Positively “Full of Beans”

I grew up on old fashioned home cooking. My mother was a tremendous cook and us boys didn’t complain much. There’s nothing quite like walking in the house and smelling a bunch of pinto beans boiling on the stove and a pan of cornbread in the oven. This simplistic meal was sure to get the saliva glands flowing in a hurry! Now, while I absolutely love just about any kind of bean I’ll be the first to say the thought of eating beans as a sandwich just didn’t do it for me. Beans go on the side of the plate, not in the place of the Angus!

However, Rusty Rowe, owner of Mod’s Coffee and Crepes on Boston told me about Jake’s Black Bean Burger and he acted quite serious so I had to try it. Well, I’ll have to admit it was probably the most scrumptious food I’ve sunk my teeth into for some time (don’t you dare tell my wife).

It was a bit crunchy on the outside, warm and bursting with flavor on the inside. Simply amazing. If you are a vegetarian (I am not) it is not an option for you. You must try it.

Visit The New Atlas Grill on 4th and Boston and ask for the Black Bean Burger…tell them James with ClickandEatNow sent you.

The New Atlas Grill
415 S Boston
Tulsa, OK 74103

Change is Inevitable

It was a little over 5 years ago I walked into Smith Staffing armed only with a resume and a smile.  I told the young lady sitting at the front desk that I would like to speak with the manger.  Sheepishly she paused, turned in her chair and said “who is the manager?”

Now, red flags are popping up all over the place.  My instincts told me to turn around and walk out.  Before I could, the young man behind her turned and said, “Well, umm, I guess I am”.

I wanted to say; “Okay you all have a nice day” and escape without incident.  However, before I knew it I was sitting across the desk from this young man as he explained the situation.  They had just cleaned house and he came down from OKC to begin hiring a new team.  The receptionist had walked in not long before and he just put her to work answering the phones.

Within the month they asked me to manage the new team.  Now, some 5 years later I am leaving.  I am leaving a stable, growing staffing and recruitment firm to embark on a path of unknowns and uncertainty.  I am leaving an established company to work for an internet start-up; trading a secure market for untapped one; and leaving a loyal clientele to build and develop one from scratch.

However, if I have learned anything over the last 5 years it is that change is inevitable.  To grow and succeed, individuals and organizations alike must be willing to embrace change – not resist it.

Change generates excitement and yet the risk involved breeds anxiety all at the same time.   However, I have an understanding that there is no success at the end of a path without risk and those who refuse to change reap frustration and discontentment.

There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse!  As I have often found in traveling in a stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one’s position, and be bruised in a new place.  ~Washington Irving

Customer “NO”service

My All-Time Customer “NO”service Experience

I had an experience the other day that caused me to ponder the decline of customer service.  It was late evening and I left my wife and baby in the car to run into Warehouse Market, a small Grocery Store chain in this area, to buy a few necessities.  The line was short so my items were soon checked out by the rather impatient cashier.  As is my custom whenever dealing with impatient people, I commenced to ask her, in a most friendly tone I might add, how her evening was going.  Well, I was not prepared for what I heard.  She began mumbling about how she has tried her best to get her homework done between “customers” and how she has an exam coming up that she’s not ready for etc.  I wanted to laugh!  So I did…  I sincerely apologized for adding to her already frustrating night by picking her line.  I expected an apologetic exclamation as she realized what she had done.  Instead, she just kept mumbling about her situation.  Chuckling still, I grabbed my bags and just stood there as she whirled around to the empty checkout line behind her and began pouring over her homework.

I’ve been in the same industry for 6 years now and I’ve learned that while price and even quality of product is important, customer service is still the number one desired trait of any potential customer.  Genuine customer service is driven by a sincere concern for the “customer experience”.  When a customer starts feeling like they are being taken for granted, that customer will began to entertain other callers.

MSN Money has conducted a poll for the past four years to identify which companies have lost the customer focus.  This Customer Service Hall of Shame is “a ranking of the companies whose service is most often rated “poor” by consumers”.  In essence, the bigger a company gets and the less choices you have, the less they care about taking care of you as a customer.  Many of them get away with it because where else do you go?  However, what about the small mom and pop stores.  If they fail to provide good customer service they go out of business, and they should.

Let this be a reminder to each of us that there is no substitute for genuinely caring about other people enough to treat them as you would want to be treated.  Wow, seems like I’ve read that before somewhere…

What is your favorite Customer “NO”service experience?