Customer Service

What qualifies as good customer service?  Have we become so slack that we tend to settle for mediocrity because that is the world we live in now?

Life is a leaf of paper white

Whereon each one of us may write

His word or two, and then comes night.

Great begin! though thou have time

But for a line, be that sublime—

Not failure, but low aim, is crime.

~ James Russell Lowell     

I am not settling for less than best anymore, and to prove my point I just refused a shipment from JCPenney that included merchandise I really wanted.  Another shipment was scheduled today, and refused that one also.

Do you know it takes ten good comments to offset one bad comment made from a customer?  Too many people that experience bad customer service brush it off and don’t say anything about it.  They settle for whatever service they get, and accept it as “that’s the way things are now, and we can’t do anything about it”.  Yes, we can.  Don’t settle for it.  Do something about it.  It’s the way things are because you let them become that way.

Customer Service is the provision of service to customers before, during, and after a purchase.  A series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction.  Depending on the service provided, a customer service experience can greatly change the customer’s perception (in a good way or a bad way) of the organization.

Before purchasing my items, JCPenney promised me free shipping on my order, if I included a promo code.  Great!  Free shipping is always nice.  This is an excellent promotion to enhance my level of customer satisfaction.  I didn’t ask for it, and I didn’t expect it, so it was an added pleasure to my experience.

After I placed my order, I received a confirmation email stating that all of my items I ordered were in stock, and they would be delivered at my home in 4-7 business days.  Great!  Free shipping and my items would arrive no later than a week out, another endorsement that I did not ask for or expect to boost my experience.

Five days later I received an email that included shipping information and a tracking number.  I tracked packages.  My merchandise was schedule to arrive no later than end of business day July 30^th and July 31^st respectively.  I was confused because the confirmation email indicated 4-7 business days not 9-10 business days.

My first email, the day after my shipment should have arrived, I pointed out the tracking information that I researched, and I expressed my dissatisfaction in the delivery time.  I also indicated that I would be refusing the order, and I expected reimbursement on my credit card immediately.

The response came more than eight hours later from Kendra, a customer care team member.  She informed me that my order was placed on July 21^st which was a non-business day  (do keep in mind that if you go into a JCPenney retail store on a Saturday, it is business as usual, just don’t make the mistake thinking it’s the same on-line).  She gave me tracking numbers, and told me the delivery dates — information which I indicated I had.

My second email in response to Kendra included a copy of the original confirmation as well as my dissatisfaction of service being amplified because she had not addressed the delivery issue and she had my order date incorrect.

The response, again, was more than eight hours later, this time from Ellen, another customer care team member.  Ellen was very kind in apologizing for the incorrect information being submitted.  However, Ellen addressed me as Mr. Johnson, and at the end of offering me a 15% discount off my order for my inconvenience, there was part of an email that had been copied and pasted from someone named Savannah.  Imagine my annoyance!

My third email in response to Ellen expressed my gratitude for getting back to me.  I asked what good she thought it was trying to make amends with someone who had previously experienced an error, and they didn’t have the correct name of the customer.  I conveyed that 15% was hardly worth the time I had put in researching the incident, and emailing back and forth, but I would consider 50%.  I also expressed that anything less I would refuse the order, and share my experience with everyone I knew.

This time the response came in less than two hours.  Debbie, another customer care team member, used my correct name, apologized for the delay, the error in the name and indicated that she understood my frustration.  Unfortunately a 25% discount was all she could offer.

My final email was to say thanks, but no thanks and to inform them that I will not ever do business with JCP again.  How much is a customer worth?  What does a bad customer experience do for your business? 

Some people might think I’m being unreasonable, and I should have accepted the 25% discount.  JC Penney promoted the free shipping.  JCPenney endorsed the in-home delivery of 4-7 business days.  They should not promote activities they cannot adhere to.  I did not ask for these services, and from my experience, they set the customer up to be disappointed.

