chat responses, we dissect the good, the bad, and the ugly of customer care, especially in the high-stakes world of healthcare, where empathy and direct communication are as crucial as a doctor's diagnosis.

Cynthia, fresh off the battleground of a tough day in medical customer service, and Rick, juggling the mayhem of a packed schedule, offer a candid discussion about the sheer resilience required to face daily customer service challenges. We highlight the often invisible thread that connects patience in the service industry with professions such as waitressing and housekeeping. Our conversation takes an educational twist, providing insightful tips on gratuity etiquette and sparking a debate on the tipping culture that digs deep into the pockets of the U.S. service industry.

As we wrap up, we don't just lament the fading human touch in an increasingly automated world; we champion the cause for a return to personalized service. This episode is an ode to those who stand at the front lines of customer care, nurses navigating the delicate dance of bedside manner, and anyone who’s ever felt like a cog in the machine of modern technology. Through heartfelt stories and a collective call for a change, we leave you with a newfound appreciation for the craft of customer service and perhaps, the urge to advocate for more genuine connections in every interaction.

Thank you for stopping by. Please visit our website: All About The Joy and add, like and share. We'd appreciate that greatly. Also, if you want to find us anywhere on social media, please check out the link in bio page.

Music By Geovane Bruno, Moments, 3481
Editing by Team A-J
Host, Carmen Lezeth


DISCLAIMER: As always, please do your own research and understand that the opinions in this podcast and livestream are meant for entertainment purposes only. States and other areas may have different rules and regulations governing certain aspects discussed in this podcast. Nothing in our podcast or livestream is meant to be medical or legal advice. Please use common sense, and when in doubt, ask a professional for advice, assistance, help and guidance.

Transcript

Carmen Lezeth: 0:00

That was funny. Hi everyone, welcome to All About the Joy. Cynthia, I'm so glad you're in the house. Rick Costa, as always, thank you for being here. How are you guys doing? Cynthia, let's start with you. How are you?

Cynthia Ruiz : 0:10

I'm good. I'm good, I'm getting better. Obviously, my voice is probably going to go in and out, but getting better, yeah.

Carmen Lezeth: 0:15

So you've been sick for a while now though, yeah, for about a week, a little over a week now. Okay, rick, how are you?

Rick Costa: 0:20

doing Good, good good, busy, busy, busy. But yeah, doing good, doing good, what do?

Carmen Lezeth: 0:24

you mean busy, busy, busy.

Rick Costa: 0:25

Always busy Full-time job taking care of mom, other stuff I'm doing. It's just busy, busy, busy.

Carmen Lezeth: 0:30

Wait, wait. You kind of skipped over the other stuff you're doing. You want to share? No, like website stuff. My broadcast there sent a list of the things we're going to talk about. Cynthia was like I can barely speak because my throat is killing me. I need to be on the show. Hey, melanie, how are you? How are you doing? So? We're going to start with Cynthia's day today, going to our first conversation about customer service. I didn't just put it out there, but, cynthia, what happened at work? So what?

Cynthia Ruiz : 1:01

happened at work. Okay, first let me just say any type of customer service is not easy. It doesn't matter if it's retail, it doesn't matter if it's food, medical. It's not easy, as people probably think. Oh yeah, all you do is, you know, check a patient in blah, blah, blah, or you know, just serve somebody food and keep it going. It's not always that easy. So today I was back at work and always that easy.

Cynthia Ruiz : 1:26

So today I was back at work and you know it's been a rainy day. Everybody's kind of like in a bum mood, whatever, because it's raining and snowing everywhere. Okay, understandable, no one's going to be in the best of moods. So today I had a patient come in and I'm in the middle of doing something and, mind you, right in front of my desk I have a sign that says please wait at the stop sign to be called. So that way you know people aren't coming up to the desk and seeing other people's private information that you're working on. But of course no one sees the sign, no one reads it, and they come right up to the desk.

Carmen Lezeth: 1:53

Oh, they read it. They just come up to the desk anyway, because they're special, so go ahead. Yeah, exactly.

Cynthia Ruiz : 2:07

So of course you have to cover what I'm working on and check this patient in. So I check her in and she goes, sits down and when she's coming out from her appointment she needs to make a follow-up appointment. Okay, so I'm going to help her Now. The doctor that she saw today is a resident. Now, residents I don't know if you know this work usually their rounds for three years and then they graduate and become actual MDs. So the doctor she was seeing today was a resident. And so she comes out. She says, oh, I have to make a three-month follow-up. So I said, okay, ask her her name again, look her up, ask her which doctor. And I said, oh. I said, well, this doctor, we don't have her schedule up yet because she's a resident and we'll have it up in the next month or two so we can book you for the summer. She was not happy with that. She goes well, the doctor told me to book in three months. What? When? When will the schedule be open? I said, well, let me go check for you. I was being nice, even though she didn't have to. I'm already annoyed. And so so I go get the assistant manager and I said do you know when the schedules will be open for the summer. And she's like, oh, we don't know until we get it from the higher ups. I said, okay. I said can you please go explain this to this patient, because I've explained it three times already and she's not giving up. So she comes out and the assistant manager is talking to her and she's like, explains it again very nicely, very calmly, and the patient goes well, what am I supposed to do? Why can't you make this appointment? And we're trying to say to her we can't, we don't have their schedule, we have to wait for the higher-ups. So she sees a doctor walk by behind me and she's calling the doctor. So I turned around and I said doc, come here for a minute Now. The doctors I'm very cool with, so I you know I'll be very straight out with them. So I said come here please. I said you told this patient to come out and make an appointment for three months, but you know we don't have your schedule for the summer. And she goes oh, okay, well, can we do it for next month? I said, yeah, perfect. So I turned around and I said to the patient okay, we can make it for next month.

Cynthia Ruiz : 4:01

This patient, straight out, lied to the doctor in front of me and said well, she didn't tell me that. She told me I couldn't make an appointment at all. I lost it. And I said I said I did not say that. Why are you lying? You said that to the patient. I sure as hell did.

Cynthia Ruiz : 4:20

And my assistant manager was standing right there and she had a grin on her face because she knew I was going to explode. And she said you're lying. I said that is not what I said. And she goes. The doctor is like it's OK, we'll book you for next month. So she's like OK, what do you have for next month? So I give her the date and time. And so the doctor's like OK. So the patient's asked the doctor is that OK with you? Oh, i's like is that okay with you? Like, does that date and time work for you? And she's like yes, so I booked her. And then she continues.

Cynthia Ruiz : 4:53

The patient continues after I've already booked her, continues to blatantly lie now about my assistant manager and says that the assistant manager was rude and she's the problem, because she told me to call another office to get an appointment. And the assistant manager was like no, I told you. If you would like, you can call patient relations and complain and she's like. You told me to call them to get another appointment. And my face was just turning red and I was biting my tongue Because I was like, if this glass screen was not in front of, me, I'm probably going to throw something at her right now.

