Loaded: The Hahn Ready Mix Podcast
A podcast for the employees of Hahn Ready Mix
Loaded: The Hahn Ready Mix Podcast
68. Behind the Scenes in Dispatch with Lisa Mullen
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Griff and Lex are joined by Lisa Mullen who shares her story and insights in dispatch here at Hahn Ready Mix.
Welcome to Loaded, the Han ReadyMix podcast. Happy Friday, everyone. Happy Friday.
SPEAKER_00Happy Friday.
SPEAKER_02So 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_01Hi. I'm waiting for her to no, that's not right. No, you shouldn't.
SPEAKER_02I 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_00Thank you. Thank you for inviting me.
SPEAKER_02Well, 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_01I do have one.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01This 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_02Yes. 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_00Well, 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_02Yeah, 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_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Was there for many years?
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00And 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_02Oh, geez.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. 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_02Cool.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So 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_00I did. A friend of mine in uh Amy was her name, um, was familiar with people that worked here.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And they told me that they were looking for a customer service person. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Cause you had no concrete industry at all uh experience at that point.
SPEAKER_00And I never thought I'd be doing this.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I 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_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Something different.
SPEAKER_02And so you chose concrete.
SPEAKER_00I did.
SPEAKER_02Wow. 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_00Well, I have two boys, both in the military. One just came back from Syria.
SPEAKER_02Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_00And 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_02The the man formerly known as. Yes. Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00But that's about it. I mean, I don't I like to be in my yard and stuff.
SPEAKER_01Cool. Where's this where's the best spot around here for an outdoor concert?
SPEAKER_00Well, 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_02Awesome. 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_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Cool.
SPEAKER_00I'm proud of them.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely, 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_00You had it, but I didn't know you were that brand new at the time.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So you hit it well.
SPEAKER_02Okay. 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_00It 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_02Yeah, the terminology and the job processes and all those things. Yeah, it's a it's a steep. It is. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I 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_02Yeah. Um I would say Lex is always complicating things for you by adding.
SPEAKER_00He does.
SPEAKER_02It's definitely my fault.
SPEAKER_00He wants to keep us thinking all the time.
SPEAKER_01I love putting in new mixes.
SPEAKER_00We're relying on him. Yeah. Yay. So I mean, it's I would say that was probably the most challenging part for me.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then learning the system. And the system is always changing too.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, 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_00Every 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_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um every day's different.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. 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_00Yeah. 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_02Kai'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_00Should 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_02Yeah. 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_00Well, no matter what, you know, get the order in, you know, never say no. We don't like to say no.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00Um, 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_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, 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_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Is that what you're asking?
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. 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_00Well, 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_02Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I 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_00It's nice to actually meet the put a face to the name.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, 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_00Well, 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_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Running 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_02Yeah, 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_00Cash customers.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Um 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_02Sometimes 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_00So 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_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Some of them um you tell them you get the truck for an hour and then four hours later they still have the truck.
SPEAKER_02Yes, right.
SPEAKER_00So that's frustrating, especially when you're busy and you've got other jobs to get to.
SPEAKER_02Because 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_00So I would say that's probably the most challenging.
SPEAKER_02Sure. 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_03Right. Yeah. Yep.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. 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_00Well, 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_02Yeah. 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_00Wow, that's a hard question. I don't think the company Other than my hairline.
SPEAKER_02And Lex's hairline. Keep me out of this.
SPEAKER_00I think we've gotten better.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I would agree.
SPEAKER_00You 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_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I think the only thing that's changed is we've gotten better.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. 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_00So we're still learning.
SPEAKER_02Always 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_00Right. And and you're not gonna get that I don't know, that personal touch or the care.
SPEAKER_02The care exactly. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Um that you get from us.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Um from AI or anything else.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. 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_00Exactly. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02What 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_00We 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_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And if they don't, call us.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um 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_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, and so no call is not warranted, I guess.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Most of the drivers do a good job at calling us. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. 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_00We don't say no.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Yeah. I like that.
SPEAKER_00Customer service.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's what we're here for. We're here to take care of them.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Provide 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_02You 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_00Right.
SPEAKER_02Because, 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_00Oh, definitely not. Yes.
SPEAKER_02I 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_03Uh gosh.
SPEAKER_02If anybody that we should do that as like an extra, we would put it on the podcast extra. We just post that conversation.
SPEAKER_00That was awesome.
SPEAKER_02It was something else.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But 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_00I think we decided like the cook or somebody is the one that ordered it. Yes.
SPEAKER_02They had no idea what they were doing.
SPEAKER_00I 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_02Sure. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we it's kind of like the podcast topic we did last time. We were all beginners at some point.
SPEAKER_04And exactly.
SPEAKER_02Um, 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_03So yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. 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_00Nope. Ready for our our our season.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Let's get it done and do a good job and work together.
SPEAKER_02Hopefully it stops raining.
SPEAKER_00Yes, exactly.
SPEAKER_02I 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_00Next week's supposed to be better.
SPEAKER_02So 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_00Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_02You 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_00And I've always customer service has always been my thing.
SPEAKER_02So 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_04Bye.
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