The Death of Customer Service?

I feel like I'm about to get my old man swagger on. "Back in my day we actually cared about the customer."

I do think the 'death' of customer service is a bit extreme. Quality service maybe, but every where you go you are getting at least some kind of service. What is it that is killing off quality customer service? Is it lack of compassion? Are people just not capable? Maybe it's the fight for the almighty dollar?

I'm not going to bore you with the details of my recent experiences. It's been nearly 15 years since I have taken a phone call as a service rep. The level of expectations of people today to know their product, to be courteous to their customers, to be prompt, to show compassion is no where near where it was 15 years ago.

What was great about working for the company and with the teams I did back then, we were able to hold each other accountable for each others actions. We knew when someone didn't follow through. We knew when someone had a bad day. We knew when someone just didn't know the job. And having that level of accountability we strove to be better because we didn't want to let the team down.

Maybe it's because we live in a 'me first' mentality today that people just aren't interested in providing that high level of service. Maybe the skill set of today's youth coming into the workforce just isn't as strong as today. Maybe it's the fight to maximize every corporate dollar that corners are cut. Maybe I was just extremely lucky to work with a great group of people. Whatever it is, it's sad to watch what seems to become more and more acceptable today.

Rest In Peace Quality Customer Service.

The Fight

Back at the beginning of the year I wrote a post about New Year's Resolutions. One of those resolutions has been to "get healthy". Actually, I said I wanted to reverse a trend that has been on going for the past 20ish years. Slowly yet steadily I have been putting on weight. The only time in those 20 years that the trend was broken was when I was really sick. Not really the ideal method to use to lose the lbs!

Progress Report: Eight months in and I can say that I have not gained any new weight this year, so I guess you could say I'm 1/2 way to my goal. If I were to be completely honest with myself I know why I haven't been successful. I can sit here and make a bunch of excuses, some slightly valid, most not.

What have I done so far? We modified our diet to lower our carb intake. We didn't go whole hog (yum, pork...) and cut carbs completely. I have to say when this decision was made to reduce carbs I was pretty hesitant. Carbs are cheap and easy and usually really tasty. I was pleasantly surprised to find that shopping for low carb options wasn't as hard as I thought and the reduction wasn't nearly as painful as I was anticipating. I drink more water. This was an easy one. I have a 24oz. water bottle that I take with me just about every where I go. Not only do I always have something to drink, but I'm helping save the environment!!!

I have also been utilizing the gym membership more. Making a conscious effort to go, varying up my workouts to not get bored or stuck in a rut. But on the flip side, this is also an area that I know I have failed. One obvious reason has been the amount of travel that I have done this summer (see I just dropped excuse #1). Working out while away from home isn't easy. I'm not a runner. I never was and probably never will be given the issues with my leg (excuse #2). On the flip side, I'm sure I could get creative and find ways to get some activity in without the aide of a gym close by.

The other obvious failure in this area is the consistency of my visits. Some weeks I'm really good, other weeks not so much. I have tried going in the evening so I'd have my wife and (on occasion) kids with me. That wasn't working so I tried going in the mornings around 8 or 9. That wasn't working either. I felt bad that my wife wasn't able to go with me as we like to motivate each other (excuse #3). So I had the brilliant idea of going before work! My wife had her alarm set to go off at 4:30 every morning, but her morning routine was a slow starting one. I figured if we are up that early (I can't sleep through the alarm) why not get moving and try the gym when it first opens at 5? We made our first trip today and it felt really good. It was also nice to get such an early start at work.

It's a decent start and I feel really good that having someone other than myself to be accountable to will help keep me at it. The popular phrase "by doing something you are always lapping those still on the couch" is front and center for me. Ultimately though the proof will be in the pudding (oh, another tasty food reference!).

Recipe - Cake

In our attempts to cut down on calories we have adopted a new way of making cakes. Well, new for us. I'm pretty sure other people have been doing this for a while. I haven't done the math yet to see how much (if any) we are saving by doing them this way, but I have yet to have a 'bad' cake.

