Adventures in Customer Service with City Employees

To the City of St. Louis Park, MN:  Nice save by one of your field representatives after I called to report discolored water that trickled down into no water.  With the ultra below-freezing temperatures we’ve had recently (and windchills in excess of -40F), Pete thought our problem might be due to a frozen water main.

So I called the City Utilities division.  I barely was able to explain what was happening when, without so much as a single syllable acknowledgement, the administrative assistant dumped me into a voicemail pool.  Rude! I was disconnected twice prior to being able to leave a message.  If I’d had the water to boil, it would have been steaming!

Seriously, with all the self-congratulatory mentions of “Minnesota nice” going around, would it have been too much for her to have said something like, “Oh, sorry you’re having a problem.  We do have some issues with water mains and the frozen temperatures.  Please let me transfer you to the correct line where you can leave your details.  Someone will call you back just as soon as possible to help.” Grrr.

The good news: the field rep who called back was extremely helpful, staying on the line with me while troubleshooting our symptoms, and then recommending a D-I-Y fix that had us back in action relatively quickly.  But still…St. Louis Park?  Your opportunity to make a positive impression is compromised by employees who either aren’t properly trained or don’t care to extend simple courtesy.  Other professionals employed by the City have to make up their slack. Just sayin’.

Adventures in Customer Service – Home Depot

Pete and I shop frequently at the Home Depot near our house.  When we’re there on a mission for a specific item, I really miss the local hardware store where I used to live.  Sometimes our experience is good with Home Depot – mainly when we’re browsing or in the garden center.  Other times our experience is – well, not so much.  Like Thursday night.

I have mixed feelings about self-check-outs to begin with.  This would be why stores have employees, no?  Thursday, it really chapped our long-underwear’d derrieres to see four – count ‘em, four – employees having a gab fest at the end of our check-out lane while we’re struggling.  What were we struggling with, you ask?  We were struggling to scan, bag and pay for our purchases.  Ourselves.  Because there were no check-out lanes open other than the self-operated ones.

Even though there were enough staff to open every single one of them standing right in front of us.  But they were preoccupied.  With socializing, not serving the customer.  Huh.

When we suggested to the group of orange-aprons on our way out that there might be something wrong with this picture, we got the deer in the headlights look.  As if we were being unreasonable presuming that the employees might lift a finger to help us with heavy items and reluctant bar code scanners.

Home Depot?  There’s a reason your stock is in the tank.  This type of experience could be related.  Ya think?

Adventures in Customer Service – Web Hosting

Has anyone missed Cath Lawson for the past couple of weeks?  We certainly have.  Seems as though her blog is too successful – i.e. generating too much traffic – for her hosting company, Bluehost, to bother with her any more.  So instead of using the situation as an opportunity to create a positive experience – which they might have wanted to do seeing as how she could be a good business referral source and all – Bluehost shut her website down.  With no warning.

Just like that, Cath’s site is snuffed out, and she can’t get an answer as to why.  Cath has had a very frustrating time of it, but all is well now.  She tells the story, with lots of good advice new and established bloggers and anyone with a website should heed.  Cath, what a way to start out the new year!

John Hoff of E-Venture Biz, who helped Cath out of her jam with a nifty fix of services, warns:  “You know, Bluehost really did put you in a tough spot. Not only did they take down your site, but they also locked you out. Luckily, you were able to gain access finally and we could move you over….@Everyone – Speaking of backup, if you want a full backup of your blog, make sure you have both a database backup and download all the files in your blog’s directory to your hard drive.” Yes, sir.

Fortunately, not everyone who is confronted with a challenge or an opportunity disregards it:

Becky Blanton wins the Johnny Bunko Challenge

Earlier in the week, we asked you to vote for Becky Blanton in the Johnny Bunko Challenge.  Becky’s entry for Lesson Seven, “Stay Hungry,” was one of three finalists in the challenge.  With a little help from her friends, and a lot of help via Seth Godin, Becky pulled away and snagged the win!  Becky will be on her way to the TED conference in London, as we mentioned in our post.

But there’s more to this story:  one of Becky’s competitors was Ed Brenegar, with another great Lesson about “Saying Thanks” every day.  Cultivating the “attitude of gratitude” is a sure-fire way to keep things in perspective for us, when we remember to do it.  If you read one thing in its entirety this weekend, read Ed Brenegar’s inspiring post congratulating Becky on her win.  It’s the epitome of sportsmanship and grace.  There truly were no losers in this challenge.  Congratulations, Becky and Ed, for presenting us with remarkability!

