Make It Work bases all of its decisions around bringing delight. We are known for our impeccable customer service and our willingness to bend over backwards for our customers. What you may not know about us is our desire to delight our employees as well. Delight isn’t just for the customers – it starts with the employee!

A perfect example of sharing delight with our employees is the story of former Make It Work-er Peet Guercio.

In his 18 month run as an Neighborhood Technology Consultant, Peet did big things for us. He quickly rose to be one of Make It Work’s star employees by demonstrating a “solve-anything” level of technical knowledge while delighting and befriending all of the customers he came in contact with. Assisting other techs when they needed help with a particularly tricky problem, and developing a circuit of clients that would ask for him by name on every appointment they scheduled.

Superstar Make It Work tech by day, budding standup comedian by night! Lots of MIW employees and clients went out to see Peet perform and gave nothing but rave reviews. Our policy at Make It Work is “red carpet in, red carpet out”, and that’s exactly what we gave him. So when he gave his two weeks notice in July 2009, there were no hard feelings, because we knew he was off to pursue his passion of standup comedy.

I’ve kept in touch with Peet on a personal level since he left, so when he sent me his new standup video, I was happy to tweet it out and help him get exposure.

Little did I know it would spawn such a huge response. Within one day, his video had gone from 100 to 56,000 views! The pure funniness of Peet’s video speaks for itself and I’m not surprised to see its meteoric rise. The kid’s a phenom! I knew it all along, I tell ya.

Make It Work is proud to have shown Peet a delightful time as an employee and encourages him to follow his passion. Give him a view and a laugh here:

If you laugh (and you will), go follow him on Twitter, friend him on Facebook and check his personal site to see where he’s performing next!

Edited by:  Max Lemos

If he built it they will come, follow via Twitter @mklemos

P.S. The video in this story might have the most Diggs ever (2000 Diggs and counting). Keep an eye on it!

Rob Lowe's first tweet

Long time Make It Work customer and Santa Barbara resident Rob Lowe joined Twitter today. His profile is @robloweprofile. I’ve known Rob for years, both as a customer and a fellow parent at local schools. We did a couple of fundraisers together a few years back and our kids went to school together. I spoke to Rob today guiding him to his very first tweet which he successfully sent about an hour ago. Since he’s buddies with Ellen Degeneres (@theEllenShow) and Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk), he shouldn’t have too much trouble becoming popular fast. He told me he plans to tweet about things he loves, particularly his family and politics. The guy asked me ton of questions and soaked it up like a sponge. He’s sharp…no wonder his work is so highly regarded. Congrats on the new show Rob and welcome to the Social Web.

UPDATED: Since posting this, Rob granted us an exclusive interview about his launching of his Twitter presence. LISTEN TO THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW HERE

For more on Rob Lowe’s new show Parks and Recreation, visit http://www.nbc.com/parks-and-recreation or follow the show on Twitter at http://twitter.com/parksandrecnbc.

Follow Rob Lowe at @Robloweprofile

Just like Rob Lowe, my company Make It Work can help you achieve a stress-free digital lifestyle. We fix everything that hums, beeps or clicks in your home or office. Check us out here: http://www.makeitwork.com

This has been driving me nuts. What is Dual Link DVI and which Apple adapter do I need?

Here’s the answer:

Apple's mini displayport to dual-link dvi adapter

A dual link dvi adapter supports resolutions higher than 1900×1200, up to resolutions of 2560 by 1600 pixels to be exact.

While some TVs or displays support up to 1900 x 1080 (1080i or 1080p). For resolutions up to 1900×1200, use the typical mini displayport to dvi adapter that came with your mac. The mini displayport to dual-link dvi adapter is for people who want multiple displays or the 30″ apple cinema display (support resolutions of 2560 by 1600 pixels).

Ok, glad to have that figured out!

For more tech news and gadget info, visit Make It Work’s Blog.

Time to clear this up. I’m Eric Greenspan the entrepreneur, not Eric Greenspan the chef (or Eric Greenspan the lawyer).

Eric Greenspan's The Foundry on Melrose

I’m not the chef Eric Greenspan, he owns the Foundry on Melrose. That Eric Greenspan was recently up for the Next Iron Chef on the Food Network but lost to grasshoppers. He is the master of the grilled cheese amongst other culinary delights. He’s my friend on Facebook and on Twitter so look for @chefgreeny. By the way, I’ll be on the Food Network soon, but not as a chef. Some private chefs (not Eric) are cooking for me and a bunch of my fellow entrepreneurs. Look for us on Private Chefs of Beverly Hills (coming soon.) In the meantime, eat at this Eric Greenspan’s restaurant the Foundry and his new grilled cheese restaurant too. I hear this guy can cook!

I’m not the lawyer Eric Greenspan. While I like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I’m not their lawyer. I guess I could’ve been a lawyer, mom wanted me to, but I’m not. This guy is an entertainment lawyer. I tried to add him on Facebook, but couldn’t find him. If I was a rockstar, I could hire him. “Eric Greenspan representing Eric Greenspan your honor.” I’m thinking “Who’s on First” right now.

