Nobody seems to want me to blog about “Maggots in our Mushrooms.”  I have been planning that post yesterday and today, but tomorrow is another day.  Normally I am up on the blogs mentioning Comcast but today someone beat me to it.  I received an email with a link to a TechCrunch blog:  “Survey of Insular Media Elite Says Twitter is Better Than Facebook for Business.”  First let me say that I am not shocked that Twitter is better for business than Facebook.  We are in both spaces and we definitely know Twitter is a better space to engage with your Customers.  There is an easy reason why Twitter is so good:  “What are you doing?”  Think about all the market research that goes into answering that very question.  Now you can go to Twitter Search and get the answer to the question.  As a business you can easily learn how people use your product or interact with your company.  

This TechCrunch post was about an Abrams Research Study of over 200 social media leaders.  There were other interesting, although not shocking, tidbits in the survey.

1. Which social media service would you be most likely to pay for?

1. Facebook 32.2%
2. Linkedin 29.7%
3. Twitter 21.8%
4. YouTube 13.4%
5. MySpace 1.5%
6. Digg 1.5%

2. What social media service would you advise a business pay for?

1. Twitter 39.6%
2. Linkedin 21.3%
3. YouTube 18.8%
4. Facebook 15.3%
5. Digg 3.0%
6. MySpace 2.0%

3. Which social media service will be the first to die?

1. ImInLikeWithYou.com 41.1%
2. Bebo 12.4%
3. FriendFeed 8.9%
4. Meetup.com 8.4%
5. Flixster 6.9%
6. Digg 5.0%
7. Last.fm 3.0%
8. Other 14.4%

None of the information above was shocking to me, but certainly interesting.

Now to the “shocked” part of my day.  I know it seems that we have been mentioned with regards to our social media efforts.  Recently Mashable labeled us one of the the top big businesses in social media, and I was wowed by that.  I have always been shocked by any press or blog posts.  I never considered myself to be a “social media” person, just a simple service guy talking to Customers.  I tried to learn as people provided feedback.  But this report was based on a survey of top social media people and for them to label the work of my team with the likes of @Zappos, @BarackObama, @CNN, @JetBlue, and @ScottMonty is amazing.  There are such great people representing companies that are on the list as well as others that are not.  I am just amazed and thankful for such recognition.  It is a credit to all those that helped me and the amazing team I work with each day.  I do not think I will ever be comfortable with all the discussion about me but being on this list really made me feel very special today and I want to thank everyone for that.   This has been a wild ride and it is really my team and all of you. Sorry for the wordiness but I am actually lost for words today.  Thank you.

Here is the complete list:

4. Which corporation has done the best job of using social media? (Respondents were asked to choose

one; these were the most popular choices, ranked accordingly)

1. Zappos (online shopping site)
2. Obama (campaign and presidency)
3. CNN
4. Comcast (“Comcast Cares)
5. Jetblue
6. Dell
7. Burger King
8. NPR
9. New York Times
10. Ford

What do you get when you add together Ian Schafer, Brian Morrissey and Gary Vaynerchuk?  A lively discussion on social media and business participation.  Immediately when I viewed the video on Friday I knew I wanted to take the opportunity to share it here.  Not only are they great minds when it comes to social media, they make points that every business needs to hear.  A few weeks ago I did a presentation about business blogging and the person that represents that to me?  GaryVee.  Not that every business should act the same way he does, that is not the point of social media.  We should not try to be someone we are not.  In my opinion the key to Gary’s success is his passion.  That is what it is all about.  I have a passion for Customer Service, and that comes out in everything I do.

So what is the key to hiring for social media?  It all comes down to that passion.  Most likely you already have that person within your organization.  Instead of hiring that expert, tap into this passionate person to represent the brand.  When I hire for positions on my team I am always striving to hire the most passionate people.  They are always successful and they do a great job at representing the brand.

The key for any business to understand is people will be talking about your brand whether you are there or not.  If there are flaws within your organization they will be magnified in social media.  So it is important for the organization to identify and work on these issues.  I will say , from experience, social media is a great place to learn the pulse of your Customers.  It is not a statistical sample of opinion but it is certainly a sample of the loudest opinion.  My favorite part about the space is how well it brings the Customer story to life.  If you work for an organization that is looking to improve, gathering feedback from blogs and other social media spaces is phenomenal.  People may like to look at numbers, but when they relate to a story things really change.

