Another Tuesday Morning

If you are ever needing confirmation that it's Tuesday, drive by my back yard.  If I'm sitting there on a plastic chair in my PJs while the puppies frolic like idiots in the grass, I promise it's Tuesday.

I had to rip out the fall-winter scarf because one of the elements was causing it to squinch up and make it too short.  I haven't touched my knitting needles all weekend, if you can believe it, because I was busy designing on paper.  The real fun begins when I get halfway through something I've designed and didn't check my math sooner!

For now, though, I really want to get through some of my yarn because I am trying not to buy anything right now.  The great thing about the Malabrigo lettuce color is that it rips out beautifully, so I won't have any obnoxious-looking rows of pills before the good stuff.

My article for tomorrow's examiner is about bad customer service, not necessarily Chicago-specific but still very important.  No matter how big or small their products may be, I stand by my belief that companies need to spend money to make money sometimes, and that the customer's happiness is the most important.

I worked for Nordstrom for six years.  The company's philosophy is to use good judgment at all times, and they have built an over-hundred-year reputation on stellar customer service.  I was in Loss Prevention there, but I still received several letters from customers including one from someone I arrested.  While I'm sure there was some sort of requirement on the state's part, since he was a bit of a psychological opportunity, the sentiment was still real:  "Thank you very much for preserving my dignity while I was in custody.  I knew I was arrested the whole time, but I didn't feel like a second-class citizen just because I did something wrong."

Then I had two letters from victims of theft, including one from Hawaii who had her wallet stolen from her fitting room two hours after arriving in Chicago.  I couldn't find a manager to approve giving her some money, so I just gave her sixty bucks from my own pocket so she would have some walking-around money.  With her thank-you note, she also sent me a box of cookies.

But more importantly, how many people do you think she told that some Loss Prevention girl who was helping her cancel her credit cards just gave her sixty bucks because the girl knew she had nothing in her pocket?  The same thing happens with bad customer service.

I will post the article tomorrow.