I’m an entrepreneur, the CEO of Make It Work, Inc., and the Executive Producer of two radio shows: Tech News, powered by Make It Work on CBS’s KNX 1070 in Los Angeles and Make It Work with Jeremy Anticouni currently on Citadel’s KSFO 560 in San Francisco and soon to be in markets nationwide. I’m also Jacob’s dad, Marian’s husband, soon to be a dad again, and a few other things. For more on me, click here.

For the chef Eric Greenspan, click here.

For the attorney Eric Greenspan, click here.

If you are another Eric Greenspan, find me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ericgreenspan

Yesterday, Make It Work got together at our partner South Bay Mini’s offices to discuss our achievements, our challenges and our future…we called it “Launch to the Moon, 2010.” There were 50+ Minis parked in a row, that was cool! It was an amazing day. The team was energized. We ate great food, we chatted, we listened to the 38th broadcast of CBS/KNX Tech News (powered by Make It Work) and I presented to the team. While I wasn’t at my best (up all night with my lovely bride who is 5 months pregnant), I got the team fired up and we had a blast, together.

My presentation began with a “moon” themed, song-filled slideshow of the history of the company. The first slide was entitled, “Once Upon a Time in Jorts” as I found an old picture of myself and Jeremy Anticouni (we’ve worked together for 14 years, 3 companies) and sadly, I was wearing a pair of jorts. No offense to those that wear jorts, just stop now. It then went on to show our first Mini Cooper, logoed with “Computer Plumber,” our former name. Next, there were a few pics of our first office (my 3rd bedroom), our first server farm (also in my 3rd bedroom) and our first two “Make It Work” Minis. The seven minute piece went on to showcase many of our accomplishments as a company, including the awarding of Services Company of the Year in 2006 by the Tech Council of Southern California and our back to back wins of “Best of Computer Repair” in Santa Barbara, voted on by readers of the Independent. We finished with a focus on our radio show, Tech News, which is on the leading news station, KNX1070 in LA (a CBS Radio station).

After the slideshow, we chatted about Make It Work’s culture, specifically, our philosophy of “employees first, customers next” and our dedication to Delight. We talked about “ON IT,” as a means to responding NOW to every customer request. We also chatted about the MIW 3Es: Extreme customer service, Extraordinary ability and Excitement about what we do and how we do it.

Then, we spent the rest of the time talking about the “Employee Bill of Rights” as created by the staff of MIW:

At Make It Work, all employees have the right to:

1. be ourselves…not robots!
2. listen to whatever music we want!
3. dress casually and comfortably!
4. have fun…while working!
5. wear flip-flops…or go bare foot!
6. bring our pets to work
7. snack at our desks…or in the conference room!
8. actually get along with our co-workers…really!
9. drive a cool company car
10. bring your child to work…any day of the week!
11. Facebook…when caught up with our work!
12. Rockband…when caught up with our work!
13. be happy and comfortable

As with all Make It Work Boot Camps, we all left our business cards at the door. In fact, I threw my wallet at the door in the middle of my presentation. I took my shoes off too. Not sure why, but it was funny at the time. The goal of the day was to listen and engage, learn and build new friendships, discuss issues and make the company a little better. The team fed me with great ideas. I shared a few. I even agreed to change the color of our Dickies’ uniform pants from light grey to dark grey. They asked, I agreed.

I closed my presentation with an announcement about “Eric Greenspan’s OSN101 Conferences” (coming soon) and our new focus to help our customers take advantage of the real-time Internet. We took a bunch of pics and wrapped.

Heather Burlesci, MIW Director of Flow

After the event, the gourmet ice cream truck showed up and all of our staff ate edible paper wrapped “Make It Work” ice cream sandwiches.

It was a “rad” day and Make It Work is a little better now!

Now I (@ericgreenspan) must focus on tomorrow, the #140conf LA Meetup. I’m co-hosting and emceeing the event with @jeffpulver. 245 people registered, Yahoo! is sponsoring and hosting at the their HQ in Burbank, and Make It Work is hosting the AFTERPARTY at Burbank Bar and Grill. I’ve made a ton of new online friends in the process and I can’t wait to meet them at the event. Must sleep well tonight!

Notes to self: Get to know the presenters, practice presentation, call Yahoo!, thank sponsors, thank attendees, thank volunteers, thank Jeff, thank MIW staff, make sure the food is delivered on time, leave SB early, tweet about the event a half a dozen times, email attendees, make sure AV is working, call afterparty venue, check weather, talk to Jeff, shave, have only one cocktail at afterparty, bring biz cards, charge video camera/iPhone/Blackberry/Cinemin Swivel/laptop/camera/Kindle, replace batteries in presenter clicker, kiss wife and rub her belly, pet dogs, text son, call mom and dad, burn jorts.

