17. October 2008 by kevinmhuff.

I’m pleased to announce, “It is FINALLY here!” What, you might ask?  True “social” networking.  True “social” marketing.

In an hour-long session this morning, hosted by blitztime.com, I was able to:

a) learn more about Social Marketing

b) meet half a dozen Executives in the Boston area and most importantly,

c) have private one-on-one discussions with each of them!

Each conversation was 6-minutes (timed) in length and offered just enough time to discuss what we do and make an actual “connection” instead of just another “follower” or “link” or “friend” all of which are watered-down terms in current social media networks.

So today I’m raving about the guys at Blitztime.com because THEY figured it out and because they CREATED it for us!

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

28. April 2008 by kevinmhuff.

What a week! I just returned home from a whirlwind week in Boston — one of the best weeks I have ever had while on the road. I walked the Freedom Trail, caught the final mile of the Boston Marathon, and had a blast thanks to my friends Robert, Tanzer, Lisa, and Jenna.

Robert, I can’t thank you enough for showing me some of the hidden treasures of Boston, like the clocktower and dome at the Custom House. Plus, the seafood was phenomenal!

Tanzer, I appreciate you leading the lunch charge on Tuesday — it’s a goal of mine to try the best local food around and you did not disappoint.

Lisa, thanks so much for making the trip into Boston just to see and hang with us for a short while — at least we took in some excellent seafood and a quick side trip to the most wicked view of Boston. I wish you the best.

Jenna, my sincere thanks for inviting me to my own private showing of, “Play it Again, Sam” at the Milton Woman’s Club. That was such a great experience and such a treat to enjoy something like that while away from home. I hope you had an incredible opening weekend!

I raise my glass in Cheers to Boston, where some of the friendliest, most hospitable people I’ve met, call home.  May the Barking Crab remain always open!

Posted in Hospitality | 1 Comment »

11. March 2008 by kevinmhuff.

Want to know how special the TV character Norm from Cheers felt each time he stepped foot into that Boston bar?  I experience that feeling when I stay at the Residence Inn in Exton, PA.  Anytime I enter the lobby, whether through the front doors or coming down the hallway from my room…a friendly employee greets me.  Quite often it is Theresa who never fails to call me by name, “Hello, Mr. Huff, is everything OK?  How are you today?”  I love it.  Theresa is the consummate professional in the hospitality industry, which is quite the compliment given the competition that should exist in hospitality of all industries!!

Thanks, Theresa, for making me feel valued at the Residence Inn.  This is the single strongest factor that keeps me coming back.

Visit the Residence Inn in Exton, PA but do it soon — word has it that Theresa is moving on to bigger and better things with an elementary teaching opportunity in the fall.  If you do visit that location, be sure to tell her “hi” from me.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

10. February 2008 by kevinmhuff.

I travel…a lot. Last year (2007) I traveled during 27 different weeks, renting a car at National for many of those days. It’s the life of a Corporate Training Consultant - and I love it! One of the perks is the award miles with airlines, hotels, and car rental agencies, like National.

As a long-standing customer of National, I earn Emerald Executive status every year. There is a higher level and I was sure I had earned it in 2007 so I called National’s Emerald hotline where I met Adam.

Adam took the time to, one by one, count each of my paid rentals, then separately (and again one by one) he counted each of my paid rental days. I couldn’t believe he took the time out of his day to do that to ensure their computers hadn’t made a mistake … and unfortunately, the computers were right I had rented for 83 days and it takes 85 to be an Executive Elite member. Ugh!

Then Adam surprised me again. He said we could challenge the Marketing department to upgrade my status and he started helping me put together my request to be “wish listed.” WOW!!! On top of it, HE submitted it!!!

I haven’t heard back from Marketing yet, Adam said it should take about a week so I have another 6 days to wait…but Adam’s service was above and beyond. Thank you Adam and thank you National Car for keeping employees like Adam in their role!

Feb 12 update: I heard from Adam today, several days earlier than promised. National has approved my status increase in an (this year only) effort to earn more of my business. Congrats, National — YOU HAVE!! Great work, Adam!

Posted in Hospitality, Customer Service | 3 Comments »

24. January 2008 by kevinmhuff.

A co-worker and I were out for a business dinner at Chili’s north of Indianapolis and our server was a wonderful lady by the name of Shaun. Bright, spirited, and eager to serve, she promptly brought drinks and our appetizers were right behind.

When our order came, she stayed to make sure everything was OK, waiting for my co-worker to cut into his steak. It was a little more done than he had requested and she instantly asked if she could take it back…he decided to keep and eat the steak. Shaun came back within 2 minutes and told us she went ahead and took the steak off our bill. Additionally, to ensure our experience was top-notch, she asked the restaurant manager to come to our table. It was a brilliant move on her part because it made our meal that much better and while we had already recognized the incredible level of service Shaun was giving us, we also were presented with this opportunity to tell the manager how impressed we were with his hiring decision.

Very impressed, Shaun. Great service!

Posted in Dining, Customer Service | 2 Comments »

24. January 2008 by kevinmhuff.

Early in 2007, a friend of mine moved to London, effectively giving up his right to watch NFL Football. Fast forward to Kickoff Weekend… and enter, Slingbox!

After almost 3 months of flawless slinging, I made the mistake of changing IP providers and my buddy in London lost access to the slingbox, and more importantly, to DirecTV’s NFL Ticket!!

I shipped the slingbox to another friend…but the router they had on their WICKED fast FiOS network wasn’t listed as supported…

This is where the raving begins.