Cake Mix of your choice
2 boxes Fat Free/Sugar Free Pudding mix of your choice
12oz. can of diet soda of your choice
Cool Whip, sugar free or fat free

Tonights cake is a dark chocolate cake mix with chocolate pudding and Cherry Cola Diet Rite. Mix the cake mix, one of the pudding mixes and an entire 12oz can of pop. Cook per cake mix instructions. I have a bundt pan so that's what we use.

In the meantime, or right before you eat your cake, mix the Cool Whip with the other pudding mix and 1/2 to 1 cup of milk (less milk equals thicker icing). Just keep in mind the thicker the icing the harder it is to spread on your cake... If you don't want to refrigerate the uneaten portion of your cake, then just icing the pieces you are eating and put the rest of the Cool Whip in the fridge for later. Obviously if you don't refrigerate your Cool Whip it'll melt and be a real mess.

For a previous version I used a lemon cake mix, lemon pudding (I couldn't find fat free) and a can of Tangerine Diet Rite. If you remember the orange flavored Hostess Cupcakes (they were actually yellow) this is exactly what that cake tasted like. I had also made a Dr Pepper Cake using this recipe which was also fantastic.

Enjoy.

Consent

I'm going to step in on what is a hot topic today. In the news is a story about an 18 year old girl who is being charged and could be labeled a sex offender if she is convicted for being in what I believe is a sexually active relationship with a 14 year old girl. Gay Rights activists have taken the cause on defending the 18 year old and saying she is being persecuted only because this was a lesbian relationship.

When I first heard this story I asked myself how I would feel if my 14 year old daughter was in a relationship with a boy that was 18. To be honest, I found it quite disturbing. While I know my daughter is extremely smart, I don't feel she is close to making a consensual decision when it comes to matters of sex.

I asked my wife tonight what she would do if our daughter was in a relationship with an 18 year old boy. Her response was "oh, hell no!". Then I asked her what she would do about it. (She was not aware of the story before I asked her.) Her response was that she would pull our daughter out of school and home school her. I think that's a drastic decision, but I also think going to everyone but the parents of the other partner is also rash.

So then, what is the age that a person can make a consensual decision? This was also a question I posed to my wife. We both agreed that while under the age of 18, the most the age gap should be is 2 years. I also wouldn't let my daughter or son be in a situation where they were one on one, alone with someone until they were a little older.

Do I think that the 18th birthday is a magical day where our children are all of a sudden endowed with great knowledge, wisdom and the ability to make great decisions? Absolutely not. If I take myself as an example, I wasn't making great decisions until I was in my 30's! I am going to continue parenting with the goal of having open dialog with my children, no matter how uncomfortable the topic may be for me to hear. The goal being that I want my children to be educated and confident that I am here and willing to listen no matter the situation. When they face a difficult situation, they'll know they aren't alone and hopefully will have been given enough time and wisdom to make good, sound(ish) decisions.

Now, enough about how I would handle the situation if it were me. I am disappointed by the parenting involved with the girls in the story that inspired this post. How you can avoid the situation head on and go about every way possible to disparage the 18 year old is very, very wrong. If they had gone to the 18 year old with their concerns about the age disparity or even her parents and nothing was done, then go to the schools. Then the authorities. The way the story has been portrayed by the media, it certainly sounds like the parents of the 14 year old are homophobes and that is disappointing. But if they are only looking at this from the view point that the age discrepancy is too large, then I only scold them on their approach and support them as parents trying to protect and raise their child.

11/22/63

One of my flaws as a person (that I'm willing to acknowledge) is that when I find an author I like, I typically stick with them and don't often branch out. Among my favorites that I like to read are Stephen King, Anne Rice and John Grisham. One look at my "Last Books Read" list will bear that out. Of these three Grisham would probably be considered the weakest of the writers. The funny thing about that is, among the three I really like everything of Grisham's that I've read - there may be one or two works I haven't touched yet. King and Rice have both published novels that I didn't enjoy and on a few occasions couldn't finish.

