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Archive for the ‘This Is Service?’ Category

Ever call a place of business and get a totally disinterested party on the other line? I want to scream – they sound lethargic or basically like they could give a rat’s patuddy if you’re calling. Nothing could be worse than this as an initial call to a place you want to do business with. Some people will just hang up and move on, but some like me hope wrongly that things will get better.

Yesterday I made a call to a local company that I’m considering using for printing projects. Instead of being happy to help me, I am hurriedly placed on hold for a couple minutes by the rude attendant. I give them the benefit of the doubt, but really, shouldn’t I matter? Any way, after finally being picked up again by “Miss Happy”, I’m routed to what I hope will be a live, warm body, but instead, is a cold, boring voicemail box. That was yesterday morning, still no callback. Do you think I want to do business with such unresponsive people?
How can you prevent this scenario in your business? First, just please, get someone nice to answer the phone! ASK if I want to go to voicemail and if I do, make sure I am called back.   The rest of the story...

I often wonder if the postage rate hikes are a national secret? Today, the postal rate increased one cent, and while that’s not a lot of money, it’s a lot of hassle. I went on Google News and it’s not even a top story of the day, even though it will impact a lot of people. I was in the post office a couple days ago to drop some  special mail and decided to also purchase a book of stamps and asked to see the selection – it was only then that I knew the rates were going up on the 12th of May (that makes perfect sense, right?!) If I’d have not asked to purchase stamps, it was pretty likely I wouldn’t have been told about the hike and get this, the only notice in the place was on window you would see when leaving! Couldn’t they have let people know in a bigger way? Consider this poster who just today wrote, ” Friday I purchased three rolls of 41 cent stamps (thats 100 stamps each). We are a not-for-profit organization and send out newsletters each month. Sure would have been nice for the post office to advise me of the increase!!! Now I have to go buy 300 1 cent stamps.. Thanks alot!!” How pathetic.   The rest of the story...

One of the worst pharmacy experiences of my life happened just this week. My daughter is an avid and active hockey player, so it really came as a surprise when this week the doctor said she had pneumonia. I’m guessing all the playing, getting heated up, then chilled, over and over got to her lungs. Any way, off to the pharmacy we go. Before I left the doctor’s office, I asked them to phone in the prescriptions, as this pharmacy is notoriously slow. We arrived to pick these things up about 20 minutes later, to which the very misguided tech behind the counter replies, “These will be ready later this evening, can you come back?” What? I looked at him squarely in the eye and said, “She has PNEUMONIA.” He knew right away I was not leaving. He assured me they’d be ready in 15 minutes. There was no one even here, why should this take another 15 minutes, when 20 had already passed when the doctor’s office called them in?   The rest of the story...

One gripe I have that seems to repeat itself nearly every time I go grocery shopping; at checkout the clerk will often ask, “Did you find everything you needed?”, to which I usually reply “Almost everything.” I do this on purpose and only once has someone stopped and said “Oh, what didn’t you find?” On this particular day, I scoured the store for an item I know the competitor store carries, but they’re a couple miles further drive. My fault. Any way, I mentioned at the checkout that this item was nowhere to be found, yet “So and so carries it, why don’t you?” “I dunno.” Great, what an utterly unhelpful exchange. Right here, I have given this business an opportunity to earn me as a repeat, loyal customer, but they’re too lazy or disinterested to care. Don’t they have a mechanism in place to see if they can get what I want? The item is no big deal for them, they carry the brand, but just not this particular product.   The rest of the story...