Cynthia Ruiz : 5:25

So yeah, so then my manager my practice manager comes out and she's like is everything OK? And so the lady's leaving? And I just turned around. I said the lie is coming out of this woman. Oh shit, that's bad though. Oh, I didn't say that the lady was already walking away. And I said the lie is coming out of this woman. And you know, the doctor is like oh, I know she goes. I'm so sorry she's apologizing to me because she knows how the patient is Right, because the patient is acting very entitled and she was acting like that with her. And the manager was like do you need to walk away?

Carmen Lezeth: 5:58

I said no, but I'm going to play devil's advocate. I'm going to play devil's advocate Because is there a way in which that you could have maybe de-escalated the situation instead of Well?

Cynthia Ruiz : 6:09

that's why, because I knew how I was going to get. I knew how I was going to get because she was already giving me. That's why I went to get the assistant manager. Okay, mario, get him.

Rick Costa: 6:17

She's starting off spicy.

Cynthia Ruiz : 6:20

That's why I went to go get the assistant manager so that she could do it, cause you know, if she's getting the big bucks, then she's going to have to deal with this, and I'm just going to keep my mouth shut. But when she started lying, it's like don't lie right to my face, you know exactly what I said to you and you're trying to trying to get me in trouble in front of the doctor when the doctor knows I would never do that. So that's why I said you're lying, that's not what I said. So that that was just like what's your hospital?

Carmen Lezeth: 6:44

again, I gotta make sure I never go there. You better be on point. If you're looking, I I'm. I'm not. I'm not sorry, I wasn't there. I trust you. I'm on team, cynthia. Okay, but because I'm coming at this from a different point of view not the patient side, I'm talking about like just in general. Like whenever I call customer service or deal with customer service, I feel like they're the ones who have a chip on their shoulder because they're so sick and tired of dealing with patients, or I mean, I think it takes a lot of work to be a customer service person, absolutely, absolutely, and I know, I totally, I totally agree.

Cynthia Ruiz : 7:16

There are definitely people who work in customer service. That shouldn't, and a lot of them do act like they have a chip on their shoulder. Don't get me wrong. There are there, are. I go in there, you know, I may have a bad day at home or whatever, and I'll go to work. I'm not bringing my home problems to work, I'm there to work. No, you're a nice person.

Carmen Lezeth: 7:32

So I know, I know that you're at your limit. If you're going off on a patient Cause I know you so well, you would you're the like I would last five minutes. You know what I mean? Yeah, here's what I'll say. I'll say every job is customer service related and that's what I was telling staff people yesterday. It was what I was telling staff people today. I don't care that you think you don't work with the public. Your inability to talk to each other and to stop being so negative and to stop being so angry is part of having good customer service skills, just having good skills of communication. If we treated people the way in which we want to be treated at work, it'd be a much easier thing to do.

Rick Costa: 8:12

but people are not nice, but okay, so customer service all day long as well. I had a little incident today, not as bad as Cynthia's, but Okay, well, go ahead.

Rick Costa: 8:18

So this woman calls and so they often get my company mixed up with another company. My company is just strictly retail, just sells to the general public. But there's this other company with a very similar name, just with an extra word added to it, that deals with patients and insurance and Medicare and all this stuff. So there's key words. When I hear patient, insurance, medicare, I'm like okay, this is you calling the wrong place. So this lady's calling and she's starting to explain blah, blah, blah, and she's saying those key words and I'm like, oh, you know what? Are you sure this is the right? Can I please finish? Can you let me talk?

Rick Costa: 8:47

I'm like, oh, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, go ahead, go ahead, knowing she's going to be wasting her time telling me this big spiel. And then at the end I was like so it said this is the. That's another company You've. You know you're calling the wrong place. I'm so sorry. So you know, if I want to look them up on Google, you can probably find it that way, but we're not the company. I'm so sorry, you know you call the wrong place.

Rick Costa: 9:09

Was she mad then Was she mad no she didn't act mad at all because I think she knew I was being nice and she was totally in the wrong.

Carmen Lezeth: 9:16

Okay, I have a question for you though, rick, if I call your company retail, the retail company part, do I have to go through a lot of prompts Like hit one, like do you have to do Cause? You know, let me just tell you and this is a shout out to all motherfucking banks, let me just throw this out there when I call a bank and I know rarely anyone does it and I rarely don't but if I have an issue with a credit card or whatever and I have to go through 13 minutes of round robin, is that what they call it. You know, when you have to go one, then the two, then the put in your oh, and the worst thing, the worst thing for me is we need more information to verify who you are. So they want, like your number, your credit card number, the code on the back, da, da. And then finally, after you're on person, who's like hi, we need to verify who you are. Can you please give me your data? And I'm like so I know it's not what you guys are talking about, but I'm just saying, when you set it up that way, we're going to be pissed right when you answer the phone, right when you answer that phone.

Carmen Lezeth: 10:15

Same thing with the chat thing. I had a chat thing today with and I'm going to say the name of the company 1-800-CONTACTS. I get my contacts from 1-800-CONTACTS and every time I usually have a smooth sailing situation. But in the chat I'm like okay, this person does not type fast enough and that little prompt is going going. And then it's like one line Thank you, if I can have one minute, I'll be right back, and I'm like I've been waiting five minutes for the prompt. So I'm saying it from the other point of view, because you know what I mean. Or we're feeling ill that on top of all that other stuff kind of just adds to it. So I think that's why customer service is really hard, because you guys have to see that, deescalate it and still handle the problem.

Cynthia Ruiz : 11:00

I totally get that. So you know, we, we get a lot of calls. People you know have been waiting five, 10 minutes, you know, to get in contact with somebody because they're not feeling well. And I get it because I did call our office one day just to see what the patients deal with, what they have to hear, and it was like five minutes of explaining this whole thing before they even say press one for this office, press two for this office. And I was was like I would have already hung up by now, yeah, and I was like no wonder why these patients are upset.

Carmen Lezeth: 11:26

they are waiting for a half hour just to fucking just to get to someone but it's not even the waiting, it's the maze of one and then five, and then and then, oh, and the worst ones are the voice prompts, because they don't understand you. Yeah, say seven or whatever, it's a billing and they're like, they're like that's not on the menu. I'm like you just said it was.

Rick Costa: 11:47

Para Español, lo primo, el numero dos.

Cynthia Ruiz : 11:51

It's so wrong, yeah, I mean and.

Cynthia Ruiz : 11:54

I get it. Even I. Even I have complained to our higher ups, like our phone tree needs to be better, our phone tree needs to be shortened, get to the point so these people can get to where they need to go and we can answer their questions, get them off the phone onto the next. I don't even complain about it and they haven't done anything. But again, like I said, you know, like you said the police devil's advocate, it's also not the person who's answering the phone. It's also not their fault. They have no control over that. You know they're working for a company who may have heard these complaints from customers, patients and their old employees and they still haven't done anything about it.