The converse is social media will reward organizations that have a positive way of doing business.  The way to measure this is simply do a search for Zappos.  Their model is about allowing and teaching social media to their employees.  It is the model to build from.  It comes down to their policies and how they are so well liked by their Customers, such as 2 way shipping. 

Another fun topic that is brought up is the famous sleeping tech video impacting a company I know.  This is a great lesson for companies and why it is so important to listen to your Customers through all channels to improve the experience.  Ultimately something like this can come out.  The reason I actually love the example is it was a driver for my company to listen closely to social media.  It then led to the work my team and I have been doing over the past year or so.  In the video there was some discussion about my own worth to Comcast, but I want to say a few things on this.  My worth is really because of the great team of people I work with.  It is also why I am a big believer in having a team involved in social media.  This allows everyone to take part in the conversation.  Also if one person does leave there are other great people to step up to the plate.  At Comcast we have a number of great people involved in social media, include @ComcastBill, @ComcastBonnie and @ComcastGeorge.  We also have many other great team members involved in other social media spaces or working behind the scenes to ensure we are successful.  That is how you can build a social media Customer advocacy team to last.

Recently the economy has hit home for me.  Many of my friends lost their job at my former employer, Advanta Bank.  The company due to a variety of factors impacting the credit market is downsizing from about 700 people to around 400.  When I was there it was about over 1000.  I am really sad because it was a great place to work, mainly due to the people.  There was a rare atmosphere where most people in the company were actually friends.

As I have thought about the current environment and all those that have lost their jobs I have wondered how many companies and individuals have thought more short sighted, whether it be through layoffs or cuts in expenditures to meet lower expectations for the market.  Is the right move trying to make the number today or for years to come?

For Valentine’s day I decided to make a special dinner, including crab cakes from a little place we have grown to love. the Tabora Farm and Orchard Country Store.  This little place has all kind of goodies, including great baked goods and a nice selection of fresh foods.  So what can this little store teach us about doing it right in an economic environment like this one?  Well this store has been around since 1990.  It is very cramped and in need of a little clean up (although I love it the way it is).  I am sure the company, just like all businesses is hurting right now, but walking in there was no sign of that.  Actually there was a sign, one that caught my eye.  It talked about how they are going to be closed on Tuesdays for the next month or so as they renovate the place.  Wow, they are actually not pulling back, but investing for the future.  That is the way it should be done!  I am sure this is not their busy time so it will not impact their Customers too much but as things rebound they will be so ready.

How many businesses are busy closing locations or downsizing due to the current environment?  Now I agree closing poor performing locations, especially when in the past there was over expansion (think Starbucks), that does make sense to do that.  At the same time how many retailers are pulling back on planned renovations.  Wouldn’t now be the perfect time, especially as there is less foot traffic?  Now is a great time to redefine your business.  Layoffs may still be inevitable in some areas, but maybe it is time to rejuvenate other areas of the business.  Maybe look for some of the best minds that can add immediate value to your long term planning.  Instead of cutting Customer Service, revamp it and create the best experience.  As the economy improves your Customers will remember being treated right.  Are the tools your company uses outdated?  Work to improve them and use added resources to further train your employees.  This may not help companies make the number for the current quarters, but it will add to the profit margins for a long time to come.  It will also assist the overall economy in expanding therefore making prospects for future growth even sooner.

We can be our own stimulus package, just in the way we approach these tough times.

This is a question I have been asked numerous times.  My answers have almost all the same.  I simply ask 2 easy questions:

1. What are you trying to accomplish?
2. Are your Customers on Twitter?

Before deciding to venture into social media, it is important to understand your own audience, where they may be located and have clearly defined goals.  For Comcast my team has been involved in numerous social media spaces.  Our goal has been 2 fold:

1. Meet the Customer where they already are
2. Try to assist when we can

I have always found Twitter to be a great space.  The reason for this is we know our Customers are there and Twitter has a strong searchability that is also timely.  When we look at spaces we do look at the searchability and how quickly we can obtain the information from our Customers.  For this we can easily use Twitter Search.  There are 2 other benefits to Twitter that can be used for any business.  First and foremost is the ability to build relationships.  Nothing is more powerful than the relationships with Customers, or prospective Customers.  I have built relationships in this space and now also work with the companies involved.  Now that is because they had a good product, but I will say it is great knowing that they are there if I need them.  The other benefit to Twitter is when people are responding to the question “What are you doing?” many times they are saying how they use a product or interact with a business.  That is useful intelligence.