I know that it is not the fault of the customer care team members who make $8.50 an hour to read a Customer Service Manual to find out how to respond to customers.  I don’t blame them.  

However, my experience would have been better if 1) JCP didn’t promise something they couldn’t control (why they ship from Starks, NV by way of San Pablo, CA to Lexington, SC is beyond me, 2) one customer care team member should have handled the issue from beginning to end, and, finally 3) a customer care team member manager should have followed up in the end to make one final attempt at making amends.

© Crackerberries 2012

Pickled Dilly Beans

Silly Dilly Beans

Burst my bubble

I’m in trouble

My garden’s growing

My lawn needs mowing

My writing I reckon

Will have to come second

Vegetables need gathering

Inadequate for lathering

The harvest is calling

And I’m here just stalling

So with you let me share

Try them out if you dare

My Mimi’s recipe for dilly beans

They are not hard to make by any means

Pickled Dilly Beans

4 lbs whole green/string beans

¼ tsp hot red pepper flakes (per pint)

½ tsp whole mustard seed (per pint)

½ tsp dill seed (per pint) I use fresh dill

1 clove garlic per pint

1 Chile pepper per pint (my addition to the recipe)

5 cups white vinegar

5 cups water

½ cup pickling/canning salt

Wash and trim beans.  Pack lengthwise into hot, clean pint jars.  Add pepper, mustard, dill and garlic to each jar in the amount indicated.  Combine water, salt and vinegar and bring to a boil.  Pour boiling liquid over beans, leaving ½ inch head space.  Adjust the lids and process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.  Remove the jars from canner, cool, wipe, label and store in cool dry place.

© Crackerberries 2012

Pizza Steak Subs

Pizza Steak Subs

Pizza Sub Dough

¾ cup warm water

1 Tbsp olive oil

½ tsp kosher salt

1¼ cups all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp yeast

Combine all ingredients in bread machine in order given and select ‘dough’ mode.  When done turn out on lightly floured surface (if not using immediately, place in bowl greased with olive oil, turn dough over to coat it, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use).

Pat out dough into rectangle about ½ inch thick and cut into 4 portions.  Place on a heated pizza stone and brush with olive oil (sprinkle with Kosher salt or fresh/dried herbs if desired).  Place dough portions in preheated 400º oven for 13-15 minutes or just until puffy and starting to brown.

Meanwhile prepare filling.

Steak Sub Filling

8 oz sirloin beef, cut into bite size portions

1 medium onion, halved and sliced

1 green or red pepper, julienned

½ cup shredded Colby/Monterey cheese

1 Tbsp mayonnaise

1 Tbsp BBQ sauce

½ Tbsp olive oil

Fresh ground black pepper and kosher salt

Sauté beef in olive oil in cast iron skillet just until it looses it’s pinkness.  Sprinkle with fresh ground pepper and kosher salt and add onion and green pepper and cook slightly longer (about 2 minutes).

Spread each cooked dough portion with mayonnaise or BBQ sauce (your choice).  Fill one side of the portions with the steak, onion, pepper filling.  Sprinkle with cheese and fresh ground pepper.  Cover with top and return to oven for an additional 5 minutes or until cheese melts.

© Crackerberries 2012

Crunchy Cole Slaw

Crunchy

Cole Slaw

¹/₃ cup vegetable oil

1 3 oz package Ramen noodles

½ tsp garlic salt

4 cups shredded cabbage

1-2 finely diced carrots

½ cup chopped pecans

In small sauce pan heat oil and whisk in flavor packet from noodles and garlic salt; heat 2-3 minutes until well blended.

In large bowl crush Ramen noodles, add cabbage and carrot and mix well.  Pour hot oil over top and toss to combine.  Sprinkle with pecans and serve immediately or cover and store in fridge until ready to serve.


© Crackerberries 2012

Answers to Why and How

A commentary of thoughts and ideas about the why and how certain things come to be.

