Parkour. Defined as an activity with the aim of moving from one point to another as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body. It is meant to help one overcome obstacles, which can be anything in the surrounding environment — from branches and rocks to rails and concrete walls — and can be practiced in both rural and urban areas. Parkour practitioners are referred to as traceurs. Vive La France.
Come see us this weekend - April 26th and 27th at the 2008 Minneapolis Saint Paul Home Tour and try your luck at parkour in and around a bonafide RoehrSchmitt original. Visit us between 10 and 5 on Saturday and 1 and 5 on Sunday for tours, conversations and modernism in action at Juliet House in St Paul. See you then.
April 23, 2008
April 4, 2008
The Best Laid Plans
More fun with buildings. Why this causes the maniacal laughter I'm not sure. I'm guessing the guys who were in charge of the demolition aren't the ones laughing. Whoooo!
I just had a customer service experience with a national retailer (their name rhymes with tears) that was less than inspiring. I won't bore you with the tedious details - I started but found them tedious to write, let alone read. Okay just a few. It involved 8 separate 1-800 numbers to call, each with an ever more baffling, opaque lack of meaningful information except, you guessed it, a new 1-800 number. One of the numbers they gave me was disconnected and I swear the individual who gave it to me, who shall remain nameless, was eating chips and reading the National Enquirer while she doled out her precious nugget. Like I said I was less than inspired.
The good news is that I did accomplish my goal. The question is why did it have to be so difficult? What about that organizations culture created a public presence that's so confounding? It started with their website which, although it contained all of the relevant information, was really difficult to use. I understand they have a lot of information to manage but most of us have seen other web sites with decent user interfaces - Ebay, Amazon, etc. The most frustrating part of the whole experience was that the transaction where they separated me from my money went smooth as silk, but finding the right person to answer a simple question was amazingly difficult. So simple was the question that it should have been answered by the first person I spoke with. Instead I was treated to a female phonebot with a curious nature who by the end of the whole thing I was messing with just to stay alert - she'd ask me to, "say repair center", very enthusiastically and I would reply, "bouillabaisse" - infantile I know but effective. She and I, we built a powerful relationship during the eight or ten times we spoke. She said "I'm sorry" often, and it was good that she was being honest with herself.
So what is it? Is it conscious? Is there some benefit to the companies bottom line in providing a confusing public face that I can't fathom because I'm either not smart enough or wily enough? Does an organization know when it's being confusing? How do they fix the problem? How do you provide clarity? How do you provide great customer service that doesn't cause the reputation of your organization to tip negative? They seem to be questions worthy of study.
Professionals who provide clear, relevant and quality information will do well. It's what clients want. If the information or execution of the delivery of that information is unclear, unrelated to your situation or poor, it will do nothing but frustrate your clients. Personally I like to reward those people and organizations that do provide great service. But for whatever reason I seem to always buy my new appliances at that tears place. I think I must really enjoy chatting to the phonebot.
Check out this link to Wired Magazine to see why they think Customer Service like I experienced and many other things really suck (my mom used to hate that word but it's Wired's word).
If you want great customer service where clarity, value and quality are always on our minds, call RoehrSchmitt. We don't have a phonebot yet but maybe someday.
The good news is that I did accomplish my goal. The question is why did it have to be so difficult? What about that organizations culture created a public presence that's so confounding? It started with their website which, although it contained all of the relevant information, was really difficult to use. I understand they have a lot of information to manage but most of us have seen other web sites with decent user interfaces - Ebay, Amazon, etc. The most frustrating part of the whole experience was that the transaction where they separated me from my money went smooth as silk, but finding the right person to answer a simple question was amazingly difficult. So simple was the question that it should have been answered by the first person I spoke with. Instead I was treated to a female phonebot with a curious nature who by the end of the whole thing I was messing with just to stay alert - she'd ask me to, "say repair center", very enthusiastically and I would reply, "bouillabaisse" - infantile I know but effective. She and I, we built a powerful relationship during the eight or ten times we spoke. She said "I'm sorry" often, and it was good that she was being honest with herself.
So what is it? Is it conscious? Is there some benefit to the companies bottom line in providing a confusing public face that I can't fathom because I'm either not smart enough or wily enough? Does an organization know when it's being confusing? How do they fix the problem? How do you provide clarity? How do you provide great customer service that doesn't cause the reputation of your organization to tip negative? They seem to be questions worthy of study.
Professionals who provide clear, relevant and quality information will do well. It's what clients want. If the information or execution of the delivery of that information is unclear, unrelated to your situation or poor, it will do nothing but frustrate your clients. Personally I like to reward those people and organizations that do provide great service. But for whatever reason I seem to always buy my new appliances at that tears place. I think I must really enjoy chatting to the phonebot.
Check out this link to Wired Magazine to see why they think Customer Service like I experienced and many other things really suck (my mom used to hate that word but it's Wired's word).
If you want great customer service where clarity, value and quality are always on our minds, call RoehrSchmitt. We don't have a phonebot yet but maybe someday.
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