Outstanding Customer Service? Does it really exist?

This type of thing does not happen to me very often however, when it does, I do not hesitate to recognize the experience and share it with others. I admit up front, I caused my own problem on this transaction. By reading through this letter I sent to the President of the company, you will see how well I was treated and the proactive, responsible actions of the Customer Service Support members. Important to point out, this was an online shopping experience with all communication via email and two very short telephone calls.

My goal in making this post is to point out how important it is for us to take notice of great acts of service and to enthusiastically recognize and support the individual responsible. Do NOT just think about doing it. Take ACTION and DO it! People are hungry for acknowledgment and recognition. Doing so has a tremendous impact on people's lives; yours is one of those lives.

Please, sit down with a fresh cup of coffee or other drink. Sit back and vicariously partake of an experience which does not occur often enough. My wish is you enjoy and appreciate the event.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Woody Hertzog
President
DigitalGiftStore.com

OK! You guys have won me over as a loyal and promoting "word-of-mouth," satisfied, and happy customer. Not easy to do with me but you and your staff, Denise and Natalie, have earned the right and my business.

I know you already appreciate what you have in Denise in the Customer Service department. If not, you need to really open your eyes as she is a diamond in the rough and very rare today in business.

I had a positive experience, after meticulous, obsessive, Type-A analytical, crazy thorough research on the internet, purchasing a Boss B7641 Executive LeatherPlus Office Chair. Having accomplished my objective and making a serious jump from fabric to leather, I noticed the chair did not have padded arms. In addition, poor timing of life's events, I had a personal challenge unexpectedly come up preventing me from following through with the sale. I read all of your clearly stated policies and found them acceptable. Sent an inquiry email on Labor Day not expecting to hear back for at least 72 hours.

Enter Denise. I was shocked to get an almost immediate response and learning she stepped up and canceled the order, confirmed the policy for such action, and was great about it. Well, you saw the email exchange which is almost like being there real time. I was impressed with her commitment in working from home on a holiday.

My daughter is a Corporate Account Executive Sales Consultant with Rosetta Stone, the language training company you see on TV. She too is dedicated, when kids are sick works from home and even after hours. Thus, I can totally relate to Denise's situation.

Bottom line. Here is what I have posted as reviews of your company on the internet.

"I have 25 years professional sales and marketing experience, am a consultant for personal development and customer service. Never, and I mean "NEVER," have I experienced such "AWESOME" and "OUTSTANDING" professional customer service.

Due to limited space, making a detailed and long story short. DigitalGiftStore.com and their sister companies are wonderful in product quality, best pricing on the internet, and customer service and support "PERIOD." As a result, this has been one "FANTASTIC" online buying experience and Denise in their Customer Service Department made the difference.

I received a follow up call from a different Customer Service member insuring my questions and challenges were being addressed. Let me share this email excerpt with you about my experience. "Natalie was very helpful and up on what has transpired between you [Denise] and me so far. I hope this is enough information for you to accomplish your objectives. I have to say my experience in dealing with you [Denise], Natalie, at DigitalGiftStore, and Karen at Boss Office Products, has been exemplary. I have high expectations the quality of the product will match the business and customer service. If so, this will have been an "AWESOME" experience for me."

Here is what I shared with the Customer Service member, Denise, after helping on a holiday working from her home. "Thank you for exhibiting in practice the key principles I coach clients in personal development and success. Success in customer retention especially, is for Customer Service members to "take ownership" of the customer's presented problem or other challenge. Follow it through to the end, do not leave them hanging, do not pass the buck or put them into a "phone message system." The resulting relationship of trust, acknowledgment, empathy, and solution oriented mentality, creates a "powerful" bond of loyalty. Good Job!!!"

What more do I need to say?"

I look forward excitedly to the delivery of my new chair late next week and all of the promise it holds, as you have set the quality bar very high. The personality, quality, service expectations, and successful servant leadership mentality, come from the top down. This experience I share with you as proof it can still be accomplished in the business world today. Good Job and Congratulations!!!
______________________________________________________________________________

Well! There you go. Was this unique, exciting, and an example of the way retail should be handled? I also believe the attitude of the customer has a tremendous impact on the response of the customer service member. No matter what the situation in dealing with other people, we have the power of choice to either "react," or "respond." Yes, there is a huge difference in process and especially outcome. Do not give permission to others to negatively ruin our day. We have a choice, so choose wisely.

Until next time when I expect to have a followup on my business website progress.

"Make it a GREAT day to remember!"

I Lost a Lions Club Member and Friend

As many of you know, I joined the Tuckahoe Lions Club to continue my personal development journey, expand my horizons, meet new friends, and be of service to others and the community. A decision I am immensely proud of in my life.