Carmen Lezeth: 12:29

which gets me upset with the higher-ups, because it's like you know, I love that you call them the higher-ups. I've never heard that. Let me just read Adam's comment. My company is AAG Appliance Repair and there's another company near me that's LG Appliance. Ooh, that would be hard. People will call mad that LG appliance didn't show up. Oh, adam, that's horrible. I tried to explain. It's a different company, not me. You know what that's just wrong on so many levels. But yeah, that must be a pain in the butt. Oh, that's just-.

Rick Costa: 12:54

You know what I did a lot of also, so you know the I've fallen and I can't get up device.

Cynthia Ruiz : 12:59

Yep, yeah.

Rick Costa: 13:00

So a lot of my guests are called Lifeline, which is part of my company's name too, and I got these senior citizens calling and I'm like, oh sweetie, this is not the right company. I'm so sorry. Do you have the number? Let me go to Google and find it for you Hold on one second, you got a pen. You got a pen and I'll find it. And I'm like, yeah, this is not the right company.

Cynthia Ruiz : 13:19

I'm yeah, some of them. You really do feel so bad for them and you want to help them and it's like you go above and beyond to help those because you can feel their pain. You can. But then those others that just start off on a thousand and it's like hold on, it's like can you relax?

Carmen Lezeth: 13:38

and let me get your info so I can help you. It's like if you calm down and just give me a second, I can help. I know, I know. But if you tell someone on the phone to calm down, I mean, if I'm, if I'm elevated, and you tell me to calm down, we, we don't be fighting. Um, melanie just said. I know what you were talking about. I had a question about my debit card and I just happened to be driving by my bank, so I stopped in and talked to an actual person easier than calling Absolutely, absolutely. And here's the thing I will say this Cynthia. Um, my doctor's office has my chart I don't know if it's Cedars-Sinai or whatever and I have. I mean, I directly email my doctor and she responds, and that's so much easier. But if you have elderly people or whatever, it's a whole different ballgame.

Cynthia Ruiz : 14:10

Yeah, my thing is like I had another patient today who used MyChart and you know she sent a message to the doctor about a medication that she needed and you know, granted the doctor that she sees wasn't in the office today, but they do check their messages so the patient happened to be in the building for another appointment and she just decided to come into the office, and so it's like, yes, my chart is definitely easier to get to get in contact with the doctor or nurse, anything like that, than waiting on the phone. But also coming into the office after you just sent the message, like literally 15 minutes ago, doesn't help, because it doesn't give anybody any time to actually get to the message. I mean, we get thousands of messages.

Carmen Lezeth: 14:48

I mean on my chart thing. First of all, my doctor rarely answers her own, my chart, I'm just going to say that, but it's her staff. Like I'll be, like, I just need my prescription called in. Can you change it to whatever? You know what I mean and I know because of her assistant or whatever they're called. Whatever the person is answering the email I don't know if it's the nurse or the guy that does the blood I don't know somebody's answering those emails and it always says it's going to take, you know, at least 24 hours. So if you need something immediate, please call 911, or you know what I mean. So people should know that people don't have patience, not when you're sick.

Cynthia Ruiz : 15:24

And that's the thing. And obviously, when you don't feel good, you want something right then and there. And I get that because I don't feel good. So I know why do you do customer service then? Because I like helping people. I really do. You know that I do like helping people and I have so many patients that come in that are so sweet and I go above and beyond for them, you know, and I try to help them as much as.

Carmen Lezeth: 15:44

I can. I mean, even recently. You were like Carmen. Did you send me that present? I'm sorry, what your birthday, and it wasn't, it was from one of your friends. Flowers, it wasn't me. I was trying to think about it. Rick, why do you do customer service?

Rick Costa: 15:59

But I was just thinking, maybe, Cynthia, you kind of like the whole working with cadaver thing eventually hopefully one day, because they can't talk back- Exactly.

Carmen Lezeth: 16:08

I'm going to tell you right now. It still freaks me out that she wants to do. What is it called again, forensic anthropology? Forensic anthropology dealing with dead people, looking at their bodies, cutting them open, doing what ducky does on ncis. That's how I'm gonna look at it from now on right that's what I said.

Carmen Lezeth: 16:25

It's mostly bones that I would. Yeah, yeah, what's her name? Tempest, tempest, what's her name on that show? Tempest brennan on the show bones. The problem is a lot of people haven't seen the show Bones, so I think more people have seen NCIS. So it's kind of the same thing. But she is an anthropologist, she'll do old people not age-wise but historical. That's what you're interested in. But I'm just saying, with your personality, as much as I love you and. I've known, get it.

Carmen Lezeth: 16:58

Yeah, I want you to do it, though, but I don't want you to yeah, if that's what you want to do, then but I think it's because you're going to be helping people in a bigger way, because you're going to find ways to find closure, right? I guess it still doesn't wrap around my head. So, rick, have you always wanted to be in customer service, or are you doing this because it's the best thing for you to do now, to work from home? But you always worked for them, right? Even before you got the bill.

Rick Costa: 17:20

Before. Yeah, I worked for the same company. I've been at this company for almost 20 years. That's crazy.

Cynthia Ruiz : 17:23

So it's a long time.

Carmen Lezeth: 17:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah, so weird we need those people we do. You've got to be a certain kind of person. I just don't know if I think Cynthia's that and I am the judge of all people. I don't know. I don't see you in that stuffage. But anyway, rick, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to.

Rick Costa: 17:54

Yeah, I don't know that I necessarily tried to go for this type of position, but I pretty quickly realized I'm pretty good at it. People like dealing with me, like the last big company I worked for. Every time there was like a problem person. They're like you know what. Just tell them to hold on. Give them to Rick, because nobody could rattle me about my mama and I'll still be as calm as could be.

Carmen Lezeth: 18:12

I don't care I don't know why you're so calm I don't know, it's just the peace that I have.

Rick Costa: 18:17

I don't know.

Carmen Lezeth: 18:17

Well, I think something that you both do because now I'm going to play doctor therapist carmen something you both have that I don't have is and I I say this as a respectful thing that you guys have so much patience. You have a lot of patience and you tend to like I don't know how to say this respectfully because it's going to sound like it's a negative, but it's a positive you guys keep a lot of things in, whereas I am like what You're like I can't even write out, so I can't even like. This is why I could never be a waitress. It's the same thing Like. I remember when I first moved out here, people like so if you should, really the easiest job is to be a waiter. I was like it's never going to happen. I have known my whole life. If anybody complained about anything as I served them food, no, we'd be done.

Cynthia Ruiz : 19:01

See, that's one thing I couldn't do is hospitality, Waitressing or housekeeping. I give them absolutely so much credit.