I just finished 11/22/63 and was blown away with this book. Since I have recovered from my illness of a few years ago, I would say I have become a lot more 'sensitive'. I'm more emotional about things. This book evoked some strong emotions at several points along the way. Yes, Stephen King brought me to tears.

I can easily identify my top four favorite King books and they are (in order of publication date): The Stand, Bag of Bones, Under the Dome and now 11/22/63. Number five, if I were forced to pick would be It, but more for sentimental reasons - the first 100 or so pages are just so hard to get through but once you do, ohh the ride.

11/22/63 is one of those books that hooked me very early. One aspect that really touched me is his integration (though only briefly) of two characters that you grew to love from It. Though the book is considered long (but not close to his longest works) at 849 pages, it never feels it. King does a superb job of 'feeling' life as it was back in the late 50's and early 60's (the primary setting for the book). I felt the joy and the pains that the antagonist experiences (hence my tears).

There was nothing so disturbing in this book that would keep me from allowing my 14 year olds to pick it up and read it. If you don't have an aversion to books longer than 350 pages, have some time to dedicate to reading (you should always try to dedicate time to reading!) then I would strongly recommend this book, even if you aren't a fan or familiar with Stephen King's earlier works.

Happy reading,
Jim

Mawage

Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday. Mawage, that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam... And wuv, tru wuv, will fowow you foweva... So tweasure your wuv.

I was going to write up a long and drawn out post about equality and marriage and what not. But simply it comes down to this:

Just because you're religious belief tells you to think one way doesn't mean that it should impede on the rights of others. If you are against gay marriage I ask you to put yourself in the other persons shoes for just a moment. No, I'm not asking you to pretend you are gay, but let's pretend that there was a different, prominent religion in this country. What if they said you had to be a certain way that went against every fiber of your being - does it make it right for them to pass laws that repress your rights as a human being? I'm not saying you can't feel that way, but I am saying you can't pass laws to oppress someone just because you happen to think differently than them.

There is only one being in this universe that will judge me. What I do and how I think are entirely between me and Him. If I hurt someone along the way, then I should be held accountable for my actions here on Earth. But if I'm not hurting someone, or creating the potential situation for someone to get hurt then there shouldn't be laws regulating my thoughts and/or behaviors.

If you really want to Defend the institution of Marriage, then go after the people who have no respect for it. People like Kim Kardashian, Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich. People who jump ship just because the waters got a little rough or they 'lost interest'.

This issue is no different than having laws on the books to keep women and minorities from voting. We rose above that level of thinking, it's time to rise up again. Everyone is entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Recipe - Mississippi Roast

Is Pinterest evil? If you would have asked me this question about 2 months ago I would have most certainly said yes. I cringed when I heard my wife was creating an account. I knew I would be bombarded with all kinds of crafty ideas (and I was correct!). What I didn't know was that I would be introduced to some incredible food recipes.

A challenge we face in my family is trying to feed a family of 5 near adults (if you ask my wife she'll probably tell you I'm one of those not quite adults...) and do it on a fixed budget. To meet this need I sit down with my handy dandy MacBook on the Sunday before payday and make out my grocery list. I get the wife and kids together and we go through what we need and make a list of meals we want to make for the next two weeks. Then the following Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday I make my way to the grocery store(s) and get everything we need for the next two weeks. My goal when writing out our menu is to try and keep each meal at around $10. Trust me, It's hard to feed 5 adults/teenagers a well rounded meal on $10 and keep them happy!

I'm not sure why I just spent all that time explaining my goal of a $10 meal when the recipe I'm about to share with you doubles that goal. Maybe it's because it's so damn good I just wanted to share it with you? Maybe it's because I plan on sharing future recipe's/meals and show how close to the $10 goal I hit. We don't cook red meat very often so going over goal wasn't that disappointing.

Finally, my wife and I both enjoy cooking. We seem to have our strengths and weaknesses in the kitchen and fortunately they play well off of each other. With sites like Pinterest, AllRecipes.com and Campbells.com it's easy to find and try new ideas.

