68. Behind the Scenes in Dispatch with Lisa Mullen

Griff and Lex are joined by Lisa Mullen who shares her story and insights in dispatch here at Hahn Ready Mix.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Welcome to Loaded, the Han ReadyMix podcast. Happy Friday, everyone. Happy Friday.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Happy Friday.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

So you you just said that you're like, I'm gonna do the intro. And I was like, all right, I trust you to do this. And then you didn't even say who we have with us. It's just I'm waiting.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Hi. I'm waiting for her to no, that's not right. No, you shouldn't.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

I gotta reach out. So Andrea, no, no, we're fine. You're leaving this all in. Andrea bailed on us today. She's gone. She's got better things to do. So uh we upgraded and uh I like that. Yes, yes. We have Lisa Mullen in here. So welcome to the pod.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Thank you. Thank you for inviting me.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

Well, it's exciting to have you. We're gonna talk a little, just talk a little bit about your story and kind of your life in in dispatch, right? So it should be fun. Okay, Lex, before we get started, do you have any announcements?

SPEAKER_01 0:59

I do have one.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

This is for drivers. If you would please let dispatch know ahead of time when you come across a washout mess, great to get ahead of things so that we're more proactive and we don't have to hear from the customers that we have a mess. That is just something we need to do.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

Yes. And the root cause don't make a mess, also. Please. But yeah, but yeah, if if you make a mess by accident or if you see one, yeah, it it's much better if we can say we're already on it rather than being kind of blindsided by a mad customer that says you guys made a mess and we got to go clean it up. If we're, yep, we know we're on the way. That's a much better conversation for us to have. They say you ready to jump into this? I'm ready. Let's do it. Okay, great. Why don't you uh just give us your background a little bit? You know, you've been here about 11 years, a little more than 11 years now. Yep. Um and and so, you know, what's your story? Where are you from? What did you do before you came here and and how did you end up here?

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Well, I grew up in the Quad Cities. Um, and then uh I lived in Cedar Rapids for about 10 years before coming here. And once I moved back here, was looking for a job and interviewed and got up. Before that, I was in h hospitality for many, many years. And I'm not gonna tell you how many because then you'll know how old I am. But yes, I uh started at the Davenport Holiday Inn. Do you remember that? Up on Brady Street?

SPEAKER_02 2:25

Yeah, that's probably way before your time. Yeah, this tore tore that down, didn't they? Yes, they did. Yeah, I went to a couple like um not conventions, but like um, you know, seminars and stuff there.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Was there for many years?

SPEAKER_02 2:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

And uh I was there for about eight years. And then I met my best friend there that I'm still best friends with, and uh, she worked for a company in Des Moines called the Heartland Inn. And they were building a hotel here in Davenport. So they called me and asked me to interview, and I ended up there after about five grueling interviews.

SPEAKER_02 3:04

Oh, geez.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Yeah. And I was there for about 12 years and then got married, moved to Cedar Rapids, was there for about 10 years, and then came back here.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

Cool.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:15

So how did you just just see a random uh listing for a job for us? Or how did you do you have some other connections here?

SPEAKER_00 3:22

I did. A friend of mine in uh Amy was her name, um, was familiar with people that worked here.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

And they told me that they were looking for a customer service person. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Yeah. Cause you had no concrete industry at all uh experience at that point.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

And I never thought I'd be doing this.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

I always said I'd stay in the the hotel business. And even when I after I started here, the people that owned that hotel that I opened back in 1993 called me and asked me to interview. And I went to the interview and I just decided that I wanted to do something fun.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Something different.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

And so you chose concrete.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

I did.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Wow. I love it. I love it. I do love it. Yeah. Great. Well, what about outside of work? Any hobbies or interests, uh stuff that people should know about you?

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Well, I have two boys, both in the military. One just came back from Syria.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

And then they're my life. Yeah. When they're here, I'm about them. I love outdoor concerts. Yeah. I just love those. That's my thing. I used to be a huge, or I still am a huge Prince fan. Oh. Nobody probably knows that about me.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

The the man formerly known as. Yes. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

But that's about it. I mean, I don't I like to be in my yard and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Cool. Where's this where's the best spot around here for an outdoor concert?

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Well, um, every Sunday downtown East Moline, where they're working on 15th Avenue at Runners Park, they have live bands. And I usually go on the Sundays. Yeah. And then anything else, like the BICS and whatever else they have in town.

SPEAKER_02 4:58

Awesome. So well, in regards to your sons, uh, you know, we definitely thank them for their service, but also your service, because I that has to be um it has to be very challenging, right? To have children that are deployed. And so yeah, we we thank you for the same. Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Cool.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

I'm proud of them.

