Primer at the recomendation of Warren Lynch (film maker). It was really good and entertaining.
X Men 2 and X Men 3 – Jeez, they are scary violent. I mean, when you go up against Wolverine, he doesn’t knock you out or paralyse you or anything; he puts 6 long metal blades into you and moves them in opposing directions with superhuman strength. He kills you. And the ending of X Men 3… yow, Jean Grey uses telekinesis to tear everyone in a 100 yard radius into what look like 1/4″ blobs of flesh.
Star Trek. Saw it at the Metreon on the IMAX screen last night with Brenden, Charlotte, Jon F and Rick T. Wow. This is the summer’s blockbuster. Very heavy on the attitude, energy, emotion and visuals. A couple plot holes but that’s not what the movie was about. It was more about getting kick-ass backstories for the ST:TOS characters that we thought we already knew and loved. This morning I was exhausted; I think it was because the movie took it out of me. Phew!
Our very nice server at… argh, I don’t remember the name! it’s 1/2 north of Javalencia on Valencia… she made these for us. I requested a unicorn with a rainbow and Michael Shiloh requested a dog :-)
She was cool.
Charlotte and I had a bad pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream a little while back. From my letter:
On about 4-15-09 my girlfriend and I bought a pint of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough at the convenience store at…
We found that it had less chocolate chips and cookie dough than we’ve had in the past. We weren’t very happy with it.
We know that you make a fine product and this was probably an anomaly but we thought you should know.
Thank you…
I included a photo of the ice cream we ate.
Last week I got back this letter.
…and Annie (from the letter) included 2 coupons a free pint of Ben and Jerry’s and a $0.55 coupon off any Ben and Jerry’s product.
This is a fabulous letter. Why? Because it turns a problem into an opportunity for them to make me into a customer for life.
Let me count the ways:
- The letter is signed, in ink, from a real person. That makes everything personal.
- The first thing Annie did was acknowledge the problem. (I might have opened with a brief apology but their approach works too)
- It looks like Annie actually read my letter. She mentioned my problem directly. This wasn’t a form letter.
- They made amends, not just with a replacement but a second coupon to ease me back into paying money for ice cream. It’s a 110% guarantee. Nice!
- The letterhead shows their excellent branding, the design all the way around the edge of the sheet is fun and welcoming.
- She told me that my information was being forwarded to Quality Assurance. This makes me feel like my letter will actually be productive and help them make a better product. Since I obviously care enough to write a letter, I appreciate helping to make the thing I love better.
- They put their phone number, web site and mailing address at the bottom. They obviously don’t mind if I call again… the communication channel is open. They like me. They really like me.
This is the kind of stuff I have read about in Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point”.
Ben and Jerry’s has great customer service. I should remind you, the reader that Ben and Jerry’s is owned by Unilever, a multi-national conglomerate with 174,000 employees. They are, by some accounts “a big evil corporation”. Well darn it if we don’t need more of them!
This is a followup to my first post: Nonyx Nail Gel. It’s gotten so many comments that it’s hard to sort through them.
Please make followup comments here.
And don’t forget to read the original post and other related posts including Fungal Nail Infection Treatment and Zetaclear.
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There are many discussions about nail fungus going on on my blog. Search my blog for the word “fungus” for more.
The International Space Station may be a colossally expensive bridge to nowhere, funded on the backs of the people of the world…
… but it’s going to be flying overhead tonight from 8:50 to 8:55. Since they installed the latest bunch of solar panels, when passing, I hear it’s like the second brightest “star” in the sky! I’m going to check it out with Charlotte.
Cool.
I am looking for a cool, quiet place near SF to try my hand at making cured meats.
Do you have a basement with a tiny space in the corner?
Wouldn’t you like to see some curing meats hanging there? I can pay my rent for the space in home made prosciutto, lonza, mortadello, and salami!
The spot should be cool, dark, generally out of the way and not near a car. No one likes gasoline flavored meat!
I was working on inserting Google Calendar into the SWARM blog and… :-(
