VANILLA ICE CREAM LOGIC
VANILLA ICE CREAM LOGIC
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Never underestimate your Clients' Complaint, no
matter how funny it might be!
This is a real story that happened between the
customer of General Motors
and its Customer-Care Executive.
A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of
General Motors:
This is the second time I have written to you, and I
don't blame you for
not answering me, because I sounded crazy, but it
is a fact that we
have a tradition in our family of Ice-Cream for
dessert after dinner each
night. but the kind of ice cream varies so, every
night, after we've
eaten, the whole family votes on which kind of ice
cream we should have
and I drive down to the store to get it. It's also a
fact that I recently
purchased a new
the store have created
a problem.
You see, every time I buy a vanilla ice-cream, when
I start back from the
store my car won't start. If I get any other kind of
ice cream, the car
starts just fine.
I want you to know I'm serious about this question,
no matter how silly
it sounds:
"What is there about a
start when I get vanilla
ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any
other kind?"
The Pontiac President was understandably skeptical
about the letter, but
sent an Engineer to check it out anyway. The latter
was surprised to be
greeted by a successful, obviously well educated man
in a fine
neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the man just
after dinnertime, so
the two hopped into the car and drove to the ice
cream store. It was
vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after
they came back to
the car, it wouldn't start.
The Engineer returned for three more nights. The
first night, they got
chocolate. The car started. The second night, he got
strawberry. The car
started. The third night he ordered vanilla. The car
failed to start.
Now the Engineer, being a logical man, refused to
believe that this man's
car was allergic to vanilla ice cream. He arranged,
therefore, to
continue his visits for as long as it took to solve
the problem. And
toward this end he began to take notes: he jotted
down all sorts of data:
time of day, type of gas uses, time to drive back
and forth etc. In a
short time, he had a clue: the man took less time to
buy vanilla than any
other flavor.
Why? The answer was in the layout of the store.
Vanilla, being the most
popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front
of the store for
quick pickup. All the other flavors were kept in the
back of the store at
a different counter where it took considerably
longer to check out the
flavor. Now, the question for the Engineer was why
the car wouldn't start
when it took less time.
ice cream!!!!
The engineer quickly came up with the answer:
"vapour lock". It was
happening every night; but the extra time taken to
get the other flavors
allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to
start. When the man got
vanilla, the engine was still too hot for the vapour
lock to dissipate.
Remember:
Even crazy looking problems are sometimes real and
all problems seem to
be simple only when we find the solution with cool
thinking.
Don't just say its "IMPOSSIBLE" without putting a
sincere effort...
Observe the word "IMPOSSIBLE" carefully... Looking
closer you will see,
"I'M POSSIBLE"...
What really matters is your attitude and your
perception.
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