Comments

Linda: I agree wholeheartedly. Some of this is training. Some of it is selection. Some people have never considered that it is their job to help customers solve their problems. This requires role-taking skills. Many leaders lack it and so are not aware that their employees need it.

Bob

Posted by Bob Niederman at December 15, 2004 9:17 PM

Tom, don't forget the not-so-new kid in town - DHL, they will provide cost-effective solutions.

Posted by Mike at December 15, 2004 9:32 PM

Its face off time folks !!!!

.... my middle name is David and I'll face any Goliath !!

My humble rebuttal ...

William, the UPS employee, said, "But this won't go out tonight. We can't possibly get everything here packaged and shipped out tonight."

I think thats ...straight Talk !!!

Linda - " put everything back in my bag and left William and his co-worker dumb-founded by my behavior" -

Well, thats your preogrative !!!

Linda:"In a service business, you need to help the customer accomplish her mission, even if that means suggesting that your competition might provide better service on this particular occasion." -

I agree, but not mandatory. Did William know that some company across the street, would do all that service (sic lip service!!) For whats its worth syndrome ????

Linda.. Think again .... WOW!Store deals with UPS..why ??????

Linda, would you like me to change my online ordering patterm with the Wow!Store, jsut because TP.com uses FEDEX or DHL ?? No o... not threating..I love TP materail too much to do that:)- .. I'll trust that TP.com connects with the right providers for the right reasons.... Do you Linda ??

BTW Linda... I'll forget the negative comments on poor William.. whoever the heck he his ..it sounds more like character assination...as this time a whimsical rant of yours ...

hmmmmmmmm...Linda let me know if your Proivider delivers package with the service levels that you paid for !!!!!!

The "Take it or leave it" is not an attitude that will bring customers back to your business. "

did you actually take the attitude that Williams ave you Linda and try see what alternatives were offered ??

yeah yeah yeah......whats good for Goose has to be good for the Gander.. correct ???

Looking forward to rebuttal, chatter and discourse...from the community... !!

This Blog has bee fingerprinted... Please do not PULL !!

Posted by /pd at December 15, 2004 10:35 PM

Great post, but guess what. This happens everyday. I don't doubt that at some fedex office someone pissed off a customer and they went to ups and got better service. Just be thankful we have choices (fedex, ups and dhl)!!!! Not having choices or alternatives is a problem.

Take care all,
Chuck

Posted by chuck at December 15, 2004 11:02 PM

Linda:

No doubt, a harrowing story about the from-now-on-to-be-called OOPS Store. But, you obviously haven't been to a U.S. Post Office lately--William et al. at UPS actually have a leg-up on the USPS folks. Anyway, I guess we know why the primary part of the UPS/OOPS trade dress is that endearing shade of brown...

Posted by Lee H. Igel at December 15, 2004 11:08 PM

Lee: "William et al. at UPS actually have a leg-up on the USPS folks" .. WILIAMS et all ARE THE UPS folks !!! PERIOD!!

Posted by /pd at December 16, 2004 12:01 AM

Is it just me or does anyone else have a problem deciphering what on earth /pd is talking about most of the time?

Posted by Travis D at December 16, 2004 12:10 AM

eh ?? maybe its just you Travis... let me know if I am wrong... after all .. tis the first time... me is seeing you comment ..hmmmm from the time this blog went live on July /04 !!

Posted by /pd at December 16, 2004 12:33 AM

What can brown do for you?

Hey, they have an award winning ad campaign!!!!

Posted by Steve Yastrow at December 16, 2004 12:42 AM

It's definitely not just you Travis.

Posted by Em at December 16, 2004 1:34 AM

so what's now Linda, do you consider that the lovemark UPS has broken your heart? meaning, that you don't want to see it again.

I like the concept of the lovemark and though I haven't yet read the book. But I see it as a relationship with your lover, you may forgive for mistakes, but once it betrayals you, you'll think more than twice before you forgive and come back. And most often it's - never.

would you aggree with that?

Posted by mantautas at December 16, 2004 6:59 AM

Sorry, but I won't be engaging in any follow-up dialogue on this subject today. It's 6am now and I've just come home from the hospital where my first grandchild was born at 2:46am. So right now, I love UPS, FedEx, DHL, USPS and every one of you!

Just three quick notes for PD: (1) I did not say UPS lost a customer; I said the UPS Store lost a customer...big difference (2) I did not blame the problems on William. Read again my 2 reasons for saying they lost a customer. (3) Neither the package in question nor my choice of vendors had anything to do with the Tom Peters Company. TPC is one of several valued clients and certainly won't be changing their shipping options because of anything I might say or do.

Granny's gotta get some sleep now, guys. Talk amongst yourselves.

Posted by Linda Fatherree at December 16, 2004 7:38 AM

Cool Linda - congratulations! The UPS story though is relevant in that we must "fire" poor customer service/products - that is feedback prized in free enterPRISE!

And yes "pd" you are totally out of whack - your understanding of the universal business language of English is subpar at best! English is a 2nd language to me so "I feel your pain" but please don't spread immature, poor quality, lazy minded rants - and never put me on one of you mail lists again - thanks. However, it seems your business acumen may be quite adept - so hopefully all is cool between us ..........

Posted by Freeman at December 16, 2004 8:17 AM

OK, I work at a parcel depot. Not saying which one but it's British anyway. We don't have a shop, but we do only have two of us working in the evenings and we manage to enter data, debrief drivers, take phone calls and sort out people that come in with parcels!

I'm not big on the feeling customers pain stuff, I'm uncomfortable with subservience when I'm the customer so I won't do it for other people. I just try and get things done in the first place!