It does seem more and more people are turning to social networking, such as Facebook or Twitter.  According to a recent Pew Research Report , as of December, 2008 11% of “online” American adults have said they use a service like Twitter.  Now as @criticalmass asked me “if I would walk up to 100 people on the street, would I expect 11 to have heard of Twitter,” I would not expect that.  But I think if you were to ask a broader question involving other social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or MySpace I think you would find the numbers even higher.  The other aspect is not so much the number but the actual trend.  In May, 2008 Pew found 6% were participating on spaces like Twitter and in November, 2008 that number was at 9%.  That is a very fast climb.  

Another interesting piece to the study was the breakdown of the age ranges.  Unlike other social media spaces, Twitter has an older crowd, with a median age of 31 compared to 27 for MySpace, 26 for Facebook and 40 for LinkedIn.

Beyond these stats the report talks about how Twitter users are more connected  via electronic devices.  This is not shocking given the amount of early adopters in the space.  The other discussion in the report is how Twitter users gain their news information.  Not surprisingly it is via electronic means.

As we have seen, more and more people are joining spaces like Twitter.  I know in Facebook I have been meeting more and more people, many of whom I never expected to be in an electronic space.  As social media continues to become more mainstream, it will be important for companies to view this as another channel to communicate with their Customers.  Where are your Customers?

First I want to applaud the crew of US Air flight 1549.  The calm and cool demeanor of this hard working crew really came through in this incident.  It is the type of crew you hope for during any flight (and truthfully the type of crew I have usually seen on flights).  They did a fabulous job in saving the lives of the passengers and the crew.  I have enjoyed the opportunity to see their accolades, especially when they came on the field for the Super Bowl.  They are the ones that truly deserved a standing ovation.

A few weeks ago I started to recieve the Wall Street Journal print edition.  Years ago when I worked for an investment firm I received the paper each day and enjoyed reading it.  I forgot how much I missed it.  The funny thing to this is I received the paper because of Skymiles from Delta Airlines.  I am actually now receiving a number of magazines due to an offer from the airline.  My wife told me I would receive a number of blog posts by reading it each day, and she was right.  The trouble I have had was narrowing what I wanted to talk about.  I hope to do a better job in the future.  This brings me to an article I read today:  “Why Fliers Can’t Donate Unused Tickets.”

This article points to a number of flaws within the airline industry.  First and foremost is the various pricepoints for most flights.  The article in summary states that you can not donate unused non-refundable tickets for charities like, the Make a Wish Foundation (one of my favorites).  There are a variety of excuses that the spokespeople use, such as costs (like they would not have a fee for that), security concerns (TSA says no problem), fraud, hording of tickets, potential resale of tickets (oh no, someone else could profit off of the various rates for airline tickets).  Ultimately this would all be solved by having single prices for routes and not have cheap prices one day and expensive prices another day.

Now truthfully I do not anticipate the airline industry to change their pricing model immediately (although I would love it if one did).  But this was not a difficult piece to differentiate yourself from competitors and put a nice foot forward.  I am sure there was much discussion regarding what would be said to the reporter regarding the issue of donating unused tickets.  Instead of these variety of excuses, wouldn’t a brand have done wonders in differentiating themselves by saying something like “that would be a great way to help some charities that can benefit from our services and we are working on a program to do that easily with certain approved charities.”  I know if I would have read a quote like that I would be much more likely to select that airline.  It would have even been better if they said, “hey that makes sense and we will implement that.”  Okay I am pushing it with that quote.

After my last post on airlines, I started to notice minor things within the industry that I was thinking we were on the brink of something changing.  After the crash of US Air flight 1549 and the reaction to the crew and US Air toward the crash victims, I thought things would change.  In fact I wrote a post but never published on how great US Air was trying to make sure the passengers of that flight were cared for.  I actually wanted to write kudos to them for a job well done.  I was comparing the handling of that accident to one from another airline in Colorado.  It was a definite improvement.  Unfortunately this article took an already battered industry down another notch.  And, in my opinion, that was their own doing by the manner they responded to the question.  Now I would anticipate some backlash regarding donating tickets, and then eventually companies changing policy one by one.  How long do you think that will take?

UPDATE:  Just as I was going to bed, I noticed a link on the Consumerist regarding United Airlines discontinuing their India call center for complaints in favor of written complaints.  Okay things might be going a different direction.  Check out this Seattle Times Story:  “United to Stop Taking Complaints by Phone.”  That is one way to make complaints go away.  Now to be fair they will take complaint from their largest Customers.

