Awesome Customer Service

I've worked in customer service for nearly 20 years.  I've done it, I've trained it, I've supervised it.  It's not that hard.  It really boils down to "Be nice to people" or "Treat people the way you want to be treated".  So when I encounter exceptional customer service I feel the need to shout it out.   To me, exceptional customer service is going above and beyond.  It's not remembering to say thank you, or maintaining eye contact with me while we talk.  Too many people have come to accept those moments as the exceptions since as a society we have stopped expecting great customer service.

Applebee's here in Halifax gets my shout out for EXCEPTIONAL customer service.  Hilary and I took advantage of having rented a car last weekend to treat ourselves to some take out food from somewhere that we can't normally get when we are car-less.  Our order was fairly straight forward:  A burger and fries for Hilary and a salad with a side order of garlic mashed potatoes for me (cause garlic mashed potatoes ROCK).  I confirmed over the phone that it was an extra side of potatoes.  I confirmed again when I picked up the order that they had indeed rung in fries for Hilary and mashed potatoes for me.  They had.  I left a happy customer, dreaming of my mashed potatoes.

You know where this is going right?

When I got home and unpacked the food, the kitchen had gotten it wrong!  They had Hilary's burger with mashed potatoes and no fries were to be found. I called them to let them know and to vent some of my frustrations that the order was wrong after having checked it twice.  They offered to make a new serving of fries and I could go pick it up.  Thanks, but no thanks.  With gas prices these days, and the fact that it would take me another 20 minutes to get there and back, I wasn't willing to do that.  I didn't expect them to rush me over some fries, or really do anything, other then hear my complaint and maybe double check things for the next guy.

Instead I got transfered to the manager as the first person I spoke to was concerned that they couldn't solve my problem.  The manager was great.  He heard my concerns, he didn't make excuses, he tried to fix it.  And in the end he got my address so that he could send me something to say sorry that my dining experience with them was not exceptional.  

I never expected a gift certificate for $25.00 to make up for the fact that we were missing $2.99 fries!

Way to go Applebees!  That is some exceptional customer service!

Table Presents

Table Presents is a family tradition that I married into when I shacked up with Hilary. I'm not 100% sure of the origin of the tradition but I'm guessing that it started for someone's birthday in an attempt to keep the non-birthday sibling happy with the idea that they weren't the one getting all the prettily wrapped boxes. Me, I was an only child so ALL the boxes were ALWAYS mine. Funny, I still don't share well......

Somewhere along the line Table Presents went from a birthday dinner tradition to a tradition for any occasion that involves a big family meal. In our household that includes Birthdays, Christmas Eve, Christmas Dinner, Easter, Thanskgiving and Anniversaries. We are all about giving (and getting!) presents as often as possible.

The trick with table presents is that they aren't "real" presents. They are usually fun little things, like the Thumb Wrestling Ring.

Other presents of note over the years have been a banana guard (which was very fun to wrap), bacon flavoured mints and magnetic cars that climb the fridge.

The banana guard

For me, they are a lot of fun to shop for and I am always keeping an eye out for that perfect gift. You really have to know the recipient well to pull off a great table present present. Lame fall backs from the last minute shoppers include candy and booze. Both great presents, but not in the right spirit for a table present. Unless it's a specialty item like Peeps at Easter (my FAVORITE Easter treat that my Grandpa used to buy me that we could not get in Canada for many years)

It's a tradition that Hilary and I have celebrated for nearly 15 years. It is one that Liam now enjoys and one that we have shared with my family and all of our friends that we share big family dinners with.

Do you have any neat traditions that you want to share?

Feb 20, 2008 ~ Today's the day

that I cook dinner for Hilary.

Usually Hilary does all the cooking (and shopping and planning). However on Wednesdays we have Liam in an after-school program so that Hilary can work late and I can pick him up. This means that Liam and I get home before Hilary does so I will be in charge of making dinner.


Of course, Hilary is the most organized domestic goddess that I know! She has our meals planned out for the next 2 weeks so that she can shop smart (both for sales and what she has to carry home) and make things ahead of time. She has NOT made tonight’s meal ahead of time for me to just heat up (like she usually does for Wednesdays) but she did do all the planning and shopping. And she bought an easy to make, one-pot meal.

I realize that all of this makes it sound like I can’t actually cook or fend for myself. I could if I had to, but I don’t have to so I don’t! I can cook, but I prefer to bake and my cooking is no where near as adventurous (or tasty!) as Hilary’s is. If our meals were all up to me we would have a lot of pasta (but not the fancy Angel hair pasta with fresh Cilantro and Brie that Hilary makes), we would have a lot of steak and potato type meals (since steak is one of the few meats that I can cook and then still be able to eat it). We would survive, our meals would be fairly balanced but they would be pretty boring and repetative.

So when I can, I give back to Hilary for the 1000s of meals she has made me over the last 14+ years. I’ll have the table set, the food cooked and ready to go and maybe I’ll even meet her at the door with her slippers. Too bad she doesn’t smoke cigars or drink Martini’s………….

Dinner update:

An hour before dinner was even set to be served we had tears about it! (Liam’s, not mine this time!) He asked what we were having for dinner so I told him “Noodles, vegetables and pork chops”. Instant hysterics! “I don’t like that! What am I having? Do I have to eat that?” I kept an even keel and told him that we were not making him something different, this is what the family is eating and he should eat as much as he needs to so that he won’t be hungry.


Well, one lesson learned: Make sure to talk to Hilary BEFORE dinner about what approach to take so we can both answer with the same approach.


I had thought that we should just put food on the plate, put the plate in front of Liam and that’s it. If he asked if he had to eat it all then I would answer “only you know if you have eaten enough, so you decide how much to eat” in my most loving, supportive, non-judgement Mama voice. And I did do that. Only I hadn’t told Hilary that I thought we should try this approach. It just happened that his question wasn’t directed specifically to me, so Hilary and I both answered at the same time. And she answered with what has been our standard “you have to at least try everything on your plate” approach.


In the end he did try one bite of everything, including the parsnips. He did not gag or cry, and only grumbled a bit. Overall I would have to say that it was a pretty successful dinner!