On Best Buy

Dear Best Buy,

I recently went into one of your locations looking for a particular DVD. I couldn't find it, so I looked around for an associate to help me. I had to walk halfway around the store to locate one, and when I found her, she was busying herself with the task of hovering over the "caution: wet floor" sign, attempting to balance it on one leg as she stared blankly past it at the floor.

I gently interrupted - somewhat fearing the consequences of startling her from her trance - and asked her to help me find the DVD. She complied, and off we went to accomplish the task.

I dug through a bargain bin while she searched the inventory online. She found the film. Unfortunately, it was only being carried in Blu-Ray format. And this is where things really got dicey:

"Oh," I sighed when she told me, "that won't work. We have a DVD player."
"Well," she piped optimistically, "you could just buy a Blu-Ray player."
I stared at her.
She went on. "Eventually," she said, "everything will be Blu-Ray."
And that's when I got angry.
"That's fine." I glared. "But right now everything isn't. Right now we have a DVD player. And right now I want to buy a DVD. I'm not going to spend ten times as much just to watch a film because you weren't selling it in our format."

(A format that - just so we're both clear - still exists. Yet somehow doesn't work for you. Right now.)

Best Buy, if you don't carry the $10 item I want, why would you expect me to buy the $100 item I don't?

When you have your 1997 Honda tuned up, do you want your mechanic to tell you that they don't have your replacement part in stock and instead try to sell you a hybrid?

Of course not! You want to know why?
It's dismissive ("you don't want that.") It's alienating ("don't you know?!") And it's rude.

Best Buy, you can carry all the techonology in the world, but you never learned to embrace your customer. This is why you're going out of business.

A Kimpton Christmas

We stayed at the Kimpton in Dallas on Christmas night this year. We were driving through, coming from one side of the family that morning and going on to another the next day, and were at the hotel for less than 12 hours.

Before we arrived, Kimpton reached out to us, expressing their desire to make our holiday special and asking if there was anything we could do. J in turn reached out to me for guidance, and I suggested "something simple, but Christmasy."

(I was secretly hoping for hot chocolate and cookies.)

When we got to our room and dropped our bags, there laid out for us was a spread of hot chocolate powder, hot water in a steel canister, mini marshmallows, candy cane bits, chocolate and butterscotch chips, and shortbread cookies - all displayed in cute dishes. And a handwritten note that said, in essence, "enjoy."

Wonderful! (I wish I'd thought to take a photo.)

I called them afterwards to thank them. That's how hospitality should go.

How Ritz Carlton lost me as a customer before I was one

Dear Ritz Carlton,

My significant other and I spent several nights on the club level at a Ritz Carlton resort in Mexico. It was my first experience with your brand, and will likely be the last.

While the grounds were technically beautifully-landscaped, the linens luxurious, the food delicious and generous, and the beach a gorgeous setting, you fell flat on one very important thing: recognizing me as a guest.

Over the course of several days, from the moment we checked in until the moment we walked out, I was greeted - and addressed - as "Mrs. (my boyfriend's last name.)"

Since we're not married and I, in fact, have a different last name – one that is very real and very much my identity - I find this appalling. I was sitting next to him the entire time your staff checked us in. You served us mimosas before we'd even gotten our room key, and yet you couldn't think to ask me one very simple question: "what is your name?" It’s an oversight that communicates an utter lack of consideration.

(Perhaps I'm wrong, but my understanding is that this sort of treatment is reserved for gracefully addressing all of the many "Mrs. (unfaithful married man)" that come through your hotel. Whether that's true or not, quite frankly, I didn't appreciate it. Having been in a relationship for several years now and the only possible female guest accompanying my significant other, I am as much of a valued guest as he is - not somebody whose identity he's hiding.)

If you think I'm exaggerating the magnitude of your mistake, let us not forget Rule #3 from Dale Carnegie's infamous "six ways to make people like you:"

"Remember that a person's name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language."

When you don't use their name, you strip them of something very dear to them. You imply that their identity is inconsequential to you.

When, however, you insist on calling them a name that is not even theirs, you commit an even worse offense: you communicate that they are, in your mind, a mere shadow of somebody else's identity.

You are obviously familiar with this rule, given your emphasis on using guests' names to begin with. But you should know, Ritz Carlton, that your practice of limiting this treatment solely to those individuals who hand over their credit cards is repulsive. And you are catastrophically delusional if you think it is "good customer service." (Quite frankly, I'd rather your staff not have greeted me at all.)

On your website, you proudly boast being "the Gold Standard of Hospitality." Well, here's a reality check: your gold standard doesn't mean anything to the people who are made to feel they don't exist.

A guest with a name to remember,

KG

Hertz "Luxury" Cars

Hertz offers a "luxury" class. The car they often state, as an example, is the Lincoln Towncar.

Great.

First, let's all agree that: an individual who rents a luxury vehicle is very likely doing it not so much because they themselves like to ride in style (though I recognize this may be the case for some) as it is more the case of them striving to impress someone else - very likely a client. They are trying to make an impression.

Great.

Except here's the thing - if Hertz knew anything about anything about cars - the core of their business - they would understand that all cars - but especially luxury vehicles - make different impressions. It's not enough to make an impression in general as it is to make the right one. Auto companies spend a lot of money investing in that very impression that their vehicles make. And consumers are highly aware of what those brands are. They want to associate themselves with some. And they don't want to associate themselves with others. To say it's "luxury" isn't enough to win us over: it's not simply a price tag thing. To put it simply: not all luxury vehicles are created equal.

Reality check: there's a new class of luxury car driver. They're younger, more plugged into technology, and far too evolved to want to drive their grandpa's car to pick up their client.

I would sooner pick a client up in a Kia than a Towncar.
And "I" am your next big customer. So take note.

Sabra Travel Packs

Sabra Hummus - on your new travel packs: brilliant concept; misdirected execution. Hint- you're selling them at airports.... try eating one there.

Muscle Milk

Muscle Milk - love (love) the product. It's high in protein. It's low in sugar. That's a combination that is far more outrageously - infruriatingly - difficult to find in health foods than it sounds. The packaging, however, leaves something to be desired.

Here's the thing, guys: have you tried using the straw on your four-pack container? And I pose this question to all of you at Muscle Milk. I even ask it of the CEO; I challenge him or her to drink using the straw. I sense you'll find some problems, including but not limited to: the tapered end of the straw does not easily puncture the plastic wrapping, often leaving the angled tip bent and less useful for puncturing the drink carton. This aside, the concept of the straw doubling in length, while great, leaves a less-than-airtight joint in the middle, which, one you get to the bottom half of your drink, permits air intake and reduces the efficiency of the straw's (very simple) function. (And, as an aside: why do you only offer the 8 oz size in a four pack? And why is the 14 oz size only offered as single-serving?)