Supporting Our Customers Is A Key Priority.
Customer Service?
Customer service is one of the things within a company that everyone says to do well. You see television advertisements about how your local car dealership has an internet lounge while you impatiently wait for your car to be serviced or the plumber who boasts “30 minute response time”- with the exception of mealtimes, nap time and overnight. Recently the phone company was challenged by the cable company to deliver phone service to homes in our area. In my own house, the phone went out about a month ago. We called the phone company, to fix it and were put on hold for an hour. We finally got someone who then told us it will be three days until they can fix it and the only time they can be at our house is between 9 and 2. We said, “Are you kidding me?” We basically gave up. We switched to the cable company and saved $70.00 a month and are happy.
Last evening my daughter and I went to the local mall to get her snow boots because last year’s boots instantly were too small for her 8 year old feet. We went to the mall on a quiet evening so that we could go into a store and be the only shoppers. However, we found that we had to constantly battle for attention with the clerk’s phone as he or she texted away. Eventually, we just walked out without buying the boots. My daughter was as equally annoyed as me because she liked the boots. I was annoyed because I just really do not like to shop.
We ended up at a Sports Authority sports store where we got our boots and went to pay. At the register we noticed that on the bottom of our receipt, if we filled out a survey and gave the store a “Very good” for customer service, we would receive a $10.00 coupon. Enough Said.
I got an e-mail from one of our top 5 customers last night and it was stated in plain language:
“You are correct – the last few weeks we have received in many ******* along with the remaining ******. I appreciate everyone at Royal Master working so diligently to get these out to us. Also, Alan has been doing an excellent job in going above and beyond in checking out the delivery schedules and expediting items in ...
Merger of United and Continental
Almost everyone has an opinion of Newark Airport. Looking out the window on departure you see a lot of familiar sights: IKEA, the Jersey Turnpike, Refineries, an occasional Sopranos flashback, and lots and lots of white planes with blue tails. These planes are now marked UNITED. Scratching my head I had to look twice.
The merger of United and Continental has not just begun- it is in full swing. I travel in and out of EWR a lot. I actually have grown to like the place in an odd sort of way. It always means that I am off someplace to meet a customer or go to a show. I’m eager to meet someone I have talked with in the past or for the first time. Arriving means that home is about 90 minutes from touchdown.
When I saw the planes painted the familiar white and blue with the United name, I was disappointed and concerned. Spending about 100,000+ air miles per year in a continental plane has afforded me a consistency and level of service that I deem more than acceptable. The 16+ hours to Hong Kong always seem manageable with the smiles and hard work that the attendants put forth; which is contrasting to my experiences with United: the old planes and crabby attendants who make it a chore and frown if you ask for the can of soda during the beverage service.
I listened to Larry Kellner the CEO for years during his pre-recorded message about their quality service, newest jet fleet in the industry, etc… but the biggest test for this airline since its bankruptcy in the 1990’s is to maintain its consistency of reasonable service at a competitive rate while not falling prey to the perils of mergers gone bad. And for all of us frequent business travelers, do not forget to just give us the whole can of soda.
Update from the show floor
I have taken some photos and a video update from the show floor to give you a quick look at what is going on as we prepare for your arrival.
Our Truck Arrives Tuesday Morning at 6:30am
End of Day #1
Progress
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Click on the above link for a video of the booth
T-21 Hours Until We Load
Many of you have called and talked with or e-mailed Alan Schell who is our main customer service representative here at Royal Master. We call him “world wide” mainly because he interacts with many different companies around the world effortlessly. Alan’s lineage at Royal Master began over 20 years ago as our Crib manager, from there into purchasing, then to customer service. He always approached his job with a smile and enthusiasm.
Alan and I go way back to when I was in high school and college working for him in shipping and receiving. Him and Mr. Mc Cracken were a good team and still today we often tell stories about Mr. Mc Cracken’s booming voice and crushing handshake. When Alan came out to ask a question this morning about a shipment going to Japan, he was quick to point out that we should put a little more shrink wrap around this machine before it loaded onto the flatbed tomorrow.
The answer to his suggestion is shown below.
T- 21 hours to we load.