I had the honor and privilege to meet Don Thiel, the Secretary of the Lions Club, retired FBI Agent. A quiet, professional, sensitive, friendly, and enjoyable man to be around. I was just beginning to develop a personal connection with Don when, on Monday, July 27th, I received a call from my Club President informing me Don had passed away suddenly on Saturday.

To say I was in shock is a gross understatement. I was immediately swept by all of those, "but only if," "I should have," "why didn't I.....?" thoughts. You know what I mean.

Below is something Don shared with the Lions Club members that I felt compelled to share with you. Reading it, you will get just a slight flavor of what kind of man Don was and his views on life.

I post this not to bring you down or be a bummer, but to share with you the message to live life as if it were your last day. As I have come to known to say in my personal quote, "Make it a great day to remember!" Read and enjoy my friends.

Ramblings of a Retired Mind

This was an email from Lion Don Thiel last January, for everyone, it's worth reading, absorbing…………and smiling.

I was thinking about how a status symbol of today is those cell phones that everyone has clipped onto their belt or purse. I can't afford one. So, I'm wearing my garage door opener. I also made a cover for my hearing aid and now I have what they call “blue teeth,”………I think.

You know, I wasted a fortune on deodorant before I realized that people didn't like me anyway.

I was thinking that women should put pictures of missing husbands on beer cans.

I was thinking about old age and decided that old age is when you still have something on the ball, but you're too tired to bounce it.

I thought about making a fitness movie for folks my age, and calling it "Pumping Rust.”

When people see a cat's litter box, they always say, "Oh, have you got a cat?”……Just once I want to say, "No, it's for company!”

Employment application blanks always ask who is to be notified in case of an emergency. I think you should write, "A good Doctor!”

I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older. Then it dawned on me.......they were cramming for their finals.

As for me, I'm just hoping that God grades on the curve.

Lion Don

In Loving Memory

Lion Donald A. Thiel

February 23, 1938
July 26, 2009

Annoucing "Belief Builder for Success" Website Debut

I wish to announce the debut of my newly developed internet marketing website, Belief Builder for Success. This is the online division of Mattice Diversified Group. Belief Builder for Success is an internet portal which provides premier personal development and self-improvement products and services.

You know how we all express desires to create a better life personally, financially, and lifestyle? Well, Belief Builder for Success’ purpose is to provide excellent guidance and access to professional, proven, resources to create a Vision, crystallize Goals, develop Affirmations, and explore the Law of Attraction accomplishing growth from within thus changing our resulting circumstances. Additionally, selective services are provided, for a one-on-one experience, of personal coaching, motivational support, and accountability calls. This service is exclusive assisting clients in starting out their days on a positive, productive note and in the proper mindset for success.

I have intentionally not included a sign up or limited membership access on the website requiring name and email address, at this time. This will be added later with the offer of an outstanding ebook.

You are personally invited to visit my new website, explore the pages at your leisure, and discover how the subjects are presented in a personal versus an in-your-face sales approach, creating a comfortable and enjoyable experience for the visitor and client.

I am also requesting comments, suggestions, and any thoughts or criticisms that may improve the website. This is designed not to be your typical affiliate marketing website.

Enjoy your visit and above all else, have fun!

My Experience in a PC Trojan Virus Hell!

PERSONAL NOTE: I hate to share bad news or experiences but this is a SERIOUS exception to my rule so pay attention!

You know how you "occasionally" will have those pesky computer hiccups and residual challenges that seem to disrupt different performances of your computer? You know the anxiety, fear, trepidation, and apprehension experienced when things "just don't seem to run right?" Well, sit back, grab a fresh cup of coffee and let me share with you my "30 Days of PC Trojan Virus Hell!"

It all started simply enough, yes, PC Tools Spyware Doctor was the first to recognize and quarantine a Trojan virus. Then very soon after, McAfee Security captured it again and quarantined the culprit. I was able to remove it from the computer with McAfee but I could not remove or delete it from the quarantine of Spyware Doctor. I even enlisted the online support of Spyware Doctor and completed an elaborate procedural process to try and remove it, which appeared to solve the problem. Ahhh! Relief! Another sick attack on my computer averted. Hmmmm! So I thought!

Quietly, little hiccups began to happen with easy enough repairs using Windows XP tools. However, every time I would solve one day's problems a whole new set would occur, seemingly unrelated. I continued on this "recognize>diagnose>verify>repair" mode for almost three weeks. Each experience becoming more and more complex to diagnose and evaluate, much less solve. I learned later these occurrences were becoming cumulative in nature causing more and more problems, compounding on the previous problems, solved or not. I said to myself, "Holy CRAP! What's this all about???"

I was already spending countless hours in this "survival" process making little, then no headway. I don't know, it just had to wait a bit as I was preparing to leave the country on a family reunion cruise. This was really praying on my mind as I now have so much invested in my computer with my home based business in personal development and just recently, the scanning, downloading and preservation of all of our familie's historical photographs from as far back as 1896. This situation was consuming all of my time. Since I have chronic insomnia, working just on the computer fixes was taking up to 18 hours a day, nonstop. I was spending so much time, weird times, on the computer my wife thought I was having an online affair. No such luck for this guy!