This is a post of the kind of luck I have.

I thought my drive home yesterday was an adventure.   I had to stop at Wawa to pick up milk, so I also picked up  a family soup.  Well I drove the 5 minute ride home.  I got out of the car and went around to the others side to pick the bag of milk and the soup.  To my surprise the entire container of soup spilled all over the mat in the car.  Yes a very large container of potato soup now completely empty.  I was so happy that I purchased rubber mats.  Of course that was dinner, so it was time to find soemthing else.

I made it through that, but I did not even realize what a nothing event that really was until this morning.

So today I had my normal routine.  I get up around 6:00 AM.  For those that know me I am not a morning person.  I am very happy staying up all night, but not all too pleased to get up in the morning.  I enjoy my coffee, reviewed emails and updated Twitter.  Lily came down too so she watched TV.  Finally around 7:15 I went up to take a shower and finished getting ready for work.  Of course this is after my 3rd cup of coffee.  So I take a quick shower.  When I got out I heard Lily talking to Robyn on the monitor.  I was okay with Lily waking Robyn because it was time to go anyway.  I got dressed and went in to visit my two precious girls.   I just did not realize how precious Lily (Our 2 Year Old) really was.  I opened the door and to my surprise this is what I saw:

"Hi Daddy!"

You may not recognize the material that is on Lily, but it is Desitin.  Yes the same cream that is used on the cabooses of little ones.  Actually to be precise this is 2 tubes of Desitin.  Well it was more than just what you see.  It was on other furniture, throughout the floor.  Oh and it was even…

Our Precious Robyn

…all over our precious Robyn.  Do you know how hard it is to get Desitin off?

So this is a glimpse into what it is like to be Frank.  So how is your day going?

I try to avoid talking specifically about Comcast on this blog, but today is an exception.  I avoid this because Comcast will be introducing a blog in the future and that is the appropriate forum (Mark, I know you will come across this in the your search, no need to include in our newsletter because I may be a little bias).  Yesterday I received a few Tweets regarding a Wired Magazine article “The Dark Lord of Broadband.”  In the article there were some valid criticisms that Comcast is working on, and other commentary that I would like to clarify.  I am doing this on my own and this is simply my opinion.

In the opening of the article it refers to the company as arrogant, unresponsive and overpriced.  Some may feel this way about Comcast but our goal is never to be arrogant or unresponsive.  I think our products are very valuable to most of our customers but everyone has their own opinion on pricing.  What I am very upset about is the way the reporter made it seem like these are traits of Brian Roberts. In my opinion this does not describe a man I have a lot of respect for.  Yes I have met Brian on a number of occasions.  My first meeting with Brian was via email before I even thought about working for Comcast .  What occurred was after his wife had a battle of cancer, Mr. Roberts made a very large donation to bring new, important technology to a Philadelphia area cancer center.  For those that have read this blog in the past you know this is a cause close to my heart.  I shot Mr. Roberts an email thanking him.  He responded personally and with the warmth I have seen him share in person.  It was this email that when I was considering looking at positions within Comcast became my reason to be willing.  I could tell by the warmth of the response that this leader was looking to improve the Customer experience.  Otherwise there would have never been a reply.

Comcast has always had a number of charitable initiatives from the contributions to causes in areas we serve to Comcast Cares Days (No they did not name days after me, but rather I “borrowed” the name from this great cause).  I knew of this because I too assist many charities and I have had the privilege to be part of events that were sponsored in large part by Comcast.

Since joining Comcast I have had a number of interactions with Brian.  To me he seems a little introverted (as I am) and always thinking.  He actually reminds me of another CEO that I have had a great respect for in the past:  John “Jack” Brennan former CEO of the Vanguard Group.  Both men have an intensity and thought process that is amazing to see in person.  This intensity is not arrogance but rather part of this thought process.

One of the first in person interactions I had with Brian was the day we moved into our new building.  I came in early to unpack and get settled in before the rest of my team started.  It was October, 2007 and I was one of the first to be in the building.  Brian was walking the halls by himself after the grand opening presentation.  He saw me in the office and came in to chat.  The conversation started with your typical pleasantries, but quickly evolved to service.  He was very concerned about our performance with Customer Service and he was asking my opinion.  I know he did not want service to be at the level it was at.  He was making changes to ensure that we as an organization headed into a different direction, including bringing Rick Germano to corporate to serve as the Senior VP for Customer Service operations.  But this is a change that we knew would take time before it was seen by our Customers.  What we can do now is concentrate on 1 Customer at a time.