I spent my week applying the new skills I obtained from attending conferences, reading and engaging in Twitter activities.  I literally have been switching from my Blackberry, to my iPhone, to my PC, back to the iPhone and on and on it goes.  From TweetDeck to Yammer, WordPress to Twitter, Google Adwords to Yahoo Search, Facebook to LinkedIn, throw in a little AllTop, MyYahoo, Outlook, Powerpoint, Quicken (had to pay some bills)…my head is spinning.  It’s been an interesting week to say the least. I finally broke down and bought a Twitter marketing application that automatically adds followers for you.  The limitations of Twitter make this process painful, but I’ve had some success.  I think what I have to share on the Twitterverse is interesting enough, but I still need to establish the key relationships with top Bloggers, Twitterers, and other social media pros.  Also, as you know, I launched my blog along with the rest of my team.  You can read their blogs on my links.  We are also getting ready to re-launch blog.makeitwork.com which will provide a landing page for all things tech, both from our hundreds of daily appointments solving consumer electronic problems and our content from Tech News.  This is an important piece for Make It Work as it allows us to post all the emails, tweets, and FB posts we share with our followers and customers daily.  Things like virus alerts, system updates, new programs and gadgets, other threats, discounts, etc., are all soon to be found on our blog in one centralized place.  I think our customers will appreciate it.

Yesterday was Halloween.  My son was grounded and didn’t get to go to the big 7th grade party.  If you know me, you know why.  As usual, we setup our light show, smoke machine and scary music from our poolside Sonos system (get one, now you can tweet the song you are listening to).  The problem however is this year the kids avoided the long driveway as our neighbors, both at the top of the drive, turned off their lights and avoided the annual holiday cheer.  This in turn limited our trick-o-treaters to three groups of kids.  After an hour, I shut off the lights, the smoke, music and pulled the candy inside and called it a night.  Bummer.  My wife however is elated…three months pregnant and three full bags of candy complete with Reeses (every type), Snickers, M&Ms, Jolly Ranchers, Take5s, and many many more!

Well, it’s Sunday and I’m going to watch football with the wife.  She is a Fantasy nut and it’s really hard to concentrate with her shouting out stats and player names.  (While I was typing this, Manning handed the ball to Joseph Addai, who THREW a touchdown to Reggie Wayne…she’s pretty excited as Wayne is on her FF team…Manning is on mine, but gets nothing for that play!)

I leave you with a few questions, feel free to respond in my comments and I’ll talk to you on Monday:

1. What success have you had with Twitter? Facebook?
2. What kind of mobile device do you use and why?
3. How often do you drop the F-bomb each day?

Here’s a couple of tips for you from the CEO of a tech services company (that’s me):

1. Sonos just released an update (iPhone app due out shortly) that allows you to Tweet the song you are listening to.  Kinda cool, I guess.  I’m posting this again, as I really love my Sonos and I PROMISE you will to.  My favorite gadget ever!
2. When trying to reach someone where email, Twitter and Facebook have all failed, try calling them or send a fax (it will be the first one they received in a while)!
3. In Facebook, switch to Live Feed and go down to the bottom and click “edit options” and enter 5,000 for Number of Friends.  Now you will see what you’ve been missing.

TOMORROW’S ENTRY: In tomorrow’s blog post, I will discuss how I got Countrywide/BofA to reduce my mortgage payment by $10k/month.  I’m not in the mortgage modification business, so don’t worry.  I’m just going to share my experience so you can learn how to do the same.

To the moon!

-Eric Greenspan

As promised, today’s blog entry will be about our culture at Make It Work…

Make It Work is a very unique company.  Employees first, customers next is one of concepts and I recently learned that Virgin America and Sir Richard Branson share this philosophy.  Nice to know.

Simply put, if your employees love their jobs, they will love your customers.  We offer back massages on Mondays, we have a “flip flop required” policy in the office which translates to comfortable clothes, great seating, bring your dog to work, enjoy lunch at your desk, Facebook, Twitter, email and whatever else floats your boat while you work.  Our employees work in an environment that is fun, lively and productive.  They all have wireless headsets and may often be found talking to a customer on the phone while bowling on a Wii.  Why not?  Do you honestly believe productivity is hampered by these activities?

While we can’t spend the entire day playing Rockband, we all need some fun in our day.  If coming to the office at Make It Work is fun, then you look forward to it, rather than dread it.  If the environment is warm, healthy, happy and positive, doesn’t this translate directly to productivity?  Yep!

Make It Work is all about DELIGHTING our customers.  We offer instant response, same day service, constant communication, real appointment times, no question refund policy–Virgin America-esque, Nordstrom-like, with an extra helping of In-N-Out Burger.  We’ve been imitated, but never duplicated.  We stick by these principles and we thrive as a result.  Richard Branson said at a recent conference when asked what he looks for when starting a new venture, “We look for dumb, lazy companies that offer a product or service that we believe we can deliver better.”  I couldn’t agree more!

We have over 32,000 cult-like customer testimonials at  Make It Work and now you know why!

To the moon!

-Eric Greenspan