Upon my return from the cruise I had hit my optimistic limit of tolerance, broke down and called DELL On Call for help. They were awesome to say the least. Yes! I did not hesitate in purchasing a one year three incident technical service contract. I spent a solid three (3) hours online and on the phone with an outstanding and professional DELL Certified Technician who was able to take over my computer remotely, diagnose, evaluate, and clean out the Trojan virus. He revealed to me this was a rather insidious Trojan virus in that it initiates itself well embedded into the programming and continuously mutates spreading through out the hard drive and programs. He actually showed me the virus activity and that it was a countdown virus, meaning, had I waited until midnight of that night, it was 4:00 PM when I called him, my hard drive would have been totally destroyed. BUMMER!

Now came the big job of cleaning up the residual mess caused to the applications and even the registry. No computer technical service can guarantee or attempt to repair all of this due to the sheer number of programs and applications involved, it was up to me. There was some serious removal and reinstallation of programs and applications. This difficult process was seriously compounded by the bugs and problems with the new Firefox upgrade to 3.5 and its refusal to "play well with others in the sandbox." I finally uninstalled Firefox 3.5 and performed a clean reinstall of Firefox 3.01.11, the previously well functioning version. In addition, my HP printer software was completely corrupted.

Dealing with these issues one at a time, pulling from full image backups, restores, uninstalling and reinstalling with all of the glitches imaginable with both Firefox and HP were unbelievable. Finally, as a direct result of all of my personal research on the net; technical forums, product forums, knowledge bases, and serious trial and error learning, I FINALLY got my PC back to a clean, glitch free, awesomely functional, basis on Thursday, July 16th at 1:30 PM.

The life's lesson here guys? Take every attack of a virus or Trojan very seriously. To prevent grief in your life, always always perform backups to an external hard drive or separate partition on your hard drive. Utilize all of the services provide by McAfee Security Suite or Norton, perform twice daily full Restore Points to always have something clean and solid to fall back to in this event. At one point I was actually in fatal fear of having to uninstall and reinstall a clean Windows XP Professional Operating System. This would actually remove all existing information, archives, programs, and applications. Not an option in my mind! Learn from my experience, PLEASE! Now I can't wait to get back to my real life, what little there is of it, but it is mine.

Thank you for reading this expose' and personal experience. I hope you enjoyed and benefited from your time invested. I greatly appreciate it.

A Couple of GREAT Books I've Just Read!

"The Answer" by John Assaraf & Murray Smith is such a refreshing surprise reading for a "business" book. I was caught totally off guard as the descriptions of the book don't do it justice at all.

I was attracted to this book, (no pun intended), by the reputation of the authors, my personal development journey and reading about the Law of Attraction, other Laws of the Universe, and their applications to my life and business. Totally well worth the investment of time, energy, and cost.

This very attractively presented book consist of 303 well written pages, broken into 15 very digestible chapters, including four excellent Appendix's which will impress and surprise you.

The content of this book deals directly with the application of the different Laws of the Universe, most importantly in your life and expanding to their relationship in your business. The principles shared with the reader are applicable to anyone on a personal development journey involving business or not. For someone even remotely interested in their own business or career, this book is REQUIRED reading. I can not emphasis this enough.

I will enjoy reading this book over again as I'm positive I did not absorb the many golden nuggets shared by the authors. Make time for this book in your life and experience the revelations provided through proven application in life and not theory. You will be a better person as a result.
_____________________________________________________________________________

"The Love Dare" by Stephen Kendrick presented through the release of the movie "Fireproof." Don't laugh! This may be a life changing book for you to invest your time and energy.

I was first exposed to this book through watching the movie "Fireproof" starring Kirk Cameron as a special function with my Sunday School class. To say I was moved, touched, excited, and enthusiastic about obtaining this book is an understatement.

If you are at all familiar with the movie, even if you are not.....yet, you will realize this book is geared toward saving and creating a very positive marriage relationship. Troubled marriages especially, but everything revealed in this book applies to ALL marriages. It is for this reason I personally bought the book. My marriage is very healthy and successful lasting 37 years now.

The foundation of learning, growing, and developing a healthy marriage relationship in this book is based on a solidly Christian foundation and Bible teachings. I appreciated the references throughout this 40 day experience to specific and very applicable Bible verses. All of which, reinforce the message, path of development, and the recreation or maintaining of a very healthy marriage relationship with your partner.

If this is even a question in your life or you just wish to continue further on your personal development journey, this book is invaluable. You will learn from and enjoy this book as it is so well presented in 40 individual day teachings for immediate application. A complete 40 day course in marriage contained in only 212 pages. Pretty impressive!