Mississippi Roast - approx. cost is around $20. We have now had this one twice. The first time was sticking strictly to the recipe and not changing anything up. We do that with new ideas to get a feel for how easy it is to make, how well we like it and if it's worthy of repeating. Then we talk over how we would improve it for the next time. Here is the recipe and how we ended up serving it this most recent time.

Ingredients:
Beef Roast, 2-3lbs (your choice of cut, quality, etc... will drive the cost) ~ $10-15
1 packet dry ranch dressing ~ $1
1 packet dry au jus ~ $1
1 stick butter ~ $.25
Pepperoncinis (find it in a jar where you find olives, hot peppers, etc...) ~ $1 (I used about 1/3 jar each time I made this)
2 loaves of bread ~ $2
Mashed Potatoes ~ $3.50

Place the roast in your crock-pot (I have a 5qt). Cover the roast with the ranch dressing, then the au jus (just pour the packets over the meat, you don't have to prepare them). Place the stick of butter on top of the roast. Place individual pepperoncini's on and around the roast. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

When the roast is done, it will be fork tender so you can shred or just pull apart and serve. Make sure you include the au jus that is in the crock-pot with the meat to complete the flavor (we just ignore the pepperoncini's, they add a nice flavor but not something we eat otherwise).

For our last meal with this roast we decided to serve it open face over some fresh baked bread (I cheat and make the Rhodes frozen bread loaves) with melted mozzarella cheese and mashed potatoes on the side. I shredded the beef, placed it on top of a slice of the bread, added a slice of cheese, microwaved for about 30 seconds to melt the cheese, poured the au jus over the cheese and meat and served with the mashed potatoes. All I can say is WOW. Two of my kids devoured theirs before my wife and I were able to make it to the table with our plates - it was that good. I don't have my receipt for the groceries to give an exact cost but I would estimate this one at around $20.

If you give it a try, let me know how it goes. You can serve the roast in any fashion.

Get The Guns?

Our country is in turmoil and no one can seem to agree on what the proper course of action is to solve our issues. The two biggest issues I see that face us today are the Fiscal Cliff and Gun Control. In my social media circles I see the gun control issue as the bigger of the two right now only because people's emotions are inflamed (and rightly so). The fiscal cliff has been detoured for a couple of months at least because a minor agreement was reached at the beginning of this month. So I'm going to talk a bit about the gun issue.

For these two topics I'm of the opinion that everything should be on the table when we talk about how to solve these two issues. Everything. As those issues are flushed out we can then decide that they are good or bad and then throw them out if needed but they at the very least need to be entertained. Now for my opinions on the gun issue...

My disclaimers: I think most that have read my past posts or see my Facebook status' will know that I'm a pretty liberal leaning guy. I don't own a gun. I've never fired a gun. I've had no real interests in guns because I wasn't raised around them and when I started my family I didn't want them in my house around young children. Now that my children are older I've developed the urge to go to a shooting range and learn how to properly and safely fire a gun. Call it a 'bucket list' item.

The arguments I've read for the pro-gun side center on the premise that guns are only bad when they are in the wrong hands. Right now the majority of the suggestions for solution are to have more guns. I equate this solution to the Cold War nuclear arms race. How many times did we need to destroy the world before we ever felt safe - and did we really ever feel safe? The anti-gun argument seems centered on limiting the guns that are out there for people to own. Get rid of the guns and no one gets hurt. (These are severely paired down here because I just don't want to write a 5000 word essay on all of the pro's and con's of gun ownership in America...)

I do not think the answer is to take away the guns. It would never work. There are too many out there to begin with and we are too deeply entrenched in our 2nd Amendment Rights. Get rid of assault weapons - well, what is an assault weapon? I've seen people struggle with what actually defines an assault weapon. I don't have one (definition or assault weapon) so I'm not going to offer an attempt to define them here. Throw more guns into the fire? Really? So they can eventually end up in the wrong hands also?