SPEAKER_02 5:19

Absolutely, as you should be. Yeah. All right. So you've been in dispatch for, as we said, over 11 years. And you when you joined us, it was at a kind of a transformational time, right? In dispatch. We had just gone to central dispatch. We are getting it or were we just getting um optimization?

SPEAKER_00 5:41

You had it, but I didn't know you were that brand new at the time.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Oh, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

So you hit it well.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

Okay. Well, we we didn't have everything figured out, right? I mean, there's we still don't. Right. Uh but you know, there was new technology and a whole new setup we were trying to figure out. So what what was that like jumping in for you at the beginning there?

SPEAKER_00 6:03

It was different because, you know, making sure that first getting to know the system, the technology part of it, and then making sure that the orders were complete, and then repeating it back. There's a lot to learn about concrete.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Yeah, the terminology and the job processes and all those things. Yeah, it's a it's a steep. It is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

I would say the hardest part for me is learning the concrete. It's still hard because we're still adding mixes and still learning new ad mixtures and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

Yeah. Um I would say Lex is always complicating things for you by adding.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

He does.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

It's definitely my fault.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

He wants to keep us thinking all the time.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

I love putting in new mixes.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

We're relying on him. Yeah. Yay. So I mean, it's I would say that was probably the most challenging part for me.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

And then learning the system. And the system is always changing too.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

Yeah, absolutely. All right. So for anybody that's listening that's never sat in desk dispatcher spent much time under there other than to come in and chat or have ask ask a question or whatever. What does the typical morning look like for you when you walk in? Um, you know, what what's how does the day go?

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Every morning is different. Um, everything could be going very, very well. All the drivers are clocked in and in their trucks and everything, and everybody's on time. And then it could be the total opposite sometimes. You know, maybe we're short drivers. Maybe somebody threw in extra orders and we didn't plan for it, maybe truck problems.

SPEAKER_02 7:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Um every day's different.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

Yeah. So are those the things that when it does go sideways that cause it, like either um, you know, changes to orders or or or new orders and and unavailability of equipment or or people, right? Is that that normally what Yeah, I would say so.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Yeah. Or orders not firmed up and we're sitting there waiting, and then everybody firms up at the same time. Yes, exactly. Or somebody or several people want things earlier. Um, he's licking my hands.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

Kai's in here. Uh all the all the dogs know really well that Lisa has the dog treats. So he is adamant that she brought some into the podcast room with that.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Should have, yeah. Yeah. I mean, uh the guys back there are really good about moving things around, you know, trucks and calling other plants for trucks or us moving trucks to other plants to make things happen.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

Yeah. The amount of balls in the air at any given time in there is is always astonishing. And trying to keep track of what's going on with, you know, maybe 65 trucks on the road and and uh you know, responding to all the the driver messages and and yeah, there's there's a lot going on there. But your focus is primarily on the customer safe facing side, right? So um, you know, you're taking the orders from the customers and putting those into our system. How do you, when it's when a customer calls, like what's your mindset? What are you, you know, going through that that needs to happen on those phone calls to make it a successful one for them and for us? Like what's what are your thought process?

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Well, no matter what, you know, get the order in, you know, never say no. We don't like to say no.

SPEAKER_03 9:27

Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Um, if we're really busy and don't have trucks when they want it, just let them know, let's get the order in. This is what I have right now. Everything changes every minute throughout the day. Um, we'll call you and let you know if we can get you earlier.

SPEAKER_03 9:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Um, so I think for us as the customer service part of it, it's just accommodating them, of course, and making sure that they know that we're gonna do everything we can to get them what they want when they want it.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Is that what you're asking?

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Absolutely. And, you know, I think I've seen from just from the time that I'm in there that you, you and the others in that room have built great relationships with our regular customers, right? Absolutely. You have that trust that they know that you're going to do the best for them. And um, and that, you know, you will keep them in mind if if things change and we can be more flexible than we originally thought, or can get them earlier or, you know, whatever. Try to fit in an order that that, you know, if they fell into a hole, as we say. Right. So um I think you do a great job with that, um, as does our whole team in there. But um, yeah, I mean that that relationship, I mean, can you speak to that at all? Like, how do you do that? How do you build those relationships with the customers?