From my remote location, I started an online chat through the slingmedia website. Kathy was my tech. She was incredible! After a minute of quick chatting, she realized she needed to be chatting with the local host, not me as a remote user. I had my friend at the location with the slingbox start a chat session and Kathy grabbed her as soon as she came on. Kathy maintained her chat with me so I’d be aware of progress, and with the permission of my friend, took over control of her PC and edited the router settings enabling port forwarding. It took all of 2 minutes to complete and we were all back in business!!!

Through it all, Kathy was kind, patient, intelligent, singularly focused on a quick resolution, and all-around wonderful to work with, presenting a decidedly better customer service experience with a technical help desk than I’d experienced in quite some time.

Thank you, Kathy and Sling Media, Inc.

Posted in Web and Internet, Retail, Customer Service | 2 Comments »

30. October 2007 by kevinmhuff.

Service has NEVER existed like this. Never.

I was recently in the market for some background soundtracks for several professional podcasts I’m producing. After hours of searching the web, listening to track after track, I stumbled upon the Music Bakery. What a great selection and after a short time I was able to pick out a few tracks for purchase.

The online purchasing and downloading of tracks gave me almost instant access.

Here is where the REAL service kicks in: I received a personalized video-email from Kelly, making sure everything went smoothly and offering me an opportunity to grab a short-term offer from the Music Bakery. I took them up on the offer and thought I had entered the correct promo code but an oversight on my end caused me to pay full price.

I intended to get in touch with the Music Bakery but as I was traveling I put it off until I could come home. I forgot about my plans to contact Kelly for a partial refund when, about a week after my purchase, I received a phone call from Kelly. She simply wanted to make sure everything went smoothly and that I was pleased with my purchase. WOW. I thanked her for her personal touch and then told her there was one thing I thought went wrong. She immediately applied a refund to my credit card and I thanked her again expecting all was done.

Within minutes, I received another personalized video-email from Kelly addressing our conversation, thanking me, and of course inviting me back at any time.

Kelly, YOU delivered service like I have NEVER had before. THANK YOU.

Do you have an outrageously great rave to share about Customer Service? Comment here for free! Just register below.

Posted in Web and Internet, Retail, Customer Service | 2 Comments »

18. October 2007 by kevinmhuff.

OK … if you haven’t heard the rave-worthy story about Zappos Customer Service, you are probably in the blogosphere minority.

I Heart Zappos is a great blog and evidence of the incredible word-of-mouth / viral marketing tool that is the web. (I’ll post elsewhere about why Seth Godin is wrong about word-of-mouth v. viral marketing.)

I already have Zappos website bookmarked and the next time I need shoes (clothes, etc.) and am shopping online, I will strongly consider purchasing from them.

Seth Godin, a popular author, marketer, and blogger comments that he doesn’t believe this is a PR stunt. The fact he has to do that is evidence of our bent as a society. What the company did for this lady was incredible and do you think for a minute they asked her to tell her story (and their story!) on the web? NO WAY! That would be so transparent it would have backfired and we’d be reading a RANT, not a RAVE. (If you like rants, enjoy this blog by Kevin Mogee.)

I am taking a few minutes today, raving about Zappos, because they deserve it. They did nothing for me…but in a world where crap e-mails with fake feel good stories are so commonplace it makes me sick, it is refreshing to read this lady’s Zappos story. Read the I Heart Zappos blog, you will RIGHTLY place Zappos at the top of your online shopping sites.

What other companies are delivering RAVE-worthy service?

If you have a RAVE, register and publish it here free.

Posted in Web and Internet, Retail, Customer Service | 1 Comment »

18. October 2007 by kevinmhuff.

I recently gave my wife a high quality set of pens I purchased at Office Depot. While away last week on a business trip, she called to inform me one of the pens wasn’t working and asked if I could point her to the receipt. I could not.

She decided to take the pens (without receipt!) to Office Depot and ask for a straight exchange, so this is her story:

“I must have looked lost — having never been in the store before — because when I walked in I was immediately greeted and asked if I needed assistance. I explained the challenge with my new pens, my lack of receipt, and the store employee didn’t hesitate, taking me to the display case where they keep their finer writing instruments. Unfortunately, the exact color pens my husband had purchased were sold out so I couldn’t do an exchange. The employee paused for just a moment, then said, ‘well if these other pens are the same model, would it be OK if I took one of the ink cartridges out of one of them and placed it in your pen to see if it works?’ I was excited he offered because the color of the pens was important to me…overall, it was a wonderful customer service experience.”

Well, the swap worked and my wife is happy with the purchase, possibly even happier with the excellent customer service she received from a store she did not frequent…until now.

Thanks, Office Depot.

Do you have a RAVE? Register and post here for free.

Posted in Retail, Customer Service | 2 Comments »

18. October 2007 by kevinmhuff.

I was dreading my return of some bad headphones to the local Best Buy. It seems most “customer service” experiences these days are really, really horrible. I’ve had quite a few poor interactions with companies, like DirecTV, lately…so when I found myself walking toward the Best Buy front doors I was trying to mentally prepare for the worst.

I was stunned how quickly, cleanly, and hospitably my return was handled. As I approached the Returns desk, there was only one employee working and he was already with another customer. On my way there, another employee noticed and quickly opened another register to help me. One question, “Was there anything wrong with these?” was all I had to answer. The next thing I knew, the smiling employee handed me a receipt that showed a credit was put back on my credit card and we were done.

Way to go, Best Buy! I’ve purchased many, many times at your store, but never have I had service like you delivered earlier this week.

Do you have a Customer Service RAVE? Register and post here for free.

Posted in Retail, Customer Service | 1 Comment »