I’m dumbfounded at how stupid our world has become. Not that I didn’t see it coming, because the signs have been here for a very long time.  I saw two clips on the news this morning that really made me think we could make a million dollars being consultants teaching people common sense.  “Wash your fruit that you buy before cutting into it.”  Seriously, people don’t know this?  What about this one: “How to know when it’s time to put air in your tires?”  They pay people to tell you these things. 

The massacre in Colorado has been taking up most of the news.  All interesting, and facts that are newsworthy of reporting and my heart goes out to the victims.  Sometimes the things the media dwells on is just flabbergasting to me.  Was he faking his actions in court?  Who cares?  Why spend all this money trying to psycho-analyze why he did what he did?  Call me cruel and insensitive, but give him a shot, put him to sleep, and be done with it.  Stop wasting the tax-payers money trying to figure out why something like this happened.  It’s not going to change anything, ever.

Why didn’t someone say anything about the warning signs?  Hello?  We see warning signs in people every day.  Think about it.  That strange man sitting all by himself in the back at McDonalds sipping on his coffee, the kid that takes all the toys off the shelf at Wal-Mart and throws them on the floor, the little girl pulling the head off her Barbie doll, the mother that slaps her toddler because he wants a candy bar.  How many times do you walk up to this person/child and say, “I really think you have a problem and might need some psychiatric help”?  That would go over really well, I’m sure.

Everyone asks why things have gone so wrong and why people are the way they are.  The warning signs have been there for a long time and no one wants to buck up and accept the truth.  Judges 21:25 “…everyone did what was right in his own eyes” and they are still doing it.  Read the book…everything you need to know is there. 

Psychoanalysts will tell you it’s the parents’ fault of how they raised their kids, yet in the next breath they will tell you not to hit your child because that will hurt their self esteem.  To me, it’s all just a whole bunch of academic bullshit and people are trying to make a buck or 20 million. Spare the rod, spoil the child — the first time he talks back a good slap right upside the head will cure it — he who loves him disciplines him promptly.

Once they reach the golden age of 18 the parent is no long accountable for the actions of their child.  It is the child’s responsibility to be held accountable for all they do.  Leave James Holmes’ mother alone.  He is responsible not her.

Lessons learned in childhood will last a lifetime.  Unfortunately in this day and age, the lessons a child learns are few and far between.  People somehow came to the belief that having a child was like fast food.  Have a baby, drop it off at daycare, take it to Disneyworld, buy it stuff, send it to college, watch it get married, and start the cycle all over again.  What did the kid learn?  To get stuff, do things, and it learned nothing about values or morals.

Most elementary school students have their own laptop, cell phone, I-pod, I-pad and whatever other “in” electronic gadget there is.  What do they have to look forward to?  What is their long term goal? 

People ask how something like this could happen.  People want to know why something like this happened.  Young people today are spoiled.  They have everything at their finger tips and they don’t have to work for anything.  Give a hungry young person a cow on the hoof and he would starve before taking action with that cow.  Boredom and nothing to look forward to… those are the answers to the why and how.  The real question is what can we do about it?

© Crackerberries 2012

Grilled BBQ Chicken

Too many times I’ve tried to grill chicken.  I hate having to par-boil and if I don’t par-boil the chicken usually ends up burnt or not done on the inside.  I have found a way to enjoy BBQ chicken without par-boiling and without blackened burnt to a crisp.

Pan
Non-Stick
Chew toothpick
Savoury worn
Scorched on meals never stick
Skillet spiced with more oil adorned
Whole fried chicken thighs and brown gravy's born
Suppers more tasty from a cast iron fry pan
Cooking on woodstoves their aprons were worn
The pan was kind; no cause to mourn
It's number one top pick
Old wives have sworn
Will not stick
Ferric
Pan

1-2 lbs chicken leg pieces, rinsed

2 Tbsp BBQ Grilling Spice

A cast iron skillet

Cooking Spray

A piece of aluminum foil

Place the chicken pieces in the cast iron skillet, generously sprayed with cooking oil.  Sprinkle with a good amount of BBQ seasoning (1 tsp each of the following spices: cumin, garlic powder, chili powder, paprika, onion powder, thyme and ¼ tsp cayenne pepper).  Cover with aluminum foil and place on hot grill 350º-450º.  Let cook 45 minutes to an hour.  Remove aluminum foil carefully because the steam is H-O-T!  Place chicken pieces on grill just to crisp up the outside (about 5 minutes). 

