Heavenly customer service -- the Victoria's Secret way

Last Thursday, we celebrated Christmas. I know most of you were celebrating Thanksgiving. We did that too. My husband and I went to Nashville to spend the holiday with my daughter Katie and her husband Jason. Because they have too many families to see, we have always combined Thanksgiving and Christmas and she sees other family members in December. So, I did the majority of my Christmas shopping early and we opened presents last Thursday.



My daughter sent me an email wish list from Victoria's Secret. The minute I received the email, I went on line and placed my on line order and had it shipped to Nashville so I didn't have to carry it on the plane. Not 5 minutes after I placed the order, I received another email from my daughter saying she needed a different size. I won't even tell you what small size my hot daughter needs now ... more power to the Y and her spinning class.



I got on the phone to Victoria's Secret. A wonderful woman whose name I missed helped me. I told her I was trying to be a good mom and order immediately and it backfired. She said no problem. She called up the order and changed the sizes and said all done. I believe I was in shock. I asked, what else do I need to do ... are you sure ... it's that easy???? She said everything what taken care of. AMAZING! Less then 2 minutes on the phone and she corrected the order. No questions asked. (And, when Katie opened the package, it was completely correct!)



That's the way customer service is supposed to be done. Do your job. Make it easy on the customer. Life is simple. I'll be buying from Victoria's Secret again because they know how to do customer service (and my daughter looks good in the stuff)!

The colonoscopy from hell

Monday I had a colonoscopy. It took me 2 years for my primary care physician to talk me into getting it done. Just routine - I'm getting old :(. I was told by everyone that it's no big deal - the prep (starving yourself and then taking medicine to 'clean out' your insides) is no fun, but then it's over. Then after the procedure you go home and sleep for a few hours, eat and feel fine again. Not me.

Because I take a Rx painkiller for back pain (broken back in 2003, but that's another story for another time), I had a colonoscopy with sedation. I'm not going to go into all the gory details, but Monday afternoon there was no sleep for me - I spent hours and hours expelling everything and mostly nothing out of both ends. This story though isn't about that. It's about customer service -- AGAIN.

After a couple hours my husband called the hospital because something wasn't right. Wake Med Cary Hospital said to call the doctor at Cary Gastroenterology. Next phone call to the doctor. He got a voice mail for the nurse and left an urgent message. An hour later - no return phone call. I told him to call and speak to a live voice. He called the doctor again. This time he spoke directly to the nurse. She said it could be serious and she'd check with the doctor and call right back. An hour later and no return phone call. My husband called again and refused to speak to anyone but the head nurse who listened to the symptoms and sent us immediately to the hospital emergency room. Several hours later, after an IV for dehydration and other stuff, I was feeling somewhat better.

And then on Tuesday morning, the first nurse called my husband and said she received a voice mail from him and what could she do to help. My husband said, "Don't you even remember talking to me live yesterday and then never calling back." I don't know if she's forgetful, incompetent or just too busy, but that experience was NOT acceptable. I talked to their office manager to get my records transferred out of that office. She said she thinks they were just too busy dealing with lots of patients. I asked if they had any other people who had a colonoscopy on Monday and called saying they were throwing up for hours afterwards -- seemed a high priority to me. She finally agreed.

Today I went to my primary doctor - the wonderful Dr. Jennifer Schmidt of Schmidt and Catchings in Cary, NC for a follow-up since I am certainly NEVER going back to Cary Gastroenterology.

Life is returning to normal, but I just don't get it. How hard is it to do your job and provide good customer / patient care?

Going above and beyond at a restaurant

I'm usually the person who speaks up about poor customer service. Today, I'd like to commend Provino's Restaurant in Duluth, Georgia for good customer service. This past weekend, my husband and I went to Atlanta to visit his son and celebrate his birthday. We went to Provino's. The food was good, including those cute little garlic rolls (that were never-ending). Our waitress was just the correct amount of attentive throughout the meal. When we received our check, we noticed that it was not our check (it was much less). We told our waitress and asked for the correct check. She was apologetic and offered us a complimentary dessert to off-set the hassle. Really, getting the wrong check was no hassle. She asked us a couple times if we wanted dessert -- we said no. It really was not a problem. When we paid (by credit card), she came back with the receipt to sign and said she had deducted the glass of wine my husband had. How nice. We definitely did not expect that. We were not upset over receiving the bill. We never would have asked for anything special. But, she did do something to make sure we left with good feelings. And we did. I'm guessing that a glass of house red is not a big expense for them, but look at the result. I told several people about the service and our experience and am now writing about it here. People -- customer service is easy! Thank you Provino's. Based on your service, we'll be back.

To Blog or Not To Blog

Here's my dilemma. I have a lot to say, but I don't make the time to say it. During the week at work, I sit in front of the computer almost all day. When I get home, I avoid the computer. On weekends, I also tend to avoid the computer because there is too much other fun stuff to do. So blog or no blog? It's a question I am in the process of answering.

If I make the time to blog, I have plenty of customer service (or lack of ) stories to tell. I have stuff to say about managers, leadership and work environments. And I have stuff to tell about my life in general -- but who cares about my back except for me? I do think it is valuable information for other people with back pain. I have physical therapy stories, Rx drug stories and more. So, where do I start?

Well, I can't start right now because it's football time - Go Titans!