Carmen Lezeth: 19:09

I really do Wait. Housekeeping, though, is harder because that's hard labor work yeah, no, it is. Though is harder because that's hard labor work yeah, no, it is. Look at. Darcy, I let it all come out too.

Rick Costa: 19:17

Go ahead. Yes, she does, she ain't lying.

Cynthia Ruiz : 19:21

It's like a lot of the times, like a lot of housekeeping at hotels, even in hospitals, go unnoticed, because it's almost like they're backstage, kind of thing. You know what. I mean you don't see them. They come in, clean up, do what they got to do, sets ready for the next, the next show, right, you know what I mean. And they're so underappreciated yeah, yeah, definitely.

Rick Costa: 19:41

I mean we used to, always, from our church, we'd go every year with the youth to a trip, um, in maryland I think it was, and so we'd all be in a hotel, whatever. And I'm like all right, guys, come on, your mama's not here, please clean up after yourselves. Y'all trashing this place, and then on the final day it's always me that stays behind and cleans everything up. Make sure they got a tip, because these cheap little punks ain't giving no money for it.

Carmen Lezeth: 20:01

That's what I was gonna say people do not realize.

Carmen Lezeth: 20:03

so I'm gonna say something I learned from my trip in aruba, because I spoke to the housekeeping people. I I actually have their numbers, like you're the only part. I'm like no, I just because you did. They live there and also I was telling you last time they were speaking all these different languages and I was hearing them and I was like you know, and they were like, yeah, we're not speaking Spanish. They do speak Spanish, but so I got to talk to them or whatever.

Carmen Lezeth: 20:26

And so here's something I never knew and for somebody who stays in hotels a lot, you think I wouldn't know you should always leave a tip every day, not at the end of your stay, because it could be a different housekeeper who comes in, so you're actually just paying the person that's working that day. So, and I told everyone that we were with you know, in the future, leave a couple bucks every day, as opposed to you know $10 or whatever it is you're leaving at the end. You know what I mean, and I know some people are probably like $10. I leave them a couple bucks. You should not be leaving such cheap tips either to people doing manual labor. I'm just going to throw that out there. So if you do a couple bucks every day or you do like 10 or 20 bucks at the end of your stay or something that's that seems reasonable. Sorry, dodgy.

Cynthia Ruiz : 21:05

Even with waiters and waitresses like they have to split their tips with the busboys and you know, cooks and things like that. So not the whole tip doesn't always go all to them, they do have to split it up.

Carmen Lezeth: 21:15

So that's harder because it's also different in every state. But yeah, look, I think that's a whole other conversation about minimum wage, which people get all upset about. But why is it in this country? So I, you know, I'm a big tipper, cynthia, you know I tip ridiculous money, right. So, but why in this country? Right, great. But why in this country? Right, greatest country in the world? Why is it that you have to give a tip? Because the person can't live off what they're making? Right, a tip should be an extra, it should be like a little bonus, like, oh, that person was just so amazing. You go to any other country, you don't have to tip, it's included. You know what I mean? It's just really a strange thing. Here're, right, Cynthia, it's not just for the waiter, it's oh, they usually split it.

Rick Costa: 21:54

Yeah, there's people in other countries that, like Americans, will go there and then try to leave a tip and they're like, well, you think I'm poor or something. What are you leaving me extra money for? Like they get insulted.

Carmen Lezeth: 22:03

It's insulting.

Rick Costa: 22:03

It's a different way.

Carmen Lezeth: 22:05

And I'm not saying every other country. You need, like, if you're going to go to a different country, know the customs, know what you got to do. As cynthia knows, I did my itinerary with all of my information. I even had the consulate, the us consulate. I had the room consulate. I had everything on point just in case anything happened. Uh, so you want to learn all the customs? At least know that.

Carmen Lezeth: 22:25

The basic things like tipping is a good one. You know um and how to say hello in the language, or you know good afternoon or good night. I think those things are nice things to be able to do, you know. But I hate that we have to tip people. I hate that, that we have to because they can't live off what they make up as waiters and whatever. That bothers me a lot. So what do you guys love or hate about your jobs? And now, besides, I like helping people blah, blah, blah. I mean, cynthia, I'm going to start with you because I think this is an interesting question, because you are going to go into a situation where you are no longer going to be doing customer service. You're going to be behind the scenes, true?

Cynthia Ruiz : 23:02

I mean technically, I would still have to do customer service. You still have to deal with other offices, family members. You still have to know how to speak to people. Right, you still have to be professional.

Carmen Lezeth: 23:12

that's what I was telling my clients and not my clients, my clients teams yesterday and today. That's what I mean. Like, just because it's not somebody calling from outside, you have to deal with people in the office. So, learning how to speak to other people, learning how to de-escalate situations I have one client actually I have two of them, but I have one client. The office is so negative and everybody likes to blame the guy who owns the company and I'm like you're all a bunch of motherfucking negative people. They're just so angry all the time and I'm like that's on you. That's what I mean by customer service within the company. Right, the ethos, the culture has to change and it has to do with being able I'm sorry to bring joy when you walk in a room. You know.

Cynthia Ruiz : 23:53

Nurses and doctors even are customer service, if you think about it. They have to have bedside manner, they have to be able to talk to their patients. I don't know if you saw the video that I posted the other day about being nice to healthcare workers, to staff, to the nurses who are taking care of your loved ones.

Carmen Lezeth: 24:11

I think nurses get a lot more love than doctors nowadays. Adam just said, I agree, they should pay them more and it should be in the menu Give a tip to show appreciation. Adam, I agree, it's the way I thought it should be, but somehow it's become. We have to give them money because they can't live off of it. But, cynthia, what were you just saying? You were talking about nurses versus. I think, especially during COVID, nurses started getting a lot more love.

Carmen Lezeth: 24:35

I tend to think doctors don't have the best bedside manner, though, as I've said before my hip surgery, that doctor well, here's the thing. I didn't see him till after surgery because he was wearing a mask the whole time, right, and he was wearing that hat or whatever. Whenever I met with him and I met with him over six months and I knew he had a body I was in pain, so I wasn't like he had great bedside manner. But then he was also fine as all hell. Right. Dr Gearhart, Dr Michael B Gearhart, here at uh is he at Cedars? I don't even know, I forgot wherever. I was. Fine as all hell, that's all I'm saying. But, yeah, great bedside manner he did.

Cynthia Ruiz : 25:12

There are a lot of doctors and nurses that have great bedside man and there are some nurses that don't, and it sucks because it's like I get, I play, I could play both parts. I get, I could see both parts.

Carmen Lezeth: 25:23

You know, they love helping people, but they do get pushed and pulled so thin that they are stressed out, I know, but then then then they need to leave the job. I mean I. So here's my problem. Here's what I'm gonna say. If you don't like your job, if you are too stressed out, I know, but then then then they need to leave the job, I mean I. So here's my problem. Here's what I'm going to say. If you don't like your job, if you are too stressed out to do whatever the job is, customers, it doesn't matter what it is. If you don't, then you need to leave. You can't be.