The majority of the mass shootings that have occurred lately involve 'legally owned' guns. The guy in Connecticut took his from his mom after he killed her. She had legally purchased them and was within her right to own them based on the laws today. I heard another story where a guy bought an AR-15 for over $1000, fell onto hard times and sold his gun for $100 to get by. That weapon was then used to shoot up a party because the kids that now had possession of the gun weren't invited.

The Conservatives are both right and wrong here. Right in the sense that guns are only bad when they get into the wrong hands. Wrong in the sense that more guns will NOT solve the problem. Here is my suggestion to help with the problems today (and what I love about is that it came from some of the posts I see from my conservative friends): Revamp the gun registration system nation wide. On top of that, implement standard gun licensing, also nationally. Mirror these processes to our current drivers license and automobile registration programs today. (Some of these suggestions may exist today but only in certain pockets of the country, there is no national standard.)

Licensing - If you want to own a gun you have to take classes, both in a class room setting and an actual field usage setting, to show that you know how to use a gun and the importance of gun safety. Included in the licensing process would be a thorough background check that would involve everyone living in the household of the licensee.

• The background check would include medical history specific to mental health services received by anyone in the family. The hurdles encountered to do this should be less today given the technology that exists with national medical databases and the laws that are in place to protect peoples Personal Health Information (PHI) contained within that database. 
• That license would need to be updated every few years and after a few cycles of renewal the licensee would need to retake the classroom and field programs to gain recertification. 
• The license would identify what type of gun (based on training and qualifications) that person would be allowed to purchase. 
• The license would also identify if a person was registered to be allowed to Conceal/Carry. 
• The license would need to be present on a person who was actually carrying a weapon.
• The license would be valid in all 50 States, however if a person moved they would be required to obtain a license in their new State of residence.

Registration - Like automobiles, registration would be an annual requirement. I'm sure we could find a way to do this electronically so that the gun itself would not need to be carried into a government building.

• Registrations would need to be kept with the gun at all times. 
• The registration requirements would help to show that guns are not changing hands to people that aren't properly licensed. 
• A person selling a gun would be required to notify the gun registration agency that a gun was sold with x number of days. 
• The new owner would be required to register that gun with xx number of days.

Laws - Beef up our laws around these two requirements so that when someone doesn't do it, it's a major offense. It should include mandatory jail time and a fine. Lose a gun twice, forfeit your license and remaining guns. Let's get serious about this issue.

I know I probably make this sound pretty easy and recognize there is no easy fix. This issue is a matter of ownership and right now neither side shows much interest in taking any. The bottom line here is this isn't a matter of sides and the question we need to all ask ourselves is - "how much responsibility am I willing to take to make my country a safer place to live".

Resolutions New And Old

It's that time of year again. Time to make some New (Years) Resolutions. We make them, then we fail at them, or at least I do. I was joking with some people that were posting their resolutions to please add an over/under so we could place bets on how long it would be before the resolution was broken. Not very nice, but I only did it on the silly ones like "I'm not going to have road rage on the people in rush hour traffic". But seriously I commend people who make new resolutions. It shows that they recognize a need for improvement or change. That takes a lot of courage to do and even more so when you publish it on Facebook or in a blog. I have two specific resolutions for this new year.

The first is to improve my financial foundation. The second is to reverse the trend of the past 20 years and actually lose some weight this year (and to do it not due to illness!). I have a plan drawn up for the first and feel really confident that I'll succeed in this one as long as something catastrophic doesn't occur (like a fiscal cliff!). The second, I'm not so sure about. I've got tools to do it, an idea in my head on how to get it done and plenty of support from my friends to encourage me. But, this is one that is an Old Resolution being retread for 2013 and therefore I have my doubts. Then I came across a post this morning in Facebook shared by my cousin (Carrie C. - who is a fitness guru) and felt it really hits home about what our mindset should be when facing our new (and old) resolutions.