Later that same day I had the privilege to meet Brian and his family.  During that interaction it was also easy to see that he is a family man.  Once you see people in this type of setting you begin to realized they are just like you.

In the article it does talk about many of the network management discussions that have occurred.  In my opinion it is that, more than my work, in which demonstrated the benefits of being part of the conversation.  Were mistakes made?  In my opinion, yes, but that is the nature of being human.  Even companies like Comcast are human in many ways.  Mistakes will be made.  What you have to do is learn from them and change going forward.  This too was mentioned in the story as engineers were encouraged to talk openly about the changes to network management.  That is the story here.

The final section of the article discusses my work referring to me as “Famous Frank,” a nickname from David Cohen, Executive Vice President.  In this section, in my opinion, makes me seem like a rebel within the company.  I want to be clear that I have always had the encouragement of senior Customer Service leadership and other senior leaders in the company.  At the time we started on Twitter my team and I were already active in other social media spaces and this was a natural progression.  We were referred to this space by @ComcastScott and we could see value in it.  But since there were not any books on the proper way to engage with Customers we had to learn as we go.  We started “tweeting” in April, but in February I was named manager of Digital Care (I was promoted in the summer to director).  As you can see from that progression, the company already saw value in social media and the work of my team.  We are advocates for the Customer, but it is my belief the same should be true for anyone in a Customer Service role.  I can assure you that I have shown this during every interview prior to joining the company so I know the interest of having someone like this in Customer Service is prevalent in the leadership in Philadelphia.  In my 17 months at Comcast I have always been encouraged to represent the Customer viewpoint and question things we were doing.  It helps for everyone to hear the perspective.  So I am not a rebel, unless you see everyone I interact with in the same light.

Now in closing we do have to continue to work on many things, including being more transparent, integrating systems and creating a more consistent experience for our Customers.  It is important for our Customers to see the value of our products and the service we provide.  We will work to do that.  These changes, just like the way we got to this point, will not be created by one person but the collective of all Comcasters.  We will get there!

This past week BusinessWeek.com posted a story called Comcast’s Twitter Man.  Of course I am one of a number of people on Twitter from Comcast.  These positive stories have come about because of the great team I have and their efforts to improve the Customer experience.  I am still shocked by it all.  Whenever a story comes out like this it always brings about questions:  usually scalability and existing Customer experience through other channels such as phone and chat.  This post will answer the question on scalability.  I am saving the discussion on improving the experience through all channels for the future Comcast corporate blog.  That is a topic that is more relevant for that space instead of this one.  But since I am a believer that social media engagement will be important in the coming years, I thought scalability is a great discussion for here.

Jeremiah Owyang is an analyst for Forrester Research.  He likes to ask the difficult questions, and I appreciate that about him.  I look forward to more questions in the future.  Follow this link to see an interview Jeremiah did with me during the Forrester conference in Dallas.  After the BusinessWeek.com story he tweeted the following:

To begin to answer this question I should point out that I personally believe that social media is another form of communication, similar to phone or email.  To me there is no difference.  People post in social media to be heard.  It is really just a question as to who is listening.  I believe in the coming years, as companies begin to understand social media you will see more of it.  If someone has this belief, then they  also must believe that it is scalable.

There are multiple answers in the way in which social media outreach is scalable.  The first and most obvious is as social media continues to expand more and more employees will be participating in these spaces.  If the employees are passionate they will assist.  There are 2 keys in making this successful.  The first is company policies must permit them to do so.  Many companies have been scared of this, but who is a better advocate for the company then the employee.  If they are not then the company needs to review their own hiring practices and the manner in which they treat their employees.  By the way, no matter what the company policy is, employee will still be participating in social media anyway, so it is best to embrace it.  Second is companies should teach their employees how to participate in social media spaces.  @Zappos and other companies do a great job with this.

The other model for scalability (BTW it works with the one above very well) is engagement by a team of individuals.  This too is very scalable, but it requires the right tools.  Many companies over the years have built listening tools or have a listening service.  I personally like our friends at Nielsen Online.  They have great ways to “hear” what is being discussed regarding your brand and strong analysis.   If a company is not listening, they should be.

