It's always good to be back at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the month of May. I get my old desk again, the Economacki Press Conference room is spic and span, and my favorite announcer, Howdy Bell, is up in the media center.
This year, Howdy is looking for his own ride, a radio station who needs local coverage of quals and the race. This weekend, I'll be teaching Howdy how to blog. (No, really.)
Lutherwood, part of the ministry of Lutheran Child & Family Services of Indiana/Kentucky, is a residential treatment center that serves boys and girls ages 6-21 who are recovering from the effects of abuse, neglect, abandonment, and/or are experiencing chronic behavior problems and emotional problems. Some residents may also have a history of hurting themselves or others, and some may also show symptoms of psychiatric disorders and perhaps have been unsuccessful in other, less restrictive programs.
A few weeks ago, I was given some Outback gift cards as part of a talk I gave to an association group. That night, I took my family out to the Outback Restaurant in Castleton (NE Indianapolis) and used the cards to pay for dinner. My total bill was enough that I could cover the cost with the cards, leave a generous tip, and have $37 left on one card.
"Take the receipt," said my wife, Toni. "Just in case."
I knew what she meant. Sometimes gift card balances have a way of. . . dipping below the balance you had when you left, especially when you leave the proof of your balance behind. You supposedly have no way of proving what you have left, or how much you spent. (I used to wait tables, and I saw this happen once in a while.) But I also thought she was being paranoid, and I hate carrying around superfluous paper, so I left them.
Fast forward to Friday night (February 17). We decided to pick up some carry-out appetizers for dinner for the five of us, using the $37, so I checked my balance online before we left.
$0.00.
We knew what had happened. The very thing we — actually, Toni — were worried about. The tip ended up being $37 bigger than it should have been.
I called the restaurant, and spoke with the manager, Jerome Davis. I explained what had happened, and he was able to look up the transaction based on the last four digits of the card. He was also able to see what exactly had gone down with the transaction, and confirmed where the $37 ended up (i.e. not where it should have been).
Jerome assurred me he would be speaking with the person in question, as would the owner.
He also said he would restore the $37 to my card.
But what impressed me, and restored my faith in Outback, was that not only did Jerome agree to make everything right, he did more than he needed to.
We ended up ordering four appetizers, and Jerome paid for two of them. He said he would take the remaining balance of my bill off my gift card, which would leave me a little extra something for next time.
He only had to restore the $37. Or, he could have done what I've seen other managers do, avoided any blame, shifted responsibility, and stuck me with the loss of the $37. But he didn't do that. He did the right thing. And then he earned my loyalty back.
I sincerely appreciate what Jerome did for me and my family. He looked out for us, he made sure we were taken care of, and he not only apologized for the actions of an employee, he took responsibility to make sure everything was taken care of. In a time where average customer service can win customer loyalty, Jerome went above and beyond the call of duty by doing more for me and my family.
So I wanted to publicly say thank you to Jerome Davis and Outback in Castleton for taking care of an unfortunate problem and helping me save Friday night's dinner for me and my family. It's customer care and attention like this that will keep me coming back to Outback.
Erik Deckers is the owner of Professional Blog Service, and the co-author of Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself. His new book, No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing, which he wrote with Jason Falls, is in bookstores and on Amazon now.
I was very surprised and pleased to receive two new copies of Branding Yourself.
In German.
This makes Kyle Lacy and me international authors now. And not just my-book-was-shipped-to-Canada international either.
Our book has already been sold in the United Kingdom (I keep hoping to get invited to speak to a conference in England for a week), but this makes the first non-English language it has been translated into. My next goal is to have it translated into French.
My good friend and No Bullshit Social Media co-author, Jason Falls, recently wrote a list, Shit That Annoys Me. I liked it so much I wrote one of my own. Here are the top 10 things that annoy the shit out of me.
10. People who drive the same speed in the left lane as the people in the right lane. Barely passing is not passing. 9. This one particular guy who runs a business and creates a new account on different social networks every time he identifies a new niche: Car Repair for Seniors, Car Repair for Baseball Players, Car Repair for Golfers, Car Repair for Left-Handed Dentists. 8. Being charged for cable channels I never really wanted in the first place. 7. People who earn a slight bit of celebrity in their very narrow niche, and think this somehow makes them a real celebrity. This happens a lot in my field. 6. Real celebrities. 5. People who hate lists posts. You know who likes them? Paying customers. You know hates them? People who don't hire me. You know who I'm going to appease? (Note: I put this one in there just to annoy the shit out of Jason. Same reason I made it a Top 10 list. It's #12 on his list.) 4. Truckers who merge into a space two feet bigger than their truck just so they don't have to hit their brakes. 3. TV shows for teenagers. 2. The Alanis Morrisette "Ironic" song. Absolutely nothing in that song was ironic. It made a whole generation of people think "ironic" means "coincidental." 1. Teenagers and women who use a little girl voice as their natural voice.When I left Syracuse, I left behind a gorgeous 12 foot workbench that I had built with my own hands. The thing was strong enough to withstand just about anything, which meant I couldn't take it with me, because I had lag bolted it to the wall. Anyone who has seen my computer desktop has seen the glory that was my garage workbench.
