paper graffiti

Up until a few years ago, I was a poetry writing machine. Somehow finding the love of my life ruined all that…apparently I was all very tortured and angsty until I met my future husband! I refuse to believe that happiness is the death of my art, so I’m trying to get back to writing poetry again on a regular basis. I think this was the last full poem I wrote before the dry spell, for a writing challenge I was participating in. I thought of it tonight when I was thinking of how I should visit my grandmother, who is now in a nursing home. I miss her clarity so much…she always told the best stories from when she was growing up.

Sepia

The photographs were faded
My grandmother called them
Sepia and I touched them
Wondering how cameras could
Lose their color

She smiled, her unlined face
Still and silent under my
Fingertips
My grandfather’s ghost looking
Over our shoulders and
Remembering his youth

The pictures were more than
Just stories, they were epics
That traced the outline of my
Past with a jazz music
Soundtrack and an
eight pattern beat

I move to their music, from
Benny Goodman’s clarinet and
Trace the same grooves in the
Floor with my feet and I
Am dancing with ghosts
Never alone in this room

I notice customer service a lot. Almost every day I go above and beyond to do anything I can to provide MY clients with excellent customer service. It is not always easy, and it is not always fun, but it is always rewarding for my client relationships and it is always the right thing to do. It makes me feel good when my clients appreciate the fact that I’m willing to do what it takes to make their day or their job a little easier. So, I really get upset when I am on the receiving end of horrible customer service.

One recent instance of bad customer service actually came on the heels of great customer service. I have a monthly prescription at CVS and the location by our house has a pharmacy that closes at 6 on the weekends. One Sunday I didn’t get there to pick it up in time, so I asked the manager on duty what to do. He said I could easily go to any 24 hour CVS and pick up my prescription there instead–that’s why they have a nationwide computer. I was thrilled at how easy it was and how nice they were about it. It was good to know that I could get my medicine any time and anywhere I needed it. I picked it up with no problem and expected the auto-refill to kick back to the original location, just as they told me it would.

However, a month later when I went to pick up my prescription, it was an entirely different story. Not only was my prescription not ready for me, I was very rudely informed that I had “transferred” it to another store and that I would be unable to auto-refill it again. When I asked why, I basically got a “just because” answer from a rude pharmacy tech. I asked the pharmacist on duty if that was true, he told me no, and then told me he had fixed it. The next month, it was like Groundhog Day. No prescription, rude technician, no auto-refill.

Then last month the tech went from slightly rude to incredibly rude, and my prescription still wasn’t fixed. I’d had it, and I complained to the store manager. After he provided some excellent CYA for his store, I agreed to give it one more shot. My prescription wasn’t fixed when I arrived there today to pick it up, HOWEVER, the girl who waited on me fixed it immediately, showed me that she fixed it immediately, and provided courteous service at the counter. I decided to leave my prescription there and I know it will be refilled next month with no problem.

Then tonight my husband was really in the mood for pizza for dinner. I didn’t want to cook, so I’m always on board with that! So we order from Pizza Hut and wait for our order to arrive. Suddenly it’s almost half an hour past when the order should have been there, so Shawn calls to check on it. Pizza Hut had supposedly “called back to confirm the order (without telling us they would be doing so) and instead of trying, oh, a second time, they just canceled our order BUT charged our account for it anyway, and informed us that the money will have to go through a refund process for us to get it back.

Shawn called to speak to the manager, but the supposed manager did not give his name (a managerial customer service no-no!) and was quite rude on the phone. I called the corporate line to complain, and they gave a very scripted, not at all convincing response and sent us a coupon for a free pizza that will arrive in 10 business days…about 5 business days after the refund for our order, which is the most ABSOLUTELY unacceptable part of the entire situation.

Frankly, I expect more from a company owned by YUM! Brands, which is supposed to be incredibly customer service-oriented. I’d at like to at least be convinced that the person answering the customer service line gives a crap. Bad customer service is simply a bad move for any company, because it loses companies valuable customers. Not that it will really matter in the long run, but Pizza Hut can kiss our money goodbye. I doubt we’ll even use the free coupon, because I know they don’t really care about the customer at all, they just care about employing the cheapest mouth-breathing idiots possible to sit behind the counter and eff up orders. Bad customer service gets you nothing but a BAD reputation.

One of my weird fascinations is how people process information…specifically their personal process of taking notes and managing the information stream. I’ve found some great discussions and forums dealing with people’s note and agenda processes (plus some great stationery porn!) online lately while looking to see how other people utilize the fabulous Levenger Circa notebook format.

I have a very particular way of taking notes. I cultivated it in school and have utilized it ever since. One thing that I am really enjoying about the paper in my new Circa notebook is the layout–it is a modified Cornell notes layout, and I really like the hefty box on the left side of every page.

The Cornell method intends for that space on the left side of the page to be used for key words and points from the notes, while the right side is used for the main body of notetaking. I had a huge client meeting on Friday where I had to take a lot of notes on changes to be made to a project, and I utilized that space for important notes to myself that I didn’t want to get lost in the body of the notes, as well as key global changes to the project that I wanted to make sure were done first. I really think this paper layout will be perfect for the kind of notes I take on the job. I also like the weight and feeling of the paper itself–it is perfect for writing with my favorite pen, a bright pink Dr. Grip Gel pen with an extra-fine G2 gel refill in black.

I’m also really in love with the genius way the Circa is put together, and now I really want some for my personal use as well as business use. I think I’m going to have to invest in the Circa punch and some rings so that I can get my own paper and use it, rather than order all their lovely but expensive paper, kits, and other notebook accoutrements. Just what I needed, another stationery addiction!