Carmen Lezeth: 25:44

There's no justification for treating other people like crap. Because I'm calling customer service because I need help and you're having a bad day, or you're stressed out because so-and-so blah, blah, blah. I'll tell you this. Okay, this happened to me recently. In the past year, I went to get blood work done right Cause I found out about my thyroid. So this is a regular thing, trying to get my levels right. So I go to a lab. I don't have to go to my actual doctor's office, so they don't charge me an office fee. I just go to the lab itself directly.

Carmen Lezeth: 26:11

And and so the first time I went because it was a new lab I'd never been to. I was just like I am really afraid of this, the needle thing. I just don't love them. You know what I mean? I don't like it, or whatever. And the woman was like I do this all day. I was like, well, I'm sure you do it all day, but that's not gonna work for me, like that attitude is not gonna work for me. She's like well, then you're gonna have to reschedule because it was just. And then, of course, you know me, if I think you're an amazing, wonderful, brilliant human being, customer service, I'm gonna applaud you. I'm gonna write that letter, I'm gonna make sure everybody knows about it, I'm gonna post about it, I'm gonna talk about it. You, a damn ass, motherfucking bitch. I'm gonna let everybody know about that shit too. You know what?

Carmen Lezeth: 26:47

I mean because that was inappropriate. Yeah, I thought that was inappropriate. She made me even more like it just made me realize she's not gonna care, and I don't care if she hears that from every single person that she draws blood from. If you don't like your job, leave it leave it.

Cynthia Ruiz : 27:02

You know what I mean.

Cynthia Ruiz : 27:03

Yeah, I'm the same way with needles and all my doctors, all my doctors know it and like they're so sympathetic with me that they will find the sweetest nurse to come and give me a shot or to draw my blood and then know what type of needle to use and that and um, this one time recently I had to go get blood work. So I don't know. You know I'm telling my primary care and it was a new girl who was working in the lab and it was a young girl. So I said to her you know, I don't like needles. Can you please use the small butterfly needle on my hand? I don't like it in my arms.

Cynthia Ruiz : 27:34

You know she's like are you sure questioning me? Like, don't question me, I know what I can and can't take, you know. And I said yes, I'm sure. I said so, I'm there, she's doing it. And you know my leg is shaking because I'm nervous. But I'm sitting in the chair, I'm being still, just my leg is shaking. And she goes, oh, and I felt something go wrong in my hand. She goes, oh, I think I'm gonna take this out because you're making me nervous. And I said, well, and she goes, no, and she goes and covers the spot where she had the needle already with the gauze and everything. She goes and gets another nurse. She I'm going to get someone who's more experienced with the hand.

Rick Costa: 28:14

In my head I was like bitch.

Cynthia Ruiz : 28:16

Why did you do that? But I didn't say that.

Carmen Lezeth: 28:21

I was just like okay, okay, that's a different thing Cynthia did. She thought that, but she didn't say it.

Cynthia Ruiz : 28:25

I would have said that shit, I would have said it. I was in such shock. So then the other lady comes in, goes that's the other hand, and she's there two seconds and I was like, did you get it? She goes no, there's no blood coming out. I said, take it out, I'm done. Yeah, I'm done. I said I'm not, I'm gonna go somewhere else, thank you. She said okay. When I got home and I looked at my hand from the first girl it was all black and blue and I was so mad I was like I wanted to punch her.

Cynthia Ruiz : 28:53

But yeah, like you have to. You just have to listen to the people. If they know what they need, if they know what they want, just listen to them half the time. That's all they want is for you to somebody to listen to them. They could be bitching and moaning and doing all this and that and it's like, okay, just keep going, keep going, because all they want is to just get it out. And a lot of times I will let somebody just vent, yell at me, do whatever, okay, and there are times that I've had a patient actually in my face do that, and she'll just scream and scream and I'm like, all right, I said so, I'm trying to help you. Are you done yelling Because I don't appreciate you yelling at me when I'm trying to help you and I had the medical director standing right behind me. She just went to the other MA she goes, two kids got it.

Carmen Lezeth: 29:35

It just sounds like a really bad TV show.

Cynthia Ruiz : 29:37

I don't know I don't like it.

Carmen Lezeth: 29:38

I don't like women behind the scenes. But, ricky, we're going to say something about you getting blood work. You don't like needles either.

Rick Costa: 29:45

Mentally. I know you're being irrational. Just relax, it's only going to take a second, it's not going to be a lot of pain. It just doesn't matter what you say. I'm going to freak out if I got to get any kind of shot One time. Warned the person. Listen, you know, like my mother I was still younger he gets. I don't know. You might want to have him lay down. No, it's fine, it's fine, okay, okay. As soon as I saw that needle, I turned white as a sheet and he's like oh my me mad Cause, I'm like it's, I know it's like irrational fear or whatever.

Carmen Lezeth: 30:14

I don't think we have to like. I don't think we have to justify not liking something. Like people keep saying it's all in your head, yes, and my head is part of my whole essence. Like of course it's in my head, you dumb ass. Like that is what I'm telling you. So I'm trying to help people stop saying that it's a very negative thing and you're turning around and double downing on the fact that somehow you're crazy to feel the way you feel about it.

Carmen Lezeth: 30:40

Looking after my friend Caesar was killed in 9-11 in the Twin Towers, there's a lot of things I wanted to do and I tried to do them. So I started running marathons then and the other thing I started doing was giving blood, and I have a negative blood. So I was like, okay, you know it's not rare, rare, but it's not. Oh, you know what I mean. So I was like, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this regularly. I have a friend who I actually follow on WordPress, whose name is also Tony. He gives blood every month without fail. He posted on Instagram. He's a big advocate, you know.

Carmen Lezeth: 31:06

So I wanted to be because I was like that it was such an ordeal, because after they put the needle in, I'd be fine, right, I'd get over that trauma. But then you're laying there in these kind of stretchers or whatever. You're watching the blood of somebody else's blood go into a bag, or you know that everybody and it just was making me nauseous they asked me to stop giving blood. I know they nice about it, but it was just too much work for them because I was like sweating or whatever, and they're like it's just. But what they do once in a while is that they well, they haven't done it in a while though, so they must have more than a flood, but back then they would call me if they needed a negative or something. You know what I mean, but I, whether it's just to like do lab work or to give blood, I don't like it, and that's okay, it's okay. It's triggering for me. It's what it's triggering and it's traumatizing for me. Oh, you mean from some experience in the past.

Cynthia Ruiz : 32:04

Yeah, oh yeah, when I was a kid so I it was I was probably like maybe five or six and I, you know, I used to be in the hospital a lot because of my asthma, so they always had to take blood and my mom always had to hold me and hold my arm and it always hurt. But the one time that that just did it in for me was I was in one of the rooms and I was crying and I didn't want to do it and the nurses came in and they said if you don't stop crying and stay still, we're going to send your mother out of the room and hold you down.