Posted by Mary-Ann Horley at December 16, 2004 9:51 AM

Linda : Con'grats on being a Nanna !!! :)- Yes, you have a lot to catch up on...and I still love you too !!! :)-

Eh ?? Ok I'll stand corrected on whatever it means on a "poor qaulity" rants, yet to see a rant which follow grammatical english rule set. "Lazy minded" ?? I beg your pardon !!...let me get that point straight across :)-

Freeman, when did I put you on my email list may I ask ?? My protocol of engagement is never to email bloggers, unless asked, I normally take their feed..so its pretty wacky that you say I have sent you an email..but If I did, I apoligize. There must have been a darn good reason.I may have published something under the creative commans banner. BTW, do you have a blog Freeman?, I'll like to see yours. Mine is here on the subject of SCM ( for the ones with 'subpar' industry knowledge, its on companies like DHL, FEDEX, UPS, PURULATOR etc).

http://peterdawson.typepad.com/scmv20/

I have to agree with Mary-Ann, the main priority is to get things done in the first place !!

Posted by /pd at December 16, 2004 10:04 AM

Lump the USPS in with UPS as an aging dinosaur that still doesn't understand The Golden Rule of Marketing - Do unto others before they find someone else to do it with. It's just common sense. Send 'em both to the scrap heap.

Posted by Drew at December 16, 2004 10:19 AM

For me this is a very good example of my definition of "marketing". Marketing is to Catch & Keep Customers. This definition implies that ever one in an organization should be engaged in marketing which certainly William and his co-worker was not.

And the result? They (i.e. UPS) lost a customer.

Keep up your good work, boys.

Posted by sjakkmatt at December 17, 2004 7:36 AM

"What can Brown do for you?" Let me count the things. Working in my home office the other day with someone who helps me out. Both of us on different floors of the house when we hear a truck leaving. There at the front door sat two packages delivered from UPS--great so far! Alas, the fateful notice was also tacked to the door alerting me that the UPS Driver had whisked the third package away due to no one being there to sign for it. But we were here... While the tracks to the Brown truck were still hot in my driveway, I phoned the UPS 800 line (you can't phone your local site directly...) where I punched in close to 50 numbers, listened to ghastly music (versus the amazing stuff you'll hear on the Tom Peters Company line--Tom LIVE YES!) and proceeded to feel my blood pressure rise when the voice on the other end told me they would deliver the package tomorrow. Except I was going to be out of here tomorrow in meetings!!! Okay, the voice assured me calmly, I could pick the package up at my local UPS holdout--after 7 PM and before 8 PM. Launching one more pleading request, explaining that getting to the UPS spot, given its location near the airport and mall and the season of giving and buying that was in full force the drive was no small feat and would take an hour, I asked if the driver couldn't swing back. No dice--and given that I had been on hold or on this call for a near half hour, the driver probably really was in some remote location far away from my driveway...

Hearing a truck coming down the drive, I deluded myself thinking it might be the brown one again. Not so--there was the FedEx driver (an awesome always cheery woman) at my door, ringing the bell and dropping off the goods with a smile.

The drive took an hour that provided a great time to hang out with my daughter. I alerted the woman at the counter that I would fill the business in that had shipped with them about my service.
Right in front of my eyes, she took on that old Lily Tomlin character, Ernestine who worked for THE Phone Company, that look with the glazed eyes of apathy--that character known for the credo--"We're the phone company, we don't have to care."
What can Brown do for you?

Posted by Pam Brill at December 18, 2004 12:12 PM

Linda, I agree with you that in the service industry, people should 'feel the pain' of the customers.

I once had a prolonged discussion with the management of my apartment when they misplaced one of the rent checks (which they found subsequently). Instead of calling me up to ask about the check, they decided to send a legal notice with its attendant charges. They insisted that they did not have the time to call up the tenants, and eventually when they found the check, there was not a word of apology.

I asked them if they would be peeved if they were in my situation, and while they agreed with me, they insisted that they would follow the rule book and use the legal route every time a problem came up instad of first contacting tenants to find out if there was a problem. Finally we came to the conclusion that we had differing opinions on how the service industry should work. My point: Company policy is one thing, but in a real situation, make the customer feel that you understand the problem, and that you can approach it as a real human being, and not 'The Company'.

As Linda said, suggesting a competitor may be against company policy, but makes a customer feel loyal towards you (for your honesty and empathy).

Posted by Anil at December 20, 2004 4:44 AM

Linda, another hair to split:

If I recall correctly, FedEx runs its own offices (as UPS does) but the UPS Store is the former Mail Boxes Etc. franchise. It stands to reason that in its own corporate-owned offices with its own direct employees, FedEx can exert a more strict standard of quality control, training, and procedures than UPS can exert over franchisees which are independent businesses. The two employees you saw there may be the ONLY two employees of that store.

I think we what we have here is a failure of branding: you expected something called The UPS Store to be UPS, with UPS resources behind it. And it wasn't.

Posted by Bob Watkins at December 21, 2004 11:17 PM

Bob, failure of branding is an excellent way to describe the UPS Store. It's just MailBoxes, Etc. with a new sign, which is somewhat deceiving, as it leads you to expect to deal with UPS employees. Certainly the guys in brown would never say they were going to lock the door because they had all the packages they could handle for one day.

Dr. Brill--I know just what you mean. I also work at home and have experienced the "fateful notice." Since then, whenever I'm expecting something I might really have to sign for, I put a big note on my door announcing that I'm in here. Fortunately, it's worked so far.

Posted by Linda Fatherree at December 22, 2004 5:12 PM