Photography has been a passion of mine for almost – well, too many years (chuckle). Even as a kid I used my Dad’s 8mm movie camera to make a stupid little movie. I cut a door in a cardboard box. The box was large enough to fit over one of my friends. I started the movie camera (no sound in those days), had the kid in the box exit through the cut door, then and stop the camera. I repeated this process until all the kids in the neighborhood took a turn. So when the movie was shown, you watched 10 or 12 kids crawl out of a box big enough for one, one after the other. I thought it was cool anyway.
OK, Back to my original topic. Generally, I try to use my blog to educate you the reader and share my work. This post will vary from that concept. Why you ask? As a small business owner, I realize the importance of customer service. I strive to make that my way of life. At a recent networking meeting, we talked about examples of poor customer service we experienced here in Lake County, OH. It was interesting to hear the local businesses that made the list. Here they are:
- Heinens – Mentor
- Giant Eagle – Willowick ( the word Horrible was used)
- Giant Eagle – Willoughby
- Giant Eagle – Mentor On The Lake (One employee was named specifically)
- Active Plumbing – Painesville
- Lowe’s – Mentor (mentioned by several)
- Home Depot – Diamond Center
- Time Warner Cable – Painesville/Concord
- AT&T – One of our members has been waiting since Dec, 2012 to get a fax line transferred.
Those are some major names in the area. So my question is: What’s been your experience at these businesses? Good, Bad or other? Feel free to speak your mind.
I hope my customers have great things to say about my studio, A Thomas Image. If you see my business headed in the direction of those listed above, please, please, please take the time to tell me so. I would really, really, really like to know!
I have great experiences at Heinen’s Mayfield. Adele in seafood always has a recipe in her head to tell you how to cook any type of fish-and the guys there and in the meat dept are super helpful. The dairy dudes are great too, especially for those of us who are vertically challenged and can’t always reach the top shelf. I like that they all recognize me and say hello-but that goes two ways. How often do we treat service people like they are invisible? Teresa and Ann in prepared foods know my favorites and readily suggest other options we might like-and we usually do!
All that being said, my pet peeve is bagging. In my perfect little Jessie World, all naggers would be trained to keep dairy, produce, meats, dry goods and cleaning products separate. The training should go like this….you are a single mom shopping with 3 children. You have 30 minutes to check out, drive home, unpack and put everything in its proper place in the fridge…and then get your children to soccer, PSR, and track…you get awards based on your shopper reports…and get to keep your job. We won’t get into my refrigerator organization but safe to say it coincides with my packing preferences. So until then, I am the crazy lady who puts up one canvas tote at a time with the related items and leaves space between them to help naggers figure it out:) One lady said “they are just Kids” I said, well let them spend their entire paycheck on food and figure out what to do with the damaged produce of the leaky milk…even kids can figure this out.
Sorry for my lengthy digression, you did ask!