Rick Costa: 32:33

Wow.

Carmen Lezeth: 32:35

And I remember that, and that is great customer service Right yeah.

Cynthia Ruiz : 32:40

So it's triggering for me. So now it's like it freaks me out every time I have to get blood.

Carmen Lezeth: 32:45

I don't even think I have a triggering event, I, you know. Again, there's so many things. I went to therapy for you know, and I was like, well, if I'm in therapy, let me work on everything, that's not my problem. And it was my therapist who was like I don't like needles either, like it doesn't everything doesn't have to be. A childhood like. My mother had a needle and she would know it and somehow it slipped. You know, it doesn't have to be a story. And I was like you know what you're right. It just is what it is, you know.

Carmen Lezeth: 33:10

But for me now, because I know that and because I'm okay with it being in my head, I have no problem telling people and I feel better about it. And my thing is, how the person reacts determines whether or not they get to draw blood for me or not. You know what I mean. Like, because if you're a jerk, you're not coming near my arm. Um, we'll say a lot of people who give, who do that they're such experts like most people are really good at drawing blood like who do it for a living. You know what I mean. Um, but I will say this to be there was there's not gonna be no novice taking blood from me. I would be like, oh, I love that you're doing this job. I need to see whoever your supervisor is that wouldn't even be.

Cynthia Ruiz : 33:48

I mean, there was a girl that worked in our lab and she literally only had one eye, but she was amazing at drawing.

Carmen Lezeth: 33:53

Yeah what did marjorie said after being on dialysis for years, I know what you're talking. However, I will tell any phlebotomist that I am a hard stick. If you have any challenges, back off, because I am nothing nice, ooh, ooh. And I just learned a new word. I mean, I knew it, but I didn't know it. But phlebotomist, that's what they're called right.

Rick Costa: 34:10

Yeah, so that's a good segue for my little story my dad, who was totally opposite from me Like you said, I'm patient my dad is still not patient at all. So one time somebody was trying to draw blood and they were having difficulty and he was saying you're hurting me and he looked at my mom like he gave her that look one more time.

Carmen Lezeth: 34:27

Oh.

Rick Costa: 34:34

And he literally started to swing and my mom grabbed his arm. I was like yo dad, what in the world he's like? She's lucky your mother was there because I warned her. My dad was crazy.

Cynthia Ruiz : 34:40

His world. He's like she's lucky your mother was there because I warned her. My dad was crazy. His dad did say that she was hurting him. He spoke up.

Carmen Lezeth: 34:44

Look, I think that's the other thing too is again, I know nurses and doctors have a tough time. They do such great work or whatever, but I always advise people never go into the hospital without somebody to advocate for you, because I had that experience with my ex-husband when he went into the hospital. They flew him in by helicopter. He's a motocross guy, he got into an accident, blah, blah, blah, whatever. You know, I had to drive out to where he was. It was a couple of hours before I got there, but when I got there he had had that same thing where he had been telling people that he was being hurt. And then when I walked in, I was you. You know what I mean. I totally took over the room because I realized he was in pain and they were not treating it. It wasn't just the physical pain of the accident, it was the no one was advocating for him, so nobody was giving him what he needed to fend for him while he was in this weakened situation and state.

Carmen Lezeth: 35:30

And you know, the nurses came up and apologized to me, or whoever it was. I don't want to. Is it the manager? I don't know what happens. It was what the supervisor is. It was a long long time ago, but I remember being like, oh hell to the no and you don't want to have. Like, if you can have somebody advocate for you, please have someone advocate for you, especially if you're in a situation where you're not fully conscious all the time. You know, definitely no offense to nurses and doctors, but it's a tough job. You know it's like what we were saying before it. You may not mean to be mean to somebody, but if somebody says you're hurting me, you can't be like I do this all the time, just worry Somebody's body.

Rick Costa: 36:04

Yeah, it's so weird, that's annoying. Going back to the phone thing, it sounds like we're switching topics. I'm just going back to another one. So what annoys me about that? You're in what I call telephone hell, where you're pushing numbers and blah, blah, blah and it's a say speak or push in your account number. So you do all that right. Then you finally get a person and they start talking. It's like okay, can you tell me your account number? I was like I just put it in the phone, why am I giving it to you again?

Carmen Lezeth: 36:28

Like I don't understand that. Why, why am?

Rick Costa: 36:30

I doing? Why are you making me do twice the work? Why sometimes I say the opposite for this? And it's like like there's some companies that like they deal with all kinds of different things, different products. It's like if you need help with blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, da, da, da, da da, press two. It's not supposed to give you a different number than you think it is. And I'm like say the a simple thing y'all. Can we please fix that?

Carmen Lezeth: 36:58

Adam just said. My wife and I always go together. There should always be at least two people, even for just a doctor's appointment. It's stressful and you forget stuff.

Carmen Lezeth: 37:05

Let me tell you, I go to my doctors on my own, you know, not like the surgery or whatever, but my doctors I think they appreciate me or not, I can do it. But my list, I'm all like okay, Cause I know we only have like 20 minutes. I'm like so here's what's happened, and then I have my questions and I answer them. And here's the best part. The other day I came in to follow up. I had my blood work from the last one, even though she has it, I wanted it in front of me to see what the new one was, and we talked about it. And that may annoy them, I don't know, but it's my yes. You should always, especially if you're in pain, you should always have other people with you. Rick, you were saying something and it triggered something that I wanted to talk about and I was talking about the phone thing.

Carmen Lezeth: 37:45

Oh I know what I was going to say. I think, in in the wanting to be more helpful to customers so that they can get to somebody quicker, they've actually made it more congested and horrible. You know what I mean. Like they've made it worse, and I think that's what happened is like I don't know why you wouldn't want to have your own receptions unless you don't have money right. Like I don't have money to have somebody write all my content, so I pay for an extra thing for one of my podcasts to write the content and then I go in and fix it. You know what I mean.

Carmen Lezeth: 38:11

If I could afford to have somebody write the content, I would, but I'm not asking anybody else to come in and do 17 prompts. See, that's the problem. You're not. You know what I mean. Like I'm using AI to help me, just have some to do the transcription of the podcast. But I think what they did is they've eliminated which I think was probably one of the best things is a great customer service person. You know how freaked out I get when somebody answers the phone. When I call, I'm like I thought it was going to be a voiceover. They're like yes, how can I help you?

Rick Costa: 38:36

I get that all the time. Yeah, because I literally pick up on the first ring and it was like, oh, like, there's shots.

Carmen Lezeth: 38:43

It is alarming when you actually get a human being on the phone and you're calling an institution and you really don't think. You're like I'm waiting for it to be like a beep or whatever and they're like no, no, it's me, hello.

