December 20, 2007
I must say that I would normally never single out an organization for customer service issues, but I can’t contain myself any longer. We have all had problems with getting our stuff printed correctly from time to time, but I think I’ve just had it! I got use to the fact that they can’t find your order when you go in to pick it up and that they don’t particularly want to help you when you stand at the counter. But we recently had a location in Arizona, butcher our workbooks and then blame it on us, after we went through their online system. And this was after we talked to an employee that said she personally supervised the order and agreed on what was supposed to happen. We checked, and double checked and received verification of the specifics of the order. How complex was our request? 70 units at 5 page’s each, the first in color and the rest in black & white, stapled in the left-hand corner.
What did we get? Everything in black & white and unstapled, literally a box of paper. Now, I understand that people make mistakes (and apparently smoke pot) but the story gets weirder. When we complained, the young lady (who clearly did not care if I lived or died from the minute she picked up the phone) said, “we can only do what the system tells us.” And then she hung up on me. So, the term that comes to mind is evil young cranky robot (not to let any old cranky robots off the hook). But the story then reaches the ultimate level of psychotic service. I called the customer service 800 number and told them my story, they said someone would call me back in 48 hours (now that’s service) and ask a few more questions. About 55 hours later, I picked up a voicemail from a man that said he was the manager of the location (The young woman said she was the only manager over then store.) and said he apologized for the problem and wanted me to call him and he would make it right. I called (ten minutes after the call came in) and asked for the manager by name. The person who answered (who was clearly the man who called) said that there was no male manager. I confronted him and said “Look, it was you. You just left me a message and I’m calling you back.” He was very nervous (like someone had a gun to his head) and denied that he was the manager and that he had called me. OK, we know service is not having a good decade, but this is really nutty. I can only imagine what is going on at that Kinko’s location. I have heard of bad customer service but I think we should send in the police. If you see a news break that says “Kinko’s manager held hostage by bitchy robot employees” remember you saw this blog first.
Customer Service Training Programs , keynote speaker on customer service
3 Comments | 
Customer Service, management, Modern Society, Technology | Tagged: bad customer service, customer service issues, employees on drugs, fedex kinkos, kinkos, management, ordering online, printing, printing workbooks, psychotic service, workbooks | 
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Posted by Ginger Dailey Wynn
December 16, 2007
Have we lost our minds? This is news? We have decided that the infant children of famous people are influential? The ugly truth: If you ask people about Shiloh, they will not mention the famous Civil War battle, they will instantly think of the offspring (not be confused with multiple adopted children) of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (Brangelina). Let’s be very clear, infants are not influential! The media is influential, and “we the people” are priority challenged. If I was the leader of an evil foreign power and saw news coverage of influential celebrity babies, I would be thinking “Attack America now”! Influence is based on communication and positioning; if we believe that you can have that at 3 months old, we are the most easily influenced culture in history. Some may argue that the future of our nation is indeed in the hands if spoiled babies. I think our youth will grow up and be ok; as long as we don’t decide they are influentially news worthy while they are still in diapers.
Leave a Comment » | Communication, Modern Society | Tagged: angelina jolie, brad pitt, celebrity babies, children of the stars, famous children, hollywood, influence, shiloh, the image of america, what is news worthy | Permalink
Posted by Ginger Dailey Wynn
December 16, 2007
Have you noticed that everything seems to look like something from the past these days? I recently saw a ford mustang with retro styling from the 60’s, being driven by a young woman with hair from the 80’s, blasting music that was a bad remake of a great song from the 70’s. When did we start running out of ideas? I know we like to say that there is nothing new under the sun but it seems like new ideas and concepts are a bit rarer these days. What about Rap songs that are using older hit songs as the basis of their impact? I don’t know about you, but it makes me want to hear the original song. I watch a movie (made in the last ten years) or a new network TV show (there is some original programming on HBO and Showtime) and I can predict in the first 10 minutes how the movie will end and in some cases I can spout off the actual dialog seconds before it comes of the characters mouth. My 11yr old thinks I’m psychic (which is great because in two years at the age of 13 she’ll just hate me)! Could it be that in a world that is so busy, we don’t have time to be unique? Maybe we are so desperate for approval that we just look at what people have liked in the past and create more of that? We are all guilty of doing what works to be successful (unless you are very original and unsuccessful and in that case, this post, strangely enough, is a pat on the back for your loser status). But I thought we were supposed to get ideas from the past not just copy what’s been done before. From my experience, and the history of business (that includes show business) the way to start a creative process is to get a group of people together and get them to agree on what has not been done before (as best you can) and apply that concept to what you are trying to achieve. So the lack of uniqueness will come from the goal you seek and not the concept itself.
Originality does not have to be the brain storm of genius, but it does take some thinking. When did we stop thinking?
The bottom line: Someone else has written a similar post about originality or this will be copied and end up in USA today as the original concept of another writer.
