Business Blogs (303)

It would be unusual for any large company not to have a website with links to social media like Facebook or Twitter. I mentioned in a previous blog about a 'service' called Yelp where people can give unsolicited reviews of restaurants. Some are good and some are bad. The problem with some is they go directly online, often without giving the company being reviewed a chance to make good on a complaint.
I believe, If the food wasn't right or service took longer than expected, the complainer should see management first for a resolution and not run to Yelp. I recall a viral video of a woman caught on security video negatively 'Yelping' while in a take-out restaurant because her order wasn't right.

Oh, and be real... don't eat 85% of your meal before complaining to see the manager!

Before the internet, people often relied on The Better Business Bureau to check if a company had complaints against them. Much slower than social media BBB typically stored real complaints and not vindictive reports for someone who didn't get any napkins in their bag when they left the drive-thru at Jimmy's friend chicken.

In my business, there is Angie's List, a service for negative reporting of contractors. I recall one customer who had purchased a new kitchen and bath from us. If she didn't like something (including wrong choices on her part) we were back to replace whatever it was to avoid her threats on social media. Her business involved travel and she had specific dates when she would be out of town. If we were unable to complete a repair, it had to wait until she returned to continue our scope of work.

The woman selected glass tiles for her kitchen backsplash. The manufacturer specified 1/8" (3mm) gaps between grout. She didn't to see the grout lines and convinced the salesman and tile installer to place them for 1/16" (1.5mm) or less. One problem. Grout doesn't stick to glass tile and 1/16" is insufficient width for the grout to bond to the backing. It was a recipe for failure and we ended up crediting the client for the work.

We itemized many credits she requested and closed out the order. I wrote into the final invoice that she signed there would be no warrantee to any of the credited items. To my surprise, she gave us a bad report on Angie's List stating it took us months to finish the work. Considering all the credits, I was able to negotiate her to remove the complaint.

It's been 5 years and we have been back several times now. The latest complaint is the base on her island is opening at the seams. We're sure someone washed the tile floor and water soaked into the toe kick causing it to swell. The new base has a slightly different color (dye lot variance) and she's insisting we replace ALL the doors on the island to match the toe we replaced. No... I told the service department, no. Enough is enough. It was her neglect and if she wants new doors, it will be at her expense. I don't want to hear the threat of social media anymore!

I never run out of ideas to blog. Most of the time I write notes or comments on the back of envelopes or sticky notes and put them on my do list. The list is growing and for lack of free time (and not wanting to annoy other bloggers with more than one blog per day) I'm unable to put these thoughts/ideas to electronic retrieval, as in a collection of my thoughts to be shared with others.

It's my belief that a blog should or could be a complete thought, story or idea that can stand on it's own. While comments are allowed, a blog that asks questions or solicits comments or opinions of readers (according to the rules) would be better suited on a forum for discussion. That doesn't mean you cannot have lots of comments and enjoy a blog, it means that in concept, blogs aren't supposed to be streaming live conversations like social media. Sure, you can dispute this, but I'm speaking in terms of the posted rules for this site.

Dating sites have rules and blog sites list rules for the user to see BEFORE posting a blog. I remember one site made you click a box agreeing to their terms of use before your blog got posted. Most have a word filter that will block words that are deemed offensive. I've had some blogs denied until I removed things that didn't meet their requirements. Sometimes it made little or no sense, like the time I was listing prices and statistics and the moderator blocked me thinking I was giving out my phone number. I had to rewrite some parts to get it published.

I am curious why the CS 'blog rules' are below the 'submit blog' button., as if to say... here are our rules, do as you please. As a recent member, I've refrained (as best I could) from participating in blogs about 'blog wars' and the problems encountered with the Connecting Singles site... not parts but the entire site.

Unable to comment or blog in my probationary first week at CS, I read lots of blogs and forum posts. Trust me, those comparisons to the defunct Matchdoctor has/have ConnectingSingles ahead by a landslide. The insults run 10 to 1 over MD and the members here are still active. Anywhere else the moderator would close the profile, delete all the blogs and posts where the member had commented.

I thought about that today and felt my opinion was going in the wrong direction. I've changed my mind. Don't boot them out. Do it like the Medieval days where offenders were made a spectacle for public viewing! CS could create a Purgatory page where the person who was offensive would have their photo posted with a list of charges and how long they are expected to be in Purgatory. Public flogging at it's finest! The profile would be locked so the member couldn't delete their photo or information and unlocked when their time in Purgatory had expired.

Seriously, if there's an opening for a moderator (raises hand) pick me... pick me !!

I'm getting a warm fuzzy feeling about this...

I was in multi-tasking mode today. Lots of interruptions. More than any normal Monday.
Working hard to close a deal, I sent revised drawings and prices to a client Friday so she and her husband can review. The call came early with 4 important requests... something that would take an hour or so got started several times, but I had to resolve a few emergency complaint requests. I got back on it around 7pm and worked a few more complaints until 7:50pm when my wife summoned me to head home. Here it is 10:50pm and I'm taking a few minutes to digest dinner, do a blog and get back to work to finish what I planned to do this morning.
I'm getting good at resolving complaints but not good at getting any of my work done.

A bad one I want to keep distance on is an order that took 2 weeks to process and the factory acknowledged 8 weeks to complete. Their acknowledgement isn't accurate as they are running 2 weeks behind, so that makes a total of (counts on fingers and toes) 12 weeks when the salesman told the customer 8 weeks.
They (the clients) are 'freaking out' as they sold their previous unit and won't have a working kitchen or bath when they move into the new place. The client is angry and doesn't want to talk to the salesman... he want's a 'higher-up' to call (clears throat) and that would be me, but since I know nothing about the order I'm expecting the factory to make some changes and complete the order on the acknowledgement date.