Carmen Lezeth: 38:53

I was going to ask them are you a robot? It's so interesting. I think technology is pretty amazing. I was just reading something on AI. It was a quick meme. I'm going to totally hack it and mess it up and I wish I had saved it and retweet not tweeted it, but reused it or whatever it said. I don't need AI to write my content or do my social media. I need AI to do my laundry and to do my dishes so I can be more creative and I thought it was a really interesting thing that we don't want AI to take over our jobs. We want AI to take over the jobs that nobody wants to do, the hard labor kind of things like somebody go do my dishes, but that's also somebody's job. How do you guys feel about AI Not to change it, but just because we're going job? How do you guys feel about AI Not to change it, but I just cause we're going there anyways? Are you scared for your jobs at all with AI? Clearly not, because the prompts are not working.

Rick Costa: 39:48

I don't think I'm scared of it. It's not for me anyway, like what I do. They always say they prefer to talk to a person. They're like, oh, thank God I got an actual person, you know, they don't want to really talk to a robot, or uh, we have a live chat feature too on the website, so you could type a message no, it's no it goes straight to me, that's.

Rick Costa: 40:05

That can get annoying, because if I'm already on the phone with one person and they got this live thing, I'm like I'm supposed to do two things at once, because if you don't answer soon, they're like are you there?

Carmen Lezeth: 40:12

I'm like I'm only one person, but um you don't tell them you're the only one person, do you? No, why don't you do what they always do, which is you're 17 in line? I'm serious and then you just I'll come back later.

Rick Costa: 40:27

Yeah, and I'll just be like oh, just give me a moment, I'll look into that for you.

Carmen Lezeth: 40:29

I'll be right back in one second, something like that no-transcript, because I said I've done it a couple times and then, like a week later I'm getting all these spam things. I'm like now, where did that come from? Because nobody has my phone number unless you know. You don't have my number unless I've given it to you I'll wait.

Rick Costa: 41:00

I have a number. I'll wait, but if it's too long then I'll be like okay, yeah, let's do that, because this is just ridiculous. I got stuff to do, so then they'll. Then they'll call back and hopefully they'll get me if somebody doesn't pick up I like ai because I want to get to the place in life.

Carmen Lezeth: 41:12

Like people are upset because they think ai is going to take over people's jobs right, that's the whole kind of thing, that and I don't actually think that's true I think AI is going to.

Carmen Lezeth: 41:19

I mean, I do think it's true, it is going to take over a lot of jobs, but just like the tractor did, just like you know any other time in our history where we've developed into another technological advance, like from not having a wheel to having a wheel, to not having cars and using horses, to having cars and trucks and whatever you know, there's always a displacement. But I see AI and this might be me being dreamy. I want to get to that place where we're in Star Trek land, and every time I think of Star Trek, I think of the fact that all of that is AI. Like, all of that is artificial intelligence going into the holodeck. You know what I mean Getting your cup of tea and your meals, and it's the world I want to live in. So I welcome AI. So that's what I'm confused by Like people are so afraid of what's coming.

Rick Costa: 42:05

You know, what's funny too is I'm thinking, cause this used to always bug me, cause I was like that doesn't even make sense. So you have, like next generation, they just hit that communicate Yep, lieutenant, whatever, lieutenant, whatever, blah, blah, blah. Doesn't everybody have the same communicator? Are they all hearing that voice going to everybody's?

Carmen Lezeth: 42:22

communicator? Well, no, because it's ai. I mean, okay, that's what I'm saying. That was their bluetooth ai. That makes sense, right?

Rick Costa: 42:27

but then also the response time is like you heard it, that quick okay I know, but I think, but we're looking.

Carmen Lezeth: 42:32

If you saw 2001 a space odyssey which I know you did, rick, right, you watched it. I mean, that was way before its time, right, it was done in 1969, stanley Kubrick's movie, 2001, a Space Odyssey, and you know, they were having conversations on a computer. And now, as I say, people are like, well, duh, we weren't doing this 10 years ago, we weren't doing Zoom calls like this 15, 20 years ago. We didn't have internet in the 80s. That's what. We didn't have internet in the 80s. I'm saying we, we, we barely had it in the 90s, right, didn't we have it in the 90s?

Carmen Lezeth: 43:03

I remember having a pager. I had a pager when I first came out to la and I got here in 1994, so I had a pager and then I would go find the phone to call you. So 2001 a space odyssey, they're doing the phone thing and the, and I mean there's so many things about it. That's freaky, weird. But that's technology. That's who we are as humans. We want to be smarter and go farther and develop like. We don't stand still, we don't stay stagnant. Yeah, I like that about us yeah, no, that's a good thing.

Rick Costa: 43:29

I think it's ais should be a helpful tool. You know, at the whole, I think people have been watching terminator too many times, thinking you know terminator, is that arnold schwarzen?

Carmen Lezeth: 43:39

Yeah.

Rick Costa: 43:39

Because that's what happened is like basically the computers took over and the humans and whatever, and robots, it's like my Nardi report I'm trying to remember that or like my robot, yeah, yeah, okay.

Carmen Lezeth: 43:48

So like a war games, yeah, so like the computers take over, yeah.

Cynthia Ruiz : 43:54

People are sucking so bad lately.

Carmen Lezeth: 43:58

I'm okay with computers taking over right now. Go ahead.

Cynthia Ruiz : 44:00

Cynthia, I'm sorry, go ahead. I know I was saying that. You know, ai is there to help advance technology and to help people out with newer and better things in life, but I think people are just scared, like you said, like these movies, you know, they think that it's going to come to life and take over the world and stuff like that.

Carmen Lezeth: 44:17

It might. I'm ready for it, though. No, I'm just kidding. Look, I think AI is really new. I think I forget what article I was reading. I think it was in the Associated Press talking about how AI gets a lot of things wrong. So if you use a prompt on Microsoft's Copilot which is what it's called on Microsoft or you use, you know any. So check that out. Right. So, or since December 2023.

Carmen Lezeth: 44:44

So if you try to find current events on some of these AI programs, they haven't been updated, and part of it is this argument going back and forth as to licensing, whether or not they have the right. Like, do they have the right to go and pull my book from amazoncom and make it full content? Because somebody in Australiaralia is asking please give me a summary of carmen's book from canela blah, blah, blah. Right, hey, chat gbt will take that, and that's the controversy right now. Like, where's that line, does it? I'm not saying my book is a big deal. I'm just giving an example of how this is becoming problematic. Like where do I get my monies for my creativity? And you taking my book without buying it, because you can scroll on the internet and take that information and then you're doing a little quick summary with and now nobody's going to buy the book.

Carmen Lezeth: 45:27

So and I'm not doing this to pump the book, I'm just using an example, but that's kind of what the situation is. I think it's just too new. So the article also said people should be double checking your AI sources. So you know, I'm like don't trust everything. The internet is still new people. Adam said I had a pager and had to go to the pay phone on the corner to call people back and I was the tech guy, adam. I love that, that's awesome.