2 Comments | History, Marketing, Modern Society, Success Qualities | Tagged: business success, creative thinking, creativity, Marketing, new concepts, originality, recyling ideas | Permalink
Posted by Ginger Dailey Wynn
December 7, 2007
This time of year we see lots of information about dealing with holiday stress. It’s really an American issue, in most cultures “holiday” means you don’t have to do anything, you’re off of work (for six weeks in some countries in Europe which really stresses us out when we are trying to wrap up a global business deal). Only in America can we put the word holiday and stress right next to each other and everyone thinks it’s normal. But for most Americans the holidays are when we work less and spend more money (a stressful combination). We visit relatives that we purposefully try to avoid most of the year and we decorate our homes with stuff that is hard to put up and in some cases impossible to fully remove. We have all seen the people who leave their Christmas lights up all year and the unfortunate holiday addicts that find out spray on fake snow for your windows won’t completely come off of glass. We also have a tradition of eating as much food as we can so we can lay on the couch (or floor if your relatives beat you to the furniture) and complain about how much we have consumed. Buying gifts has gotten strange over the years. We like to say it’s the thought that counts be we have all opened a present and come to the conclusion that thinking must not be what my family does well. Also, what happens if you give someone a 20$ gift and they give you a $200 gift? The holidays are that time of year where you can actually prove to people how cheap you are. I exchanged presents one time with a friend, she open hers first, looked at it with terror, grabbed back the present she gave me and said “I’ll be back” as she walked out the door”. I must admit that what she came back with was very nice (exactly as nice as what I gave her, oddly enough), but I was stressed out and still wondered what kind of a crappy present she wanted to give me in the first place. The bottom line is: the holidays are not stressful, we are! I think its time to reduce the gift giving and get real. Most of us buy what we want for ourselves and don’t like what other people give us. I remember my grandmother before she passed way. In her 90’s; she would open a gift and say
”Lord have mercy (she’s from Georgia) its wonderful! What is it?” She was glad to get it, polite and did not let the fact that she could not identify it; stop her from celebrating with holiday spirit. What I want this holiday season is less stress, fewer gifts and more time doing nothing but enjoying my family. Well, no more than three days of my family in a row.
Leave a Comment » | stress | Tagged: dealing with holiday stress, giving presents, holiday stress, holidays, stress, visiting relatives | Permalink
Posted by Ginger Dailey Wynn
December 4, 2007
This racehorse is like 0 for 128! How does that happen? I think if you own a horse and you reach lets say 0-60 you have to take close look at the big letter “L” on your forehead. Does the horse know it’s the all-time loser in the history of the sport when it’s running down the track? No, I’m sure he’s just thinking about lunch (reminds me of a guy I knew in high school). Now, I believe there is a lot you can learn from losing; Ben Franklin said “I’m not a failure; I’ve just made 10,000 consecutive mistakes”. However, I think that if you have been working on something for years, putting in your best effort and you are not getting any better, you suck (no offence to people who suck)! Knowing when to quit has to be at least as valuable as staying the course. I have learned a lot from failure but I would prefer to learn from the failure of others. Ok, that sounds slightly evil; what I mean is at some point we need to learn the lesson before we waste our time and the time of the people who depend on us. How did Dona Chepa’s Jockey feel as he prepared for race 127? Let me make it clear that I’m not blaming the horse (no PETA emails please). There are humans making those decisions and they are who we are talking about. We don’t have to be the lesson to learn the lesson; we can be a loser for a little while and then use that experience to run a race we can win.
Four things that may indicate it’s time to consider quitting:
- When you win the “most improved” award for the third year in a row.
- When they invent a new ranking or system to measure your performance because it’s too low for existing standards.
- When everyone you know keeps telling you that you have heart, or spunk, or courage or other words that have nothing to do with skill or talent.
- When you notice a lot people pat you on the back everyday.
I believe we should give life 100% (110% just proves you have a math problem) and try as hard as we can to be the very best we can be. And, we should see failure as the fuel for success. But I think the true key to success is doing very little of what you do badly, and doing a lot of what you do well!
Leave a Comment » | Business Growth, change, Success Qualities | Tagged: being your best, ben franklin, Dona Chepa, horse racing, key to success, learning from failure, learning the hard way, when to quit | Permalink
Posted by Ginger Dailey Wynn
December 4, 2007
For some of us, there comes a time when we have lost control of our ability to manage our own time. This post may not be for those of you who never waste time (and off the record I dislike you for it). It’s for those of us who need some help in the time management area. I do pretty well for a while and I have all the tools (I teach time controls programs) but sometimes I get side tracked and end up at a 3hr lunch (never go to lunch with people who don’t have jobs). I need people and systems to help me stay on track so I can make the most of my day. I have staff that will say “Garrison you need to get this thing going today” or “What are you doing? You should be working on the program in Los Angles next week”. But the Xbox 360 fall update will have a “Family Timer” that will allow parents to set a maximum amount of daily or weekly time for their kids to play video games (I think they need an option that makes you go out side, or at leased gives you a spray on tan). Now, for the record, I am a gamer; Xbox 360 is my choice and Call of Duty 3 is my favorite game. I’m in my 40’s and started out with Odyssey by Magnavox in 1973 ( its was pretty much Pong with stick-on overlays that made you think you were playing Hockey or football) and picked it back up with Xbox. I think this “Timer” is a great idea and we should apply the same principles in our lives. Having a meeting with a 1hour limit, programming your pc to tell you to go home, having your cell phone call you and say “stop calling people its 11:00 pm”. Maybe even a blog analyzer that tells you when your post just ran out of steam! Uh, later!
1 Comment | Success Qualities, Technology | Tagged: call of duty 3, managing time, odyssey, pong, time control, time management, time management systems, xbox 360 fall update, xbox 360 timer, xbox360 family timer | Permalink
Posted by Ginger Dailey Wynn
