Good news about customer service

I just read Michael Hyatt's blog regarding customer service. If you are doing business on the web you need to check out Michael Hyatt. He's a straight shooter with a lot of good information to share. www.michaelhyatt.com 

Today he told of a particularly troubling problem he had which was ultimately solved by customer service reps from two companies working together until they solved it. He thanked them publicly on Twitter.

Since I had just had, literally minutes before, a most satisfying experience with Weebly, my website development site, I took his idea and posted a "thank you" on my Facebook page. In it I said: 

    "Joyce discovered the mobile version of www.petevanderpool.com was unreadable. I       called customer support at Weebly. Zack was unable to hear me, but called me back immediately, and within 5 minutes walked me through the solution. I love talking to real people who speak American and care about my problem. Thank you Weebly!"

Isn't it great to hear good stuff?

Mixed blessings

It snowed last night. Seven to ten inches worth of a heavy wet snow. Well, for us around here in the Chattanooga area of east Tennessee, that's a bit unusual. Spring is supposed to be rearing its pretty green head. Temperatures are supposed to be twenty degrees warmer that they've been for the last two weeks.

But, back to the snow. When we got up this morning, we went out with cameras and slippers and dog. The dog frolicked. The cameras clicked. And the slippers got wet. It was almost thirty degrees Fahrenheit, and the snow was beginning to leave the trees and bushes, one plop at a time. Traffic noise was missing. It was a picture perfect morning for winter.

We looked on it as a blessing in beauty and silence. Probably not all residents thought of it in those terms. There were cars to clean off, roads to endure, and work awaiting at some far place down the road.

Funny how a blessing can be two sided. Just depends on how you chose to react whether you enjoy it or not. Sort of like life itself.

Bless you!

Impersonal Communication Exposed

A celebrity was interviewed on GMA talking about the response to a photo of her indicating she is very slender. Immediately after posting the picture, she was deluged by critics using Twitter to express their negative opinions of her slimness.

I was reminded of an incident when I was subbing at a local high school. The students work was done for the day, and the ninety minute block was plodding along through the final half hour. All the students were on their electronic devices listening or texting or whatever they were enjoying. I went over to a girl sitting in the front of a row and loudly exclaimed, " You make me mad!"

Conversations stopped. It became deathly quiet. Students looked up from their devices. The poor girl looked up it terror. She had, "what did I do?" written all over her face. I gave things a minute to sink in. Then I asked, "What would you have done if I had texted that to you?" That began the most beautiful discussion involving the whole class. They figured out all by themselves that texting something which elicits a response, be it proper or not, is far different than looking at each other face to face and saying the same things. They opined that communication is best when you can observe obvious body language , something not present with a text. Emoticons don't count. They agreed that it is easy to say something nasty while hiding behind the device which publishes the comment.

As the class left, I received many positive comments, thanking me for setting up the forum for debate and ultimately making them aware of something they participate in daily without thought for the consequences. The beautiful girl I had singled out to start the discussion smiled at me, saying she understood exactly what I did, and wasn't mad at me at all. She even thanked me for choosing her.

Welcome!

This blog will be a place for me to put some of my personal musings and writings. I will try to  give you a chuckle, something thought provoking, or some observation of life as I know it. After all, any natural beard Santa with 24 years experience has all those items in place. Trick is to remember them, if you catch my drift!

I do have another blog related to www.equippedtobless.com which focuses on the relevance of the stories of our life and the activity of the Holy Spirit in today's world.

So join me here and there. I plan to post here weekly. That is unless Mrs. Claus has duties that take precedence over my post. Maybe I could get her to post once in a while. She likes to share her stories, too!

So long for now!