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traffic. About that flagger position, Nancy said, “It was one of my most fun/best days, I really enjoyed doing that. Everyone was so nice, waving. I did have to tell a few people to slow down.” Then there is the calling and responding to customers via email or phone calls. Which means, yes Nancy performs the office work as well.
So, one thing I haven’t mentioned that Nancy does is calling
in locate requests to Tennessee 811. Nancy told me, “I love the people at 811. Sometimes, I may have a difficult locate to call
in. Everyone I deal with makes the best of it. Sometimes, I may start a conversation with the call taker (Locate Request Agent), I need to call in a one call, but I need your help. And they are awesome! Everybody I deal with and a lot of them know me, they know my voice.” When I suggested to Nancy about other
“I’m old school and I’m
in the habit of doing it
that way...”
ways (Online Ticket Entry) to enter tickets, I got shot down real fast. I say that with a smile on my face because we are proud
of our agents that take calls. They are the lifeblood of our organization. Nancy told me, “I’m old school and I’m in the habit of doing it that way and I really like talking to the Tennessee
811 people. There are times we are working in Mississippi, and I may get one of the Tennessee 811 folks after hours.”
One newer feature that Nancy mentioned that she appreciates is the Post-Dating Tickets. Nancy is very considerate of utilities, their locators, and resources. She said, “I may have to call in tickets to update them, but I really try to just post date tickets if I know the job is not starting right away. I don’t want to put more work on people because they are busy.”
Q In Quality
I always ask every person I interview for this magazine article, what is a recommendation you would make to other excavators, locators, utilities, etc. Nancy gave me some examples and I
want to share those with you. She said “When our guys go out, we’re not trying to make more work for the other entities. We are trying to work smarter, not harder. We also do it in a way where we are trying to prevent damages from happening. We try to keep the ‘Q in Quality’ because we want repeat customers. I always want to be transparent and upfront with the other stakeholders.” Here is the list of the recommendations she has for professional excavators:
• Pre-mark the job site with white markings.
• Have a locate request for every job.
• Spot (put eyes on) utilities for verification.
• Perform the job to the best of your ability.
• Restore the site, especially a customer’s yard, back to great condition.
I’d like to thank Jackson Boring and Trenching for being our Safe Digging Partner and I’m happy to recognize them as this quarter’s Damage Prevention MVP. If you’d like to nominate an MVP for next quarter, please email me at jfryer@tennessee811. com.
2023, Issue 3
Tennessee811 • 5