© Crackerberries 2012

Hot Pepper Sausage Corn Cakes

Hot Pepper-Sausage Corn Cakes w/Honey Lemon Butter

These are great for any meal of the day... even just a snack.

¾ cups Jimmy Dean hot breakfast sausage, cooked; reserving grease
1 cup self-rising buttermilk corn meal

½ cup whole wheat flour

2 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp fresh ground pepper

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

1 ¹/₃ cups buttermilk (1½ tbsp lemon juice and top off with whole milk)

3 medium eggs, slightly beaten

1 medium onion, diced

2 Chile or jalapeno peppers, finely chopped

1½ cups frozen corn

Cook sausage in cast iron skillet, crumble as it cooks.  Remove sausage; set aside to cool.  Cook onion, peppers and corn in reserved sausage grease until lightly browned (5-7 minutes).  Remove from skillet and cool.

In medium bowl combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, pepper, baking soda, baking powder and cayenne pepper and mix well. 

Combine eggs and buttermilk and pour over dry ingredients.  Stir just to combine and moisten.    Fold in cooled sausage, corn, onions and peppers. 

Grease large skillet and pour ¼ cup portions onto skillet or grill.  Cook cakes until golden brown on edges (2-3 minutes), flip and cook an additional 1-2 minutes.  Serve warm drizzled with honey lemon butter.

Honey Lemon Butter:

½ cup butter

½ cup honey

1½ lemon zest

Melt butter in small pan, whisk in honey and lemon zest; spoon over corncakes.  Store leftovers in fridge and re-heat in microwave.

© Crackerberries 2012

Shoo Fly Pie

Shoo Fly Pie also known as Molasses Pie originates from the Treacle Tart (a British generic name for any syrup made during the refining of sugar cane).

This is the Crackerberries version of the recipe.  Typically the crumbs serve as the crust, but
Tall Cool  ټne likes pie and loves pie crust, so this the alternate version of the Shoo Fly Pie.

1 Pie Crust

Crumb mixture:

1 cup flour

½ cup crushed saltine crackers, seasoned with pepper

¼ tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup brown sugar

3 tbsp butter

Combine flour, crackers, cinnamon and brown sugar.  Cut in butter until fine crumbly mixture forms.  Spread 2/3 of crumb mixture into pie crust, pressing gently into sides and bottom of crust; set aside.

Syrup mixture:

½ cup molasses

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

½ cup hot water

½ tsp baking soda

Dissolve baking soda in hot water.  Combine molasses, brown sugar and slightly beaten egg together in bowl and mix well.  Pour hot water over mixture and blend in. 

Pour ½ of syrup over pie crust and swirl around to cover, add remaining syrup.  Sprinkle with remaining crumbs.  Bake at 400º for ten minutes, drizzle with a little molasses and reduce heat to 350º and bake an additional 50 minutes.  Cool completely.

© Crackerberries 2012



Kitties

There is nothing quite like watching babies play.  This wild mamma decided that the shed might be a good place to have her babies.  We can't get near any of them, but they sure are fun to watch.  I have heard that once you feed them, they are yours.  Guess what we have.

Backpacks For Kids

Children at school will lack a snack,

‘Cuz free and reduced lunch sometimes lack

Take home their din-din in a sack

Weekend backpack, weekend backpack

A friend of mine inspired this poem

Her love for kids just flows like foam

Instead of hungry mouths that roam

Send some meals home, send some meals home

Fill a backpack, loaded with food

Get involved with big attitude

Turn it into a giant prelude

To share some food, to share some food

Start your own thing, don’t be intrepid

It could be a new box top lid

Show some love like mini Cupid

Backpacks for a kid, backpacks for a kid

My friend puts backpacks together for some children in the school that are needy.  I think it is so note-worthy that it could become world wide and just be a new way to help.  School will be starting up and what a way to help those less fortunate.  There are lots of organizations that do this… what a great way to get involved and give back to the community.

