a fresh response to something not so fresh!

I'll admit it... I'm a die hard bargain hunter, a total sucker for a red tag. Here in Indiana we have a great chain of stores from Michigan called Meijers. Meijers carries everything from from clothing to groceries. (Its my preferred alternative to the world wide chain out of Arkansas) One of the things I enjoy is doing my grocery shopping on Monday after the weekend rush. On Mondays I can get meat on clearance at because it didn't sell over the weekend. I have made many purchases like this and never had a negative experience...until last week. I bought a chicken and went to use it the next day but discovered it did not smell like anything I cared to eat. I threw the meat away and decided to just count it as a loss since I had not kept my receipt (I'm not in the habit of keeping my grocery receipts). Later that week I was in my Meijer store (Goshen, Indiana) and decided to just let the service desk know what had happened. I told the employee there that I expected nothing, but was simply letting them know that they might want to be more careful in the future. She promptly called her manager and asked him to come talk to me. I told him what had happened and assured him that I expected nothing in but was simply informing him. He asked me what I had paid for the meat and I told him it was merely $4 and no big deal. He turned to the customer service desk and told them to take $10 from the drawer and give it to me. Now THAT'S customer service. As far as he was concerned I could have been making the entire story up, but to him it was more important to him that Meijers go the extra mile and retain a loyal customer than to require me to have a "receipt". By the way, before he offered me the $10 I had already told him that this single "bad meat" experience would not keep me from shopping at Meijers in the future.

Thank you Meijers for a FRESH take on customer service!!!

http://www.meijer.com/home.jsp

Bentwood Tavern

In my line of business I travel a lot around the area. Last week my partner and I stopped in at the Bentwood Tavern in New Buffalo, Michigan. The Bentwood is situated in the Marina Grand Resort. http://www.marinagrandresort.com/?mth=bentwood

It wasn't a busy night at the Tavern, but we were greeted by Lee, the food and beverage manager who quickly sat us. Lee stopped by later in our meal to see how we were doing and seemed genuinely interested. He was great! He had that perfect balance of being friendly and conversational, but not intrusive. He also made two great drinks for us! The blood orange martini was almost like eating a piece of orange candy.

Hillary was our server. She was personable and knowledgeable. She provided excellent service to us throughout our entire meal.

We had the opportunity to meet Chef Jenny Drilon who has put together a declicious assortment of entrees suitable for any budget. The tilapia was cooked and seasonsed to perfection! At the end of our meal Chef Jenny sent desserts to us. The bread pudding had a caramel sauce that I could drink by itself! The cuban coffee chocolate cake was light and tasty, just the perfect balance of coffee and chocolate.

The entire evening was very delicious and pleasant, but it was the outstanding customer service that left me with a reason to return!

Brand Autopsy

Last week I heard a presentation by a man who worked in marketing for Starbucks for many years. It was a tremendous presentation! I wanted to share his website with you.

http://www.brandautopsy.com/

I'll try to write some more on this subject later, but in the meantime, go look at this guy's website.

No explanation needed.

Okay so this is how I imagine this conversation went:

Walmart Employee: 'Hello, Walmart Bakery, how can I help you?'

Customer: ' I would like to order a cake for a going away party this week.'

Walmart Employee: 'What do you want on the cake?'

Customer: 'Best Wishes Suzanne' and underneath that 'We will miss you'.