I am now in Week 42 of my walks. Each day, 30 minutes, that's it. Thousands of you have joined me since that Sunday night on March 18 when, as a joke, I said I was going for a walk. I had read that morning in the paper that there were now more people in the U.S. on anti-depressants than those who go to the movies. I tweeted out that maybe that's the problem -- perhaps if people got out and went to the movies more they might feel better. This unleashed a lively conversation about mood-aletering drugs, the lousy movies these days in theaters, the rip-off prices for 3D films, etc. Finally, someone wrote: "Sometimes I think what I need is just a brisk walk." I tweeted, "Hey, there's an idea! I'm putting my shoes on right now." I went out and came back home after 30 minutes -- and a few hundred of you had amazingly joined me where you live. So I went walking the next night, probably out of some sort of obligation because so many had written to say "please let's do it again tonight!" So I did. And the night after that. By the end of the week it was hard to determine how many thousands were now going out with me on these "virtual walks" in hundreds of cities and towns, but it had taken off like a rocket and so we all went walking every night from that point on.

Now it's 250 days later. What a simple, great idea that person had! Some have asked, "Why are we walking?" "What's the cause?" There is no cause other than to go for a walk. We do it just because it feels good. We do it because we can. We do it because it's free and it takes no time. All you need to know is how to put one foot in front of the other (or, for the disabled who've joined in, by any means necessary). It's the perfect slacker/schlub activity.

I am often asked "How much weight have you lost from all this walking?" For a while I didn't understand the question. I mean, why would I want to lose anything? I have enough trouble finding my keys! Then I got it -- skinny people (1/3 of the country) want us, the majority, to be like them. That's so nice of them.

But the truth is, exercise does not work, diets do not work, feeling crummy does not work. Nothing works. My advice: Quit trying to be something you're not, be happy with the life you've been given, and just go for a pleasant walk outside. With me. Wherever you are. Get off the treadmill, stop drinking diet Coke, throw out all the rules. It's all a scam and it conspires to keep you miserable. If it says "low-fat" or "sugar-free" or "just 100 calories!" throw it out. Remember, one of the main tenets of capitalism is to have the consumer filled with fear, insecurity, envy and unhappiness so that we can spend, spend, spend our way out of it and, dammit, just feel better for a little while. But we don't, do we? The path to happiness - and deep down, we all know this -- is created by love, and being kind to oneself, sharing a sense of community with others, becoming a participant instead of a spectator, and being in motion. Moving. Moving around all day. Lifting things, even if it's yourself. Going for a walk every day will change your thinking and have a ripple effect. You'll find yourself only eating when you're truly hungry. And if you're not hungry, go clean your room, or have sex, or call a friend on the phone. Without knowing it, you'll starting eating like the French (there is no French word for "fast-food") -- and you will feel better. You do not feel better admonishing yourself or beating yourself up or setting up a bunch of unrealistic rules and goals with all the do's and dont's that are just begging to be broken. You wanna know something? I eat ice cream every friggin' day. I drink a regular Coke every single day. I put butter on things. But I also walk every day. Some days now, I walk twice. And now I've started to do some push-ups and lifting stuff. It's building muscle, and in doing so, has created an extra furnace to burn stuff and create energy. Weird! That, in turn, makes me sleep 7-8 hours a night which is another game-changer. And all the walking and lifting makes me thirsty, so that makes me drink more water -- another huge plus!

So, you can see from the photo of me up in the box that something has changed. I have no idea how much weight I've lost and I don't care. I don't care about that or diets or home gym equipment or rules about what I can or cannot eat or anything other than making sure I go on my walk today. That's it. That's the big secret. It costs nothing. I feel great. I can see my feet! There they are! Hello, feet! Wanna go for a walk? The feet say YES! Ask yours right now. And if you want, join me. But do NOT go on that walk with me if you are doing so to "get fit", "be healthy", or "lose weight". You are fine just the way you are. Only walk outside with me right now because you know it might just feel good, because it's a beautiful day, or someone is joining in with you, the fresh air is invigorating, you have to drive down to the drug store but you realize you can walk there, or simply because it's just nice to be alive for one more day. Walk to walk and nothing else -- and the other stuff will take care of itself.

I'm heading outside in an hour. Join me. And let me know how it went! ~ Michael Moore