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Well, you talk to them every day. Yeah. You know, they get to know your voice. So they know who you're talking to, even though you haven't met them, you feel like you know them. You know, they talk about their family sometimes or, you know, their day, what's going on on the job. I feel like it's it's they've become our family. Yeah. And I think that the other girls back there would say the same thing.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

I think it's it's it's always fun for me when a customer stops in that doesn't come here often, like physically. And they're always like, Can I go back and meet Lisa and Carrie and Sheila? And it's like, well, of course, yeah. And they're like, I've talked to him a thousand times, but I've never met him in person, you know. And so that's always uh often the first thing that they want to do. So I think that speaks volumes. So And it's good for us too.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

It's nice to actually meet the put a face to the name.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

Yeah, absolutely. What are you guys juggling in dispatch that maybe if a driver's calling in or thinking about dispatch, you what are what are they not seeing? What are other parts of the organization not seeing that you guys are working on on a day-to-day basis?

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Well, there's times when the phones ring constantly. You know, uh problems with the trucks out on jobs or on their way to the jobs, we're trying to get them help, you know, get a mechanic to them, or um just putting out fires constantly.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Running credit cards uh in between orders. Just a lot of things can happen that people don't see. There's just so much, Griffin, that that's just a tip of it.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Yeah, absolutely. So what's the what's the hardest uh call to have to answer? Like what's what's the either the type or or situation or what what's the what's the most challenging thing in there?

SPEAKER_00 12:29

Cash customers.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Oh yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Um you know, they're not experienced. It's hard sometimes. They don't order enough or they lose it. Yeah. They lose the the job because they they don't know what they're doing. That would probably be the most challenging. Other than that.

SPEAKER_02 12:47

Sometimes I hear you guys, you have to explain like the whole process to like they don't even know what they're supposed to do, let alone how to do it, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:54

So sometimes they don't even know what to order, like what mix. So you gotta find out, you know, what they're pouring and then kind of lead them along.

SPEAKER_03 13:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Some of them um you tell them you get the truck for an hour and then four hours later they still have the truck.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

Yes, right.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

So that's frustrating, especially when you're busy and you've got other jobs to get to.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Because we're we're not accounting for the truck being there that long. Right. And we've backfilled expecting that truck to be back at the plant to load up again.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

So I would say that's probably the most challenging.

SPEAKER_02 13:27

Sure. And then you got to deal with credit card numbers and you know, just the logistics even of it, is a lot more than a regular uh account order, right?

SPEAKER_03 13:35

Right. Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

Yeah. Okay. What makes your job easier um from let's say a driver's standpoint or other people that are interacting with dispatch in some fashion? Like what what helps make things be successful from outside that office?

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Well, I think that we're all we all want the same goal. We all want to be successful, not per just personally, but for the company. Um I feel that everybody outside of dispatch does whatever they need to do to make things go smoothly for us as well. Um, whether it's going out on jobs or you know, helping with orders. I feel like the whole company is a team.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

Yeah. Yeah. We, you know, I think we've leaned into getting as much information about what our customers need as early as possible, right? So that's what John and Sean and Zach and Brian and Sam are all, you know, trying to find out what orders we have coming up, right? So we can plan around them. And I think that's been a that's been a big deal. But I, you know, that's the same information as driver statusing, right? So you know, if you start pouring, hitting that pouring button and washing button, and that helps keep us accurate and and make sure that we're gonna do that. And that does help, yes. Yeah. And it goes back to Lex's announcement at the beginning, right? That there's there's almost no way to overcommunicate anything that's happening on a job site that either is good and we should celebrate it and reinforce it, or not good and we need to address it, then um you know, that the the central dispatch is the is the central nervous system where all that information flows in and out, right? So um, yeah, that's that's definitely important. So 11 years, what's changed the most in that time, do you think?

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Wow, that's a hard question. I don't think the company Other than my hairline.

SPEAKER_02 15:34

And Lex's hairline. Keep me out of this.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

I think we've gotten better.

SPEAKER_02 15:43

Yeah, I would agree.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

You know, I as a whole, as a whole team. You know, it took a while for um us back in dispatch to get the right people. And then once we did, we we were a team. And I think that is across the board for the whole company.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

So I think the only thing that's changed is we've gotten better.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Yeah. I definitely agree. I, you know, specifically in dispatch, we you know, when I think back to when we first went to central dispatch and and optimization, there's a lot of process improvements that needed to happen to make that change work. And we had to learn those lessons the hard way, I think, in some cases, you know, and what what to do with certain orders or how to handle that software. And and so yeah, we've we've definitely learned the hard lessons and and and applied those. Um, so that is that's good. And then yeah, I think that you could say the whole thing is the whole organization is we've tried to refine things and um just promote excellence everywhere, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:44

So we're still learning.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Always learning, always improving. There's no there's no um mission accomplished banner we get to put up, right? It's it's just always uh fight in the good fight. So cool. We've leaned hard in tech. We've talked about the optimization a few times. Um we we've leaned hard into that and we use a ton of technologies around in this organization, but it especially like in the age of AI, right? Where you go order a pizza now and you don't talk to a person anymore. You the you know, there's an AI person back there, right? So like how do you think like I think having people like you and having the human element is so critical. How do you see that? I mean, I'm I'm sure you agree, but uh I think that that's um what will continue to differentiate probably our whole industry, but you know, if if anybody else went to a a different route, you know, I think that's important for us to to be like we have people that you can talk to when things are good or bad or otherwise with our custom with our company, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:50

Right. And and you're not gonna get that I don't know, that personal touch or the care.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

The care exactly. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

Um that you get from us.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

Right.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

Um from AI or anything else.