Penn State fired Joe Paterno as their head football coach after 46 years of service, ending the longest running coaching tenure of any sport, because of what Paterno did and did not do after former defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky, was allegedly discovered raping a 10-year-old boy in the Penn State football showers in 2000. The Board of Trustees also fired Penn State president Graham Spanier.
As the story goes, Sandusky was found by a graduate assistant who told Paterno about it. Paterno reported the incident to Penn State athletic director Tim Curley, who in turn reported it to Gary Schultz, VP for finance and business. However, Curley and Schultz did not report the incident to police, and Sandusky was free to allegedly prey on children again. And yet people are pissed — pissed! — that Paterno was fired. He was fired because he did the bare legal minimum by reporting what he had heard to his boss. He did not call the police He did not take any other action. He did nothing. And Sandusky preyed on one more boy after that incident in 2000. I feel bad for Joe Paterno. The man is a coaching legend whose football team did some great and wonderful things over the years. And he should have been able to retire after a long and illustrious career with his head held high as one of the giants of college football. But instead he's been fired. Because he didn't, wouldn't, couldn't, was afraid to call the police after being told an assistant had been raping a 10-year-old boy. Now his legacy will be "his coaching tenure ended before the season was over because he didn't call the police on a pedophile." The thing that really pisses me off are all the college students who are protesting Paterno's firing. They're angry that Paterno was fired. They're not angry that the athletic department covered up a 15 year rampage by a pedophilic predator. They're not angry at Jerry Sandusky. No, they're rioting and destroying property because a football coach couldn't pick up the damn phone and call the police about a child rapist.Football — especially a storied program like Penn State's — is steeped in tradition and history. They use words like "honor" and "pride" the same way the military does. You honor your team, you honor your school, you play for pride.
Joe Paterno showed no honor, he showed no pride. He was a coward who did just enough to not go to jail, but did not do enough to save one more young boy from the clutches of a pedophile. As the father of a 9-year-old boy, I can tell you that any parent who loves their sons and daughters would never condone Paterno's inaction. Every parent lives in mortal dread of their child being harmed by someone else. And to be the parents of any of those boys is devastating. But to be the parents of the final boy — the one who was attacked after Paterno told his boss about Sandusky — has to be the worst feeling in the world. To know that your son was preyed upon because of the moral failure and cowardice of one man who teaches his players about honor and pride, and the other university administrators who financially benefit from that man. I really do feel bad for Paterno. From now on, when we say "Joe Paterno," we'll always think about how he failed to stop a child predator. We'll think about how his career ended on November 9, 2011 because of a sex scandal. And I am sorry to see such an amazing and awesome career end under this cloud. But as a father, I think he got what he deserved. I won't feel bad when the lawsuits against the university come. I don't feel bad that president Graham Spanier was fired, or that Tim Curley and Gary Schultz face jail time. And I certainly won't feel bad when Jerry Sandusky goes to prison. Because if it was my kid, I would be screaming my throat raw for all of that and more.
My friend Jen Booth, who I met at Blog Indiana this past August has an interesting puzzle. She has a postcard in the genealogy department at the Muncie Library that she needs translated. No one knows shorthand though, since it was primarily a handwriting skill taught in secretarial school as recently as the 1970s. Nowadays, no one takes dictation anymore, so it's a skill that's rarely taught.
Can you translate the postcard and help Jen solve this problem? We've thrown it open to our Twitter networks, and may have a couple of bites. But in the meantime, I'd love to see if anyone else has any luck. If you can translate it, let me know in the comments. I'll publish the translation in another post.
If you click on the photo, you'll be taken to Jen's full-size version. Or you can download it and view it on your computer's desktop.
I stopped at the Starbucks in Gas City, IN off I-69 on the way home. As I walked into the men's room, I saw a Baby Changing Station sign for the women'a bathroom, but not the men's.
Apparently only moms can change diapers, dads cannot. Is this sexist to dads, saying we cannot take care of our own children? Or is it sexist to women, saying this is women's work only?
When my kids were younger, I changed plenty of diapers and paid attention to the establishments that made it easy to take care of my kids, and the ones that perpetuated outdated gender-specific roles.
I figured Starbucks was above that. Apparently not.