I thought by going home the complaint desk would be closed. My boss texted me to complain about something else that needs to be resolved tonight.

That said... The complaint desk is now open!

I'm shopping for a condo and called the realtor from one of the listings I'm interested in. She apologized as the property was sold and neglected to notify the website to remove the ad.
File this under unprofessional laziness.

Some realtors have other listings and bait people with really good ones that just happen to have been sold... but if you are interested, they have others that are somewhat more expensive than the one that hooked you in.
File this under deceptive sales tactics.

I'm coming up on the anniversary to a promotion I received 2 years ago that I really didn't want.

The plan was that I would leave sales and create an order processing department where none existed. For years, salesmen for the company would each turn their orders directly to our vendors with no verification by our company. It would be my responsibility to oversee these orders for missing details and to verify the prices and engineering standards were correct. Service was overwhelmed by the mistakes on orders and delays for installations due to incomplete drawings. Eliminating problems up-front is the only solution to survival. We didn't need more servicemen, we needed less service problems.

Before that job assignment took place, a salesman from another division announced retirement and my manager was promoted to his position. In doing so, he hired a replacement and spent three months training the guy... although the new guy was a people person with retail cabinet experience, his engineering and computer skills were sorely lacking. This forced a burden that was holding me from the transition to the processing manager position. There were other circumstances I wasn't privy to, but the new guy got bounced out and the next day I was told his position was eliminated... I was being promoted to fill the gap with the title of sales manager.

Strangely, all my coworkers congratulated me for the new position and started treating me as though I was the general manager, service manager, HR manager... and all important answer-man. It was weeks of denying I was anything above a single rung on the ladder, I became the traffic cop telling people who in the company 'did what' which was really surprising as though there had been a shift in geometry. We actually have people assigned to those positions for questions I was being asked!

We are really understaffed and my analogy to the situation is a busy restaurant Maitre d' running back to the kitchen to prepare meals as there is only one chef and no available kitchen help. I'm not liking it. I hired (or assisted in the hire of) 3 people but training them is time consuming. Sometimes it's easier to fix their mistakes than sending the work back for them to correct it.

The position is a 'dumping ground' to fix anything that didn't get done correctly for all departments. Staying focused and goal oriented takes a back seat to a few emergencies per hour keeping me from my actual duties.

You can quote me on this:
"Don't always trust the advice of someone who has a vested interested in the decisions you make."
Typically, it's someone trying to sell you something. Eons ago, I recall an episode with an insurance salesman who made a commission for a policy that wasn't right for me.

One of the worst things about computers & cellphones are updates. There is absolutely too much lost time waiting for updates... especially with Windows 10 and their forced updates.
I have a laptop I often carry with me on sales presentations. I turned it on at a meeting once and it went into an update. My presentation was over (without the use of the laptop) and it was still doing updates. This is NOT ACCEPTABLE in business.

Between home, home office and remote office, I'm running several desktop computers on Windows 7. I was able to buy a few refurbished computers that I keep in storage. In the event one of my main computers fails, I have some W7 computers for backup.

I do have a few running Windows 10 and know at some point I'll have to abandon the older ones when support of W7 is no longer available.


Last year, I retired my 4 year old Samsung cellphone. I had a replacement warrantee plan and whenever one malfunctioned they would send out a refurbished model. The screen lifted on one I liked and the replacement was in worse condition. They couldn't get it to boot... it was DOA and I had to wait another week for the replacement of the replacement. They told me parts were no longer available for that model and the service center must have been cannibalizing other phones to make replacements.
That was the reason for buying their newest model. I've lost count of the number of times it forced updates. Thankfully, I'm able to stall a few updates... email app for example. There aren't significant changes that would justify updating it.

I'm running Firefox and heeded the notification my browser was outdated. I did an update and 10 minutes later I received another similar notification. This went on a few times and the last update has changed Yahoo's opening screen... yeah, those bastards have added code that allows a drop down banner I'm unable to block.

When it comes to 'getting the update' I'm not interested.

I heard an advertisement on the radio last week that said the newest way to get around delays and TSA inspections is to join their flight club and charter your own private jet.

South Florida has many private airports, some within 20 miles of each other.

I thought private jets were only for Rock Stars and ultra wealthy businessmen. Obviously, times have changed. Pull up at the gate of an airport, show some ID for clearance, drive to the plane and unload from the trunk of your vehicle directly to airplane waiting to whisk you to your destination.

Just like you see in the movies... no waiting. Just go. On your arrival, no waiting. Just get in your taxi that's waiting and off you go.

Flush when you are done. If you see skid marks, flush again.
A local morning radio talk show had people call in tell the most annoying things about their coworkers. They OVERWHELMINGLY said their coworkers neglected to flush the toilet when they were done with their business.

Before heading to the office, I checked my corporate email yesterday morning and received a message from a client who was asking about receptacle outlets on a kitchen island.

(side note: I'm in the kitchen business)

Yes, they are required by local code. Although most customers don't want holes cut in their cabinetry, it's not my choice. If the electrician needs cutouts made, we do it as a service. Point where you want the holes cut and we make it. The liability is on the electrician and not the cabinet guy.

The husband wanted them on the back side where they are obscured by chairs. That's bending the rules... will it pass inspection? I don't know. Ask the electrician.

What I do know is, the message titled 'quick question' involved several back-and-forth emails and three phone calls. I'm not done... now I have to revise the drawing that we all reviewed last week.

More than an hour yesterday was spent dealing with my client's 'quick question'.