Cherry Tomatoes & Hot Peppers

When in Rome …

Do you have an over abundance of those leftover garden vegetables?  Believe me, as a native Mainer I never thought I’d see the day when I’d be deep-frying cherry tomatoes, but… as they say, in the South, “it ain’t food unless it’s fried”.  These fry up so tasty and who would have thought anything fried could be good for you? 

1-2 dozen cherry tomatoes

1-2 dozen hot peppers (I used jalapeño and Chile peppers)

1 cup self-rising buttermilk corn meal

½ cup all purpose flour

1 egg

1¼ cup beer

1 tsp Creole seasoning

Oil for deep frying

Wash and dry veggies and let stand at room temperature before cooking.

Combine corn meal, flour and Creole seasoning and mix well.  Beat egg slightly and add to beer, pour over corn meal/flour and mix well. 

Dip veggies in batter to coat.  Be sure to cover all of the tomato before dropping into the oil or they will pop.

Cook in batches a few at a time.  Peppers for two minutes or so and one minute for the tomatoes.  Cool at least 10-15 minutes before eating tomatoes because they are very hot.  Serve with your favorite dipping dressings.  Honey mustard and Ranch works really well.

© Crackerberries 2012

Cranberry Fig Jam - In the Bread Machine

™

Too many Figs?  Here's an idea for you.

My bread machine has a jam cycle and I’ve never tried it because, to me, making jam in a bread machine just seems like cheating.  Today I had some leftover cranberries, and the fig tree looks so sad with all of those over ripe figs that I just can’t keep up with.  The birds are helping, but they only eat half of a fig, and then move on to the next one.  I decided to try out the bread machine where it's so dang hot to stand at the stove stirring, and stirring, and stirring.

2½ cups mashed figs (about 2 dozen)

1¼ cup mashed cranberries (½ bag)

1 pouch of Certo liquid pectin

3 Tbsp lemon juice

Put all ingredients in the bread machine and press the jam cycle.  My bread machine does a 2lb loaf size.  Recipes should not exceed 3½ cups (mine did by ¼ cup and I didn’t have a problem).  Good luck.  I can’t wait to try it again! 


Yield: five 8oz. freezer jars.

©Crackerberries 2012

Preserving the Kitchen

The air is hot and humid and the scent

of strawberries fills the kitchen. 

Summertime and jalapenos,

green peppers, cucumbers,

and ripe cherry tomatoes fall off the vine. 

Fresh plump figs droop on the branches

waiting to be picked.

The kitchen today is hot and steamy

with the old canning pot bubbling away. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining…yet. 

First we whip up a specialty batch

Of strawberry fig preserves

(be sure to stir that pot often, honey). 

There’s nothing better on a homemade

grilled biscuit than fresh preserves. 

Follow up with a batch of mustard pickles

 – a very secret recipe,

oh and just for shits and giggles

throw that Okra in one of those jars,

no point in letting them go to waste.

Garlic and fresh basil

with diced onions and oregano

simmered all day long

cooks up a delicious tomato sauce. 

Twenty-six jars preserved and

my chores are done for today.

Tomorrow is a brand new adventure. 

Thirty ears of corn await metamorphosis into

Old Time Corn Relish once those ears get husked. 

Tonight I’m going outside in the heat

and pretend to be a kid again. 

I’ll find a rock and wrap it

in a white handkerchief and

toss it up in the darkened sky

and wait for bats to come diving after it.

Just so I can laugh at the thought

of doing nothing,

or something close to nothing.

