Dillards Wins Latest Name Game in Bartlesville

3 Cheers for Darla at Dillards. Last night, on a quest to buy some Godiva Chocolate for dessert, I flew out to Dillards, right before dinner, ran in, grabbed 2 bars of chocolate and handed them over to the first available attendant. Although picked at random, I hit the jackpot with Darla. Darla ran my credit card, noticed my name and used my name when thanking me for the business. A customer's name. Music to their ears.

I wish I could tell you this happens more time than not, but it doesn't. The last time someone noticed me and used my name was the OnCue experience. But Bartlesville is getting it...slowly but surely, Bartlesville is understanding the term "enlightened hospitality".

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At least it's real

Although Jet Blue is taking a beating for the incidents of people being on board waiting to take off for up to 8 hrs or longer, I'm tipping my hat to Jet Blue. Good job for taking the high road and cancelling flights rather than pretending to do something about it and continuing to book flights. From a customer service standpoint, it makes sense to take the hit up and cancel flights rather than tell people you can do something when you can't.

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Dud

My wife and I just got back from seeing GHOSTRIDER. Unless you want to waste and hour and 50 minutes of your life, I would recommend watching something else. The theater was packed and I noticed an unusual amount of bikers in the audience chomping at the bit to see Ghostrider's bike. I'm guessing alot of people thought this would be more of a "comics" type movie and therefore brought their kids along. But with all the intense images, there will be many shocked and startled parents wishing they had left the kids at home.
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Thanks for Checking.

I had lunch today with a friend who's more like a mentor and we had a nice chat about this and that. Other than appreciating the company, I have learned good follow-up skills from him. We meet once a month, and he's always first to call, see how things are going, and set a lunch appointment.

Loyalty and friendships are in such short supply these days. Everyone's just too busy to check in on a friend or go see how a loved one is doing.

By the way...the food and service at Szechuan is great.


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3

I had a disasterous marketing meeting this morning...brought on my my ego and stupidity. But I did learn from it and I would like to share these gems with you.

Number 1…Give them what they want.
offer up alternatives or “other” suggestions after initial question or objective has been answered.

Number 2…don’t get away from project management.
Break down and plan out how a marketing task is going to be accomplished. Give it significance.

Number 3…Life is short
Don’t waste the time of others or myself.

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MacAlister's Keeps it Coming

Not only did I receive an email from corporate offices gushing over what they felt was a negative customer experience, but I also got a handwritten, handwritten, handwritten letter from Alicia Tippett, General Manager along with vouchers good for 2 free lunches at McAlister's Deli...wanting a second chance. You bet they get a second chance. And I'll bet that when we walk in, these counter clerks are going to be high fiving and having a party in the kitchen. I am pumped to go and see what's going on. Whatever is going on, MacAlister's Deli is the lighthouse that shows all other restauants how to treat the Bartlesville public with enlightened hospitality. And everyone needs to read Danny Meyers book, SETTING THE TABLE.

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Good Job McAlister's Deli

My wife and I had lunch yesterday at the new McAlister's Deli on the south side of Bartlesville. Because we didn't have long for lunch, I called in our order ahead of time. Once we got there, the food was ready, paid for it with my debit card (order taker did not take the time to learn my name) and sat down to eat. Nameless

So far so so. After taking several bites, Celeste did not like the tast of her French dip sandwich. So we called a waitress over, told her the problem and she promptly sent us out another sandwich. It's nice to see a business trust what the customer is telling them and make it right.

3 out of 5 stars for McAlisters Deli.

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bAds part 2

So the Super Bowl is over, the Colts beat the Bears, the ads pretty much misfired and Prince didn't slip and fall in the rain during the halftime show.

I thought Prince did a good job actually. Probably one of the best half-time shows in a long time. What was up with that guitar?

The robot ad for GM has got to be the worst, most depresing commercial I have ever seen. What was GM's marketing dept. thinking about?!? Wow! Bet they had fun making that commercial.

The best commercial had to be Godaddy.com. Or the Coke commercial where the guy woalks around doing miraculous things and setting the world straight.

The most distastful ad has to be the Snickers commercial. OOOOOooooooooooo. Yuck. Now everytime I think of a Snickers bar, I think of two guys sucking on a turd. I'm sure that's the image the marketing people were looking for.

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Control What You Can

After reading chapter 10 of Danny Meyer's book SETTING THE TABLE, I learned how Mr. Meyers overcomes mistakes by writing a "great last chapter."

"Whatevver mistake happened, happened. And the person on the receiving end will naturally want to tell anyone who's interested all about it. That's to be expected. While we can't erase what happened, we do have the power to write on elast episode so that at least the story ends the way we want."

This reminds me of a mistake while dining at one of our favorite restaurants, the Wilmington Restaurant at Jarrett Farm, located between Bartlesville and Tulsa. The waiter reaching for my wife's wine glass, and my wife moving her hand from the table, bumped into each other and the wine was poured all over the front of my white shirt. It looked like I had been shot in the chest.

Admirably, the staff at Jarrett Farm offered to pay for the dry cleaning. That was nice. I also almost expected to get a call from a staff member of Jarrett Farm to see how our evening had been and if there was anything they could do to help get the shirt cleaned or find out if there was any problem with getting the shirt cleaned. Danny Meyer says the time frame for addressing mistakes is crucial. When something goes wrong, the manager on duty must make every attempt to follow up with the guest within 24 hours. I like that.

I would suggest the Wilmington Restaurant at Jarrett Farm take a page (p225 specifically) from Danny Meyer's book and add this thought process to their arsenal of skills when it comes to overcoming mistakes and creating an event that makes people want to talk about the cool outcome.

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Son of Rewarding Good Behavior

So, I went by the OnCue #40 store this Sunday, like any other Sunday and once again, the clerk (Charles) used my name again. AND, I noticed he said the gentleman's name who was in line in front of me. So it wasn't just me they were singling out.

It's all the small things. I keep thinking using people's names at the point of transaction is too trivial to be keying in on. But if it's so simple and easy, why don't any of the other places I do business with do the same thing.

I must admit, the wait staff at Weezies Cafe all do a good job of using my name.

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I'm going to go on record and predict that the winner of the Super Bowl will be the Chicago Bears. There...I said it.

Yea Annabel...Yeah Netflix!

I had a problem with my Netflix account. All of a sudden, only 3 of my 10 reviews that I had posted showed up. So I sent a message to Netflix asking them to help. I got a nice response and the problem has been resolved. The following is the reponse.

"Hello Scott,

Thank you for contacting Netflix.com customer support!

I'm sorry for any confusion regarding your reviews. I'll be happy to help you with this.

I looked into your account, and I was able to view all 10 of your reviews. You may read the reviews you have written by selecting "Your Reviews and Lists" on the Netflix site. Once this page is displayed you will be able to view the reviews you have written. If you click "Browse" then look over at the right sidebar, you'll see a header that says "Guides" then click on "Your Reviews and Lists".

I'm not sure what happened here, but everything appears to be resolved now. You might try signing out and then signing back into the site, to be sure that you are viewing the most recent version of the website.

To logout, click the "Sign Out" link displayed under your name in the drop down menu on the Browse page. You may also sign out by selecting "Sign Out" located next to your name on the Your Account page. Once you click on the phrase you will be logged out of your account.

I hope this clears things up for you, and that you'll continue to enjoy your membership!

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

Thanks,
Annabel
Netflix Customer Service

By the way, Mark at BoingBoing posted a horrible response from Lycos to a customer. You can read it hear. No Lycos for me thank you.