Staples had a sale on computer remotes. Regular price $74.99, on sale for $19.99 — a $50.00 savings. I already had one, but at that price, it made sense to get a back-up.

I dropped by on the way home — unfortunately I arrived at 5 minutes past closing time. The doors were open, people were shopping and cash registers were open.

Do you put barriers in the way of your customers that prevent them from giving you their money?

My wife and I recently dropped by our local Blockbuster video to rent a movie. There was a special on previously viewed movies that offered 4 movies for $20.00 vs. $6.99 each. They had a large selection and we noticed there were a number of movies that either we hadn’t seen or thought they would be good to add to our home library — so we decided to purchase some.

Recently I deposited a cheque from a US client into my US funds account. I then immediately transferred a portion of that deposit into my current account which is in Canadian dollars.

Two interesting things happen.

I recently received duplicate copies of an e- newsletter. The arrived within  minutes of each other and it was obvious they were the identical. It was a computer glitch with the email server that distributed the email that was out of the distributors control. I am sure we have all experienced a similar situation where the tech gremlins seemed to operate with a mind of their own. I simply deleted 1 and continued on with my day.

Recently I experienced one of the most common missteps of good customer service — ignoring customers to attend to “organizational” priorities.

I was waiting in line to pay for my purchases, but as my turn arrived, the Manager showed up to make sure the cashier had enough change. Of course this is a good thing because it ensures that the cashier does not hold up customers because they don’t have correct change.

A friend shared the following email that she sent to the individual responsible for Customer Service at Danier Leather in Toronto.

I am taking a few moments to email you about the poor customer service I received today at approximately 12.30 pm in your Eaton Centre store.

These are two of the most powerful words in the English language — they are equally powerful in any language. They express our gratefulness for the benefits we have received, either in personal or business relationships.

I have had the privilege to work with an organization called PRO-TAX, from Charlottesville, VA. They have consistently demonstrated their values and commitment to delivering an exceptional customer experience. And they are working every day to improve and make it better.

Not long ago,  I wrote a post about a recent service recovery experience with Swiss Chalet.  I thought I would share the subsequent follow up I had with the manager of the particular store I mentioned.

The franchise manager called a couple days later because I had made a comment through their website about my experience. I thought it would be interesting to see how they reacted.

A while back Disney introduced their program Give a Day, Get a Disney Day. This is a program where Disney offers a free ticket to one of their theme parks in exchange for volunteering a day to a local organization.

A great idea that has the ability to generate tremendous goodwill for Disney and make a positive impact within local communities.

However, I wonder if they realized the torrent of volunteers they would unleash on unprepared volunteer organizations.

It has been a crazy couple weeks, so I haven’t had as much time as usual to write. However, I have had a couple very positive experiences lately that I thought were worth sharing. Both have to do with accountability.

The first was with the Sony Store. Recently I purchased a Digital Voice Recorder and a package of rechargeable batteries for the recorder so I could re-charge the unit overnight (rather than replacing traditional batteries).

I recently read an article “Consistency Is Far Greater Than Rare Moments of Greatness” by Scott Ginsberg The Nametag Guy.

In it he makes the point “Because ultimately, consistently is greater than rare moments of greatness. And people only give you credit for that which they see you do consistently.”

We’ve all heard this expression, but I was reminded recently how important this adage is by an experience I had when I was a young Account Executive with one of Canada’s largest advertising agencies.

A large international client from Boston was in Toronto for a day of meetings and I was responsible for making sure that lunch was available.