©Crackerberries 2012

FanStory Addiction

Improve your writing.  That was what I thought I was going to do.  Join FanStory, a place for writers to improve their writing technique.  I can’t argue the fact that I did improve my vocabulary in the four short months that I spent on FanStory. I learned some punctuation and verb usage as well, but nothing that E.B. White or an English book couldn’t teach me.

What is the draw?   Post a piece of writing and immediately get writing critique from other members.  This is all good, because isn’t that what all writers want?  We want honest feedback about our writing. Is it good or is it bad?  Can we get an honest opinion with suggestions on how to make it better?  I was hooked, and for $6.95 per month I could post two pieces of writing a day and get at least two people (FanStory tells you three reviews, but that is not accurate) to read and comment about my work. 

Within three weeks of being a member on the site, I had an exploding profile and I was rising within the ranks.  The excellent rating was awesome, and the five, and often six stars fit real well with my exploding status, and my ego.  I was on top, and my writing was outstanding.  I was blind.  Little did I know that everyone on the site who would put the time and effort into reading to make the FanStory monopoly money to promote their work would have the same exploding status that I had. 

It was hard at first, because I wanted to give the writers good, honest feedback about the piece that I was reading.  I found that I was spending six to eight hours, and sometimes even more than that, a day to read poems and stories to give my detailed review. 

A review is based on the star rating system. Six stars would be for a piece that is simply an outstanding piece of work.  Ironically, a member is awarded six six-star reviews to hand out each week.  Only two can be awarded to a member per month.  If someone writes outstanding work all the time they are only able to collect a six star rating from each member twice per month.  Five stars would indicate that the piece is excellent and no changes need to be made.  Four stars is a good piece but certain adjustments need to be made, be it spelling, punctuation, etc.  Three stars is a piece that is off to a good start, but needs quite a bit of work.  Two stars is a piece that needs a lot of work and one star is a major revision (why bother even making the effort?).

What I found after sometimes spending forty-five minutes to an hour on one piece that I gave a thorough review on, (spelling, punctuation, thoughts on how the piece could be improved) was that most people didn’t really want my suggestions and balked at the thought of receiving anything less than five stars.  Oh, don’t get me wrong, I fell into that star rating too.  Please don’t tell me my piece of work is anything less than excellent.  But then when I did get a review with less than five stars, I really took the time to see what it was that the person reviewing it was trying to tell me.  Unfortunately there are not enough of these detail oriented members on FanStory to out-weigh the bad.  Too many people review and give a standard five star rating with some happy comment about how this piece was interesting and had a good feel to it. (Blah, blah, blah, basic B.S.) 

There are contests that are member created as well as site created.  In my opinion the member created contests are just a way for members to give accolades to their friends. I entered several and the pieces that won were not the best piece in my humble opinion.  I also entered the site created contests and supposedly there is a FanStory committee that chooses these winners, however, no one knows who these committee members are.  Needless to say, I never won a contest entered.


I met some people, just like one meets on any social network forum.  The thing that I was trying not to do was to treat it like every other social network where everyone wants to be your friend.  I don’t care what anyone tells you and what anyone says about internet forums and social networks.  We do not make friends over the internet.  We are people and it is our inherent nature to care about ourselves and what we ourselves want.  It is hard not to fall under the cunningness of people, which I did.  I believed what people told me, and I trusted people I had never even met.

After four months of playing the game of rising in the ranks and letting my housework, bills, correspondence, relationship with God and my husband slide, with God’s urging, I finally realized it was a bad addiction.  A very bad addiction.  The whole thing came to light when I read a poem of an idea/concept that I had shared with one of my FS “friends” who took the idea and wrote it in their own words.  To me, that was God saying, “Can you hear Me now?”  I responded most certainly, “Yes, Sir, I can, and I am done with this, and thank You, very much for having patience with me.”  It was time to put an end to the silliness of playing on a social media and get on with some real writing.
 

Remember who you are, change what you are and become what God wants you to become today. 

© Crackerberries 2012