Seeing Glasses in a Whole New Light

If you wear glasses you know that shopping for them at the traditional places like LensCrafters and EyeMart etc.. is mildly, well…. antiseptic. One thing it is NOT is sexy or fun. Stores are boring with bad lighting, doctors smocks, mysterious pricing and ultimately, very expensive. I found this out first hand recently when I…

Crowd Sourced Onion Soup

Why would anyone buy a cook book these days (other than as a gift) when there are so many great cooking websites with copious free and detailed recipes, videos, pictures and more? Personally, it never even occurs to me to crack one of the many I have. Why? Because of the comments. Yes, a written…

Improving Life on the Road: Inspired Creative Minds

Traveling a lot certainly has its ups and downs (yes.. literally). One of the surprising “ups” is stumbling upon marketing and design brilliance, sometimes in the most unexpected places. For me (admitted marketing geek) I get true inspiration from creative, elegant and insightful solutions that demonstrate deep understanding of the plight of the customer. And…

Sometimes “Good” Marketing Isn’t a Good Idea

I appreciate good marketing. Duh. Especially when you can tell they were thoughtful about the brand (and its touchpoints), understand the impact of customer service, are consistent in the environment and truly 360. But alas sometimes, as I have learned, good marketing may in fact be a red flag. Case in point… the dentist. Recently I was referred…

When Good Service Brands Go Bad

Think of brands known for service and you think of Nordstrom, Enterprise Rent a Car, Ritz, Virgin Airlines, Zappos, Starwood. These are brands known for differentiating themselves by their service DNA. And yet, sometimes even the brands that are known for getting it right, get it wrong. Somehow this is even more devastating then if they…

Email and the Demise of a Civil Society

Have you ever noticed how rude people can be when communicating via email? Especially when the email is to an unknown recipient. It’s as though we’ve all forgotten that there is still a real person on the receiving end of every email. Slipped our minds that our complaint, issue, concern or frustration has to be…

A New Era of Customer Service Is Upon Us. Are Ya Listenin?

The Internet has forever changed the business of customer service. Period. Response time has to be faster, more understanding, more flexible and more, well human. Its amazing to me that in an era of the Zappos’s of the world – where “surprising and delighting” customers with perks like unexpected and free overnight delivery is like…

Twitter – Cutting Through the Clutter

I would describe myself as a moderate Twitter user. My experience at SXSW this fall propelled my interest in and understanding of this new medium and definitely brought it into my daily life. I’ve blogged about my enlightening experience here. There is no question about the real and potential value that Twitter has and it’s…

Score One for El Pollo Loco

Here’s a good LOL for the day. Apparently when El Pollo Loco, the 418 store chicken chain heard about the 11,000 store KFC grilled chicken product launch… if you live under a rock…KFC offered a limited time coupon via Oprah.com for a free KFC grilled chicken dinner… the smaller chain came up with a funny and…

The Fabulous World of Meetup.com

As a resident of a new city with few contacts, Meetup.com has been a bit of a lifeline.  What’s Meetup.com?  Serioulsy, I am shocked at how often people have never heard of it.  Basically it’s the perfect nexus of an online “social” world and real life, in person connections.  Somehow I was unaware of this amazing…