Barbara Swafford Does More with Less

The New Year often finds us with additional responsibilities after the holiday break.  Sometimes our workload seems even more overwhelming and stressful, especially if we’re being asked to do more because of an unexpected change.  Barbara Swafford, of Blogging Without A Blog, recently found herself with a busier time of it at her non-blog job – the nerve of them!  So, she proactively modified her posting schedule by arranging for guest posters, reducing frequency from daily to 3x per week, and combining activities.

These changes leave Barbara with enough time for growing non-blog commitments, and the ability to continue to visit and comment on the blogs she cares about.  It’s easy to let things go until they get far out of hand, thinking somehow we’ll make it all work.  Changing her schedule is in keeping with Barbara’s disciplined and professional approach to the business of blogging, while maintaining the strong community she founded.  Congratulations, Barbara!

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CATCHING UP is a post from: Passing Thru

Photo by Jagosaurus

When I moved to Deephaven, it was so the kids would have an idyllic cocoon of quiet streets to play in, a lakeside beach to walk to, and a private-like award-winning neighborhood school.  Everything we needed was up at the corner.  Grocery store, food co-op, gas station, drug store, bank, and other businesses.

As a single mom and homeowner, I was especially grateful for Deakyne’s Hardware.  Home Depot was a fifteen minute drive up the freeway.  At Deakyne’s, the owner was behind the counter, and he always knew exactly what I needed to fix my leaky faucet or fertilize my lawn.  Crammed to the gills with everything from window screens to vacuum bags to hose nozzles, the tiny store is small, personable, and convenient.  Whereas a visit to Home Depot often is a struggle to try to find someone to help you, the employees at Deakyne’s go out of their way to assist.  Since every project I ever tackled has involved more than one visit, I valued Deakyne’s very much indeed.

I thought of Deakyne’s when I read a blog post by Jon Mells on the Triiibes network entitled, “The trillion dollar crisis response:  keep it real.”  Jon observed that recent economic woes have raised the demand for a return to the principles of honesty, trust and transparency.  There’s nothing more honest than wheelbarrows and bags of grass seed piled out front in summer, and snowblowers and antifreeze in the winter.

Deakyne’s keeps it real.  They know what concerns people in every season.  They recognize the fear of the unfamiliar – especially for a single woman.  Deakyne’s is small and close.  I mattered to them and they mattered to me, even over a 40-cent bag of nails.  They believed in me and helped me vanquish my fears.  They honestly pointed out less-expensive alternatives, and I trusted their judgment.  There they were right there on the corner of Minnetonka Boulevard and S.H.101, in front of God and everyone.

Small is the new real, you might say.  I’d respond by saying that small has always been the real.  Small is authentic, plain-spoken and unpretentious.

Small is the sturdy and the reliable.  It’s exhilarating to visit a big box store with all the choices and variety.  But depersonalizing the shopping experience to larger scales often leaves behind the reassurance we find in the familiar.  There is an alienating effect that big organizations incur by size.  Though many of them work hard and spend considerable money to counteract it, they fall short on the personal and respectful.

Small companies value their customers and keep things personal.  Small communities value their members, and members value personal aspects in the relationship.

Howard Lindzon has recommended that companies keep themselves “too small to fail.”  Companies should be like Deakyne’s:  unassuming, helpful, optimistic, friendly, knowledgeable, confident and eager to help.  I went home from Deakyne’s with a new washer or a screen repair kit knowing that I’d received valuable, common-sense advice and method of use or install.  Deakyne’s kept it real for me.

Seth Godin has said you can’t fail by acting small if your precepts are staying close to the customer, close to the product, and close to each other.  Deakyne’s is a fixture in Deephaven, at that corner for decades and dedicated to serving the community by building one.

Trust is borne out of expertise and atmosphere.

As a customer, I wanted to help Deakyne’s help me, and I sought the relationship by eschewing one with Home Depot.  I knew Deakyne’s employees would allay my fears, support a successful outcome and provide solutions to get me where I wanted to be without robbing me blind.

I don’t live in Deephaven any more.  I wish fervently for a small, neighborhood hardware store, but we shop at the Home Depot because it’s close.  The customer outcomes at Home Depot are hit or miss, even with Pete’s knowledge of DIY.  Home Depot just isn’t as real as Deakyne’s. Jon Mells says, “act real, be sincere and authentic, do what you say you’re going to do.”  It’s hard sometimes for employees of Home Depot to do that.

Even though our reach is global in many ways, we want to buy local, eat local and be personal.  I’d rather support 70% market share in Deephaven than 30% in the metro at large. This thinking allows businesses like Deakyne’s to anchor their communities.

Historically, people under economic duress seek a new landing, back to simplicity and the known. They contract into the safer familiars just as supply-driven markets do.  Businesses that are “too small to fail” can overcome the paralysis of fear and the stigma of defeat that run rampant in times of uncertainty.  All they need to do is be straight up and do what they promise.

Small is real.

SMALL is a post from: Passing Thru