Carmen Lezeth: 45:53

That was back in the day, but you know, it's just so funny. I think technology is awesome. I think customer service people are amazing. Yeah, no, it's just so funny. I think technology is awesome. I think customer service people are amazing. I don't have the patience. I try to be as kind and as patient as possible, but I'm not gonna lie, I lose it a lot with customer service people on the phone. When it's the prompt stuff, I can't handle it. So I've changed. I try to just send emails now or just go online. I don't even try to call people no more. It drives me insane.

Cynthia Ruiz : 46:16

But let me tell you my husband has a patience of a saint because he was literally on hold to finally speak to a representative of dish network for over an hour to the point. You know he's doing dishes, he's doing this, he's doing that and when they finally picked up, he's like I'm sorry, who did I call?

Rick Costa: 46:33

yeah, exactly for so long. Yeah, try calling the irs.

Cynthia Ruiz : 46:35

If you have to call the irs for anything it's such a waste of your and here's the thing the ir.

Carmen Lezeth: 46:38

If you have to call the IRS for anything, it's such a waste of energy. And here's the thing the IRS is not up to par, so you can't go online and send an email or go online, and you cannot do that. You have to call If you get any notification whatsoever which, when you have a small business, you get a lot of them and if you don't pay your taxes no, I'm just kidding, no, I'm serious you have to turn around and call them and you're on hold forever.

Carmen Lezeth: 47:02

Mario you didn't work at the IRS, you were the bank. That was different. I had a direct line to you and I hate to date us, but that was 19. When was that it was like? Oh no, it was 2000. It was 2001 through 2004. But that was different. Mario was the banker at City National Bank I hope it's OK. I said the name of the bank and they were our primary bank people at Brandy School and I worked at Brandy School and he was our primary person who helped us with everything and he had great customer service like the best, so much so that we became really good friends. And here we are. How many years later 24? It just dawned on me.

Rick Costa: 47:44

It's been 24 years. Right, we're in 2024. Oh, my god, mario, it's been 24 years, baby. Wow, there's a lady that, um, this one of the companies we deal with is we sell um certain kind of furniture medical type furniture, whatever and there's just one lady oh, it's the lady that said um, this is the old story of I didn't know what looked like, I thought you were a short black man. So that lady, she just retired and I was like no, because she was so nice to me, so friendly to me, we would just sit there and just chat.

Carmen Lezeth: 48:07

It's like the Mario thing, but you've never met.

Rick Costa: 48:09

Yeah, no. But then when she retired she's like let me give you my Facebook so we can stay in touch. I was like New School, oh, I guess it was 2000, 2000.

Carmen Lezeth: 48:23

Okay, sorry, 2000, 2001. Yeah, we probably started our relationship in 2004. I think it was earlier, mario, I think you're mistaken. We had a relationship at City National Bank, I think, before you showed up. Maybe that would make more sense.

Rick Costa: 48:33

Either way it was a long time Either way.

Cynthia Ruiz : 48:40

I'm quibbling, it wasn't on time, it was just like five years ago she was only like 25.

Carmen Lezeth: 48:44

Oh my god. Well, because I'm only 38 now. I mean, oh my god, I have never felt so old in all my life than when I came back, uh, from my trip and had to go to work on monday. I I was like in so much pain monday morning. I was like my angst and my sadness to have to go into the office was just horrible. Yeah, I felt really old because it was hard for me to go back to work, even though I had done work while I was in Aruba. I just couldn't do it. I was sad. Oh my God, we've already gone past the hour.

Rick Costa: 49:16

We have One more thing about the phones, because this drives me crazy sometimes rick is all up in this business, fedex fedex ups delivery companies. Please put in your say or put in your tracking number. Blah, blah, blah. Okay, I'll do that because I know you need that. You gotta have that and it's like, and choose from the following options yada, yada, yada, yada yada and I'm like customer service. We understand you want customer service. Please give us this information first, customer service. I keep doing it till I finally get it.

Carmen Lezeth: 49:43

It's annoying. Look at it. I think those again. I think those things were meant to help, but they've gone out of hand. I think now it's just bad. Any company that has those prompts and it's not necessary, I don't do business with them. I just don't. I can't stand it. It drives me insane and I know it sounds very bougie, but you know I don't want to stray from the characterization that I have. But just, you know, some companies like that have it and it's not necessary. It's like either they give me an online option or don't tell me to call you. So I can't get away from the.

Cynthia Ruiz : 50:13

IRS, so I tried.

Carmen Lezeth: 50:13

I really tried not to have to deal with the IRS, but you know I'll pay my bills, all right. Well, with that said, let me just say a few other things, because I'm trying to get better at this. I don't want to say please like. What do you always say, rick? Please like, stop, not stop.

Rick Costa: 50:25

Like, share and subscribe I hate that line.

Carmen Lezeth: 50:27

We've got to come up with something better. So something I would like people to do who are listening to the podcast like a got value out of this content.

Rick Costa: 50:38

Do us a little favor and just give us a little like. It helps the algorithm push us out to more people.

Carmen Lezeth: 50:43

I don't want to ask people if you got value.

Cynthia Ruiz : 50:46

I don't care if you got value out of this.

Carmen Lezeth: 50:52

Listen. If you like to vent and you like to have fun, just go like our page and subscribe and hang out. Next week we talk about everything. Yeah, like, follow us on all of our stuffage. You can find us at aatjoycom or allaboutthejoycom. Blah, blah, blah. I got to get better at this, but I really hate it. So I'm just going to say that. I'm going to say that every time. I can't stand doing it. You know what Cause? I just want it to be simple. I don't want it to be about people have to do anything, but I am going to start selling some sweatshirts and t-shirts.

Rick Costa: 51:18

You could do like I do and create a banner to scroll at the bottom. I don't want to do that, but you don't have to have it the whole time, Just when you get ready to mention it and then be like and time below, rick, thank you Will be her Adam smash the like.

Carmen Lezeth: 51:30

button.

Rick Costa: 51:31

I say that all the time I love that Adam. Adam wins Mario. I'm trying to tell you.

Carmen Lezeth: 51:36

Look at Mars. Okay, the reason why I don't have Rick to it. Rick already knows Rick was doing it, but I was like no stop. He was because he was doing that line. You know what was it like subscribing? I don't like it. I need something flavorful. I think I like smash the like button, like that. That kind of has a flavor, need it. We appreciate you. Remember, we're here every Thursday. We're going to be here next week with the crew, with everybody else, and we'll see you then. And remember, it's always all about the joy. Everyone. So good night. Thank you everyone for stopping by. Bye Cynthia, Bye Rick, bye-bye. Thanks for stopping by. All About the Joy. Be better and stay beautiful. Folks, have a sweet day.