SPEAKER_02 18:04

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I definitely, I mean, I I know everybody knows I'm a believer in AI, but for the right use cases, right? So not uh not replacing um the human interaction.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

What would you say? So let's say a driver's listening, what do you wish that they would understand about dispatch or that they maybe they misunderstand now about what you guys do or how you guys do things We are a wealth of information.

SPEAKER_00 18:36

We can help them in any way that they need help. They just need to call us. Make sure they know where they're going before they go.

SPEAKER_03 18:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

And if they don't, call us.

SPEAKER_03 18:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Um if you get lost, call us. I mean, not just about getting to the job, but anything on the job as well. We're we're here to help them.

SPEAKER_03 18:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Um, and so no call is not warranted, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Most of the drivers do a good job at calling us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

Yeah. But again, it circles back to that communication. Exactly. Communication is good. So if someone new sat down next to you tomorrow and we're doing the same job as you, what what's the advice that you would give them? The most important thing?

SPEAKER_00 19:21

We don't say no.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Okay. Yeah. I like that.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Customer service.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

That's what we're here for. We're here to take care of them.

SPEAKER_03 19:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

Provide service, they're not going to get anywhere else, I guess. I don't know. There's there's there's a lot that you're not going to learn right away. I feel you can't teach customer service.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

You have to Yeah, it's it's like it's a temperament and it's um it's a personality trait. It's not a necessarily a learnable skill.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:52

Because, you know, we we certainly had uh people that were intelligent, competent folks that have come through that dispatch, but didn't have that right personality for that role specifically, right? That you have to you've probably gained a lot of that experience with the through your hospitality background, right? Absolutely. But but just that that desire to do right by the customer. And then the ability to stay calm.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

Oh, definitely not. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

I think of us all the time, I think of the uh the golden corral situation, right? That was you were on that call, weren't you? Yes.

SPEAKER_03 20:30

Uh gosh.

SPEAKER_02 20:31

If anybody that we should do that as like an extra, we would put it on the podcast extra. We just post that conversation.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

That was awesome.

SPEAKER_02 20:39

It was something else.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

But you know, I've I've played that for friends in the industry. Have you? Yeah. And they're like, your dispatcher did incredible staying calm in front of that absurdness, you know. So uh yeah. So that one's that's always a legendary story.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

I think we decided like the cook or somebody is the one that ordered it. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

They had no idea what they were doing.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

I guess I would tell a new person too that you're gonna make mistakes and don't beat yourself up over it. Um, that was hard for me in the beginning.

SPEAKER_02 21:11

Sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:13

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we it's kind of like the podcast topic we did last time. We were all beginners at some point.

SPEAKER_04 21:19

And exactly.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

Um, it's like you said at the beginning, there's such a learning curve in this industry. It takes a long time. You know, I'm still waiting for Lex to get figured out, right? So uh yeah, exactly. So yeah, it it is whenever someone new comes on at any role in in this company, there's some expectation of mistakes or um lessons you get to pay for a little bit, right? Exactly. Because it's just it's just how it works. There's too much to know. You can't teach it all in a textbook or a you know a class or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 21:57

So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:58

Yeah. Cool. Well, I think that's been that's most of the questions I had. Do you have anything else that you want to talk about or or bring up um while you have the the pulpit here for anybody to listen?

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Nope. Ready for our our our season.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

Let's get it done and do a good job and work together.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

Hopefully it stops raining.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 22:18

I was looking at we had two rain-impacted weekdays to the whole month of May, and we had five in the first eight days in June. So brutal, brutal. So hopefully we can get back to work.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

Next week's supposed to be better.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

So yeah, great. Well, thank you so much for joining us. I think this was a great conversation, and hopefully you had a good time.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 22:41

You said you were nervous and you don't seem nervous at all. I think it's because you this is you talk on the phone and every day.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

And I've always customer service has always been my thing.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

So yeah, well, it's a great, great topic to talk about on here. So excellent. Well, that's all for us today. Thank you for listening to Loaded, the Haunt Ready Mix podcast, and we'll catch you next time.

SPEAKER_04 23:00

Bye.