Cruising is The BEST Vacation....Even With Relatives!

A totally "AWESOME" experience!

We received the idea from my sister-in-law Donna last year with, "Hey! Let's have a family reunion to celebrate my upcoming 50th birthday, AND do it on a cruise!" Well, the cruise really caught my attention, being an avid fan of the industry and outstanding travel value, the family reunion at tad questionable. Let me share my story with you about our experience.

The idea caught momentum among the family members. The coordination of opinions and schedules went very smoothly. I will tell you, the alleged "travel agent" who was handling this large group booking, was later learned to be NOT a certified "travel agent" but a member of a network marketing travel home business group. The life's lesson here? Always check out the "professional" handling your business as it can make all the difference in the world in the final outcome. However, with our family, we did not let her shortcomings affect our experiences.

We traveled on the 70,000 ton Carnival Inspiration from Tampa round trip to Cozumel Mexico, lasting five days. I easily booked a handicapped accessible state room on the Empress Deck and main entrance lobby of the atrium. What a great way to start the day, walking into that impressive area with the seven story glass atrium and elevators. Since I don't sleep much anymore, I was up and in the main atrium lobby doing my morning reading by 5 AM each morning. This was fantastic as I was able to meet many early rising passengers and two different shifts of the ship's staff. Everyone makes friends very quickly and being the personality I am, coupled with driving a metallic candy apple red three wheeled power scooter all over the ship, created an exciting interaction experience.

I have to share this with you. This was the first time I had taken my power scooter out of the house. It's so cool because it breaks down into four parts, fits in the trunk of a car, the heaviest piece is only 28 pounds. Needless to say, I was just learning to drive this thing, getting used to moving at "turtle" to "rabbit" speed with a maximum speed of five miles per hour. There are no brakes but it slow stops once the speed lever is released. I tended to run into walls and some people getting used to this ride. I simply would announce myself getting in/out of elevators or crowded areas, "Crazy man driving here! Just learning! Warning Will Robinson, Warning!" Everyone around me had a great laugh while diving out of the way for their lives.

By the second day of the cruise, countless passengers were stopping me, hugging, kissing, shaking my hand, and warm friendly greetings from many of the ship's staff. My daughter, Jen, asked me, "Dad! Is there ANYONE you don't know on this ship?" Acting very surprised at the question, I responded, "Well, I haven't been to the engine room yet." I've learned the key to success and prosperity in life is through positive human interaction. Everything else in our short experience on this planet is only a trapping and stuff.

It was so great seeing all the different family members. We took up about 12 staterooms and everyone totally enjoyed themselves. This experience allowed all of us to spend as much or as little time with family with the only required family attendance event being the dinner. It made the waiters and assistants crazy because each night we would all sit at different tables and seats.

My wife, Joyce, and I decided to stay aboard while in Cozumel since we had been to Mexico and resort strips before, coupled with the physical logistic challenges of getting around with a power scooter. When I would meet people staying on ship I would comment, "I'm not going ashore. So from 10:30 AM to 6:00 PM I'm convinced this is my private yacht and crew, with some selected special friends on board. You are welcome to stay of course and I will pick up the tab for your meals." People just loved that point of view and we had great fun with it between passengers and crew.

In summary, this was an OUTSTANDING vacation, family reunion, adventure, and life's experience. I wouldn't have missed or traded it for anything. I am in sincere gratitude to my sister-in-law Donna for pulling this off so well. This trip was not without it's challenges but they all lent themselves to the bouquet of events making this event so memorable. I am only able to highlight just a small portion of my experience, yet, I'm sure you can relate vicariously to such a family reunion and cruise. Don't waste any more time and take the initiative in creating such a memorable event for your family. You won't be disappointed and what a great way to reconnect, tell stories on each other, and even create a few new ones.

You've GOT to Read This Book! "Money and the Law of Attraction"

"Money and The Law of Attraction" by Jerry and Esther Hicks

Totally "AWESOME" book! I originally viewed this experience with skepticism and doubt. Boy! I was so wrong! "Money, and the Law of Attraction," is a great follow up to reading "Think and Grow Rich." In fact, Jerry Hicks states the whole reason for writing this book is based upon his experience of reading "Think and Grow Rich" and his life's experiences since.

This very attractive 236 page book consisting of five primary parts including many mini-subject chapters, is very easy reading; but I must warn you, there is a great deal of important information to assimilate, so read slowly and use a highlighter liberally. Anyone on a personal development journey must include this book in their personal library. I would strongly recommend reading, or rereading, "Think and Grow Rich" in conjunction with this book. You will be amazed at what will jump off the page you never really noticed before reading "Money, and the Law of Attraction."

This is a multi-read book to get the full impact of the knowledge and principles being shared. Make the investment of time and money, you will not be disappointed.