There are also tools that are used for engagement in social media spaces like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs, forums or many other websites where conversations are happening.   These tools are still being developed by many companies and I believe they will continue to get better.  We have been reviewing a few of them.  One such tool is Radian 6.  This tool not only pulls these conversations into one single place, but you can also assign it to someone to review and reach out to assist.  The tool also gathers the data so you can reference again in the future if necessary.  You can also track how the conversation changes.  With this tool in theory you can have many people assisting Customers in social media.  Here is a screen shot of Radian 6.

Now tools like this will continue to improve in the coming years.  I think the keys to the tools would be speed, yet provide the ability to keep it personal.  I find social media to be about relationships, so it is also key that the tool can make sure the same person is able to assist if someone comes back for help.  I would also love to see it integrated with email communication.  This will further the analysis tools but also a great way to fully understand a Customer story.  At the same time it definitely makes engagement scalable.  There is an ability to have 5 users or 10000.

Beyond the tools, companies have to continue to grow comfortable with allowing the relationships to develop.  It is imperative for anyone working in these spaces to “be themselves.”  Companies must be comfortable that every word said will not be reviewed by many different people.

So to recap here are the keys to scalability:

• Company support
• Speed of response
• Assignability
• The ability to keep it personal

There is no need to go out and purchase these tools yet, although they help.  For now, until you understand the space and how you will use it, tools like Twitter Search or Google Blogsearch will work well.

The tools will continue to evolve as social media will, but it is really making the world much smaller for individuals and companies.  How do you see this evolving?

We have had our share of issues with doctors, but we never wanted their license to practice to be removed.  For those that do not know the story of our Angel Gia, she passed away during a liver transplant surgery 2 months before her 4th birthday.  Even though she passed away during a transplant surgery, I remain an advocate for organ donation.  Today on my ride into work I heard a reference to Richard Batista wanting his ex-wife to return his kidney or pay him $1.5 million.  The brief aspect of the story is Mr. Batista (a surgeon but I refuse to put Dr. before his name because he does not deserve it) donated his kidney to his wife in 2001.  According to his statements, shortly after the transplant she started to have an affair.  Mr. Batista filed for divorce in 2005, which is still ongoing.

Now we are in 2009 and Mr. Batista has decided that he would like to have his organ back or $1.5 million dollars.  Doctors are supposed to abide by ethics.  One I am sure you all have heard is that organs are not for sale.  Doctors are supposed to be above board on all of this.  Mr. Baptista, who I am sure is hurt by his wife’s actions, is being completely off base and is hurting his own profession.  He should understand this well, but obviously missed that class.  I believe he should have his license taken away for this ethical violations, and, truthfully, his poor judgement that will inevitably hurt organ donations for others that are in need.

Am I being oversensitive in this view? 

Please sign up to be an organ donor.

For me everything is about Customer Service.  I believe creating the right Customer experience will pay dividends for years to come for any company.  I also believe that in the coming years Customer Service will be what differentiates companies.  I always like to recognize excellent service.  We receive it all the time when we order a product and it comes as expected.  This is excellent.  But any company, big or small will have a time where a mistake happens.  It is not about the mistake, it is just a question of how it is dealt with.

Last week my wife ordered a package from an Amazon store called 16th Avenue Pharmacy.  I love that name because it reminds me of the small pharmacy we use called Harris Pharmacy in Doylestown, PA.  Anyway my wife ordered the item and it was delivered today.  When she opened the package it was not the correct item.  Well stuff happens.  She told me she was going to send an email about the mix up.  This is where you really begin to judge the service provided by any company.  It is also something smaller companies tend to excel at.

Within minutes of sending the email, the phone rang.  She missed it because she was talking to me.  Then her cell phone rang, which was missed.  So she went to check the caller ID to call back, but when she did, an email popped up saying “I am so sorry about this mispick!!! You will have the bird house tomorrow!!   Thank you and sorry!”  This is my favorite style of email, not a form letter (I can do a whole blog post on emails written in letter style), but a sincere message that truly conveys an apology.  But what made this more special was the speed in the response and I also like that they tried to call over the phone first for the personal touch.

We have all experienced “mispicks” (my new favorite term) and the way it has been handled can vary a great deal.  I have been questioned regarding the product received.  I have also been told to return an item before the correct one will be issued.  There was none of that.  In fact Carolyn wrote back to find out how to deal with it.  Mark, the president of the company, responded “Don’t even worry about it keep it on me!'” This is what service is about.  Not about the mistakes that happen, but how you handle them.  Kudos to Mark and 16th Avenue Pharmacy!

Have you had a situation where a company handled a mistake well and it impressed you?