Monday, March 28, 2011

Social media as a customer service tool

Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...Image via CrunchBase Finally a lazy Sunday to catch up...well as lazy as a Sunday can be around here. Kids are up before dawn, husband is spending the three day weekend finishing up our landscaping, I'm playing online working on the dining room re-design and then there is the usual cooking, cleaning and never ending "will you play with me" questions that I hate saying no to. :)

I've been pretty MIA from cyber space lately. My sister in law is now a Mrs. and weekends are now no longer dedicated to wedding plans, Alex is officially not in preschool any longer (OMG how did my baby turn into a Kindergartener??) and Liv is walking...plenty to keep me busy. It's funny how attached we become to our information sources. I use Twitter to stay up on news and to interact with friends, and lately also as a venting outlet for crappy customer service issues.

I hate dealing with customer service numbers. It never works out well for me. I end up in a never ending loop of hold music and lack of answers. Boy does that make me mad...enough that I had pretty much given up on calling anymore. Instead I got mad and shot my mouth off on Twitter. I had a rough day, McDonalds screwed up my coffee, Target wouldn't let me enter a prescription online (well they would, just at the end of the process they kicked it out since the person it was for was 9 months old and needed an adult...seriously like my prodigy 9 month old was entering it herself), Lumber Liquidators wouldn't refund half my money for a product I had never picked up for some unknown reason, and Sam's Club had double charged me and messed my order up and I was stuck in an endless loop of them insisting both issues were fixed because they refunded the overcharge. Not my best day and perhaps I can be forgiven for getting a little testy and shouting off on Twitter.

Imagine my surprise when I almostly immediately got direct messages back from Sam's Club, McDonalds and Lumber Liquidators. Direct messages asking me why I was frustrated (kind of hard to explain in 140 characters but I did my best). Direct messages flew back and forth and ended with me giving them my phone number. Within minutes my phone rang and without a minute on hold I was speaking with an awesome customer service rep based here locally. To keep this post out of the novella range suffice it to say that the morning ended with all my refunds being processed (plus some! Rock on Sam's Club for offering a 200% money back guarentee on flowers LOVE THAT), and McDonalds sending me out a coupon for free coffee.

Who knew how powerful venting on Twitter could be and closely some stores watch their brand. Target was the only store to never respond at all and believe me, I'll call 3 out of 4 a win win!
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Sunday, March 20, 2011

March Allergy Friendly, PCOS Friendly Meal Plan - Week 1

Our meal plan for the week. Sort of.I've been following a few blogs focusing on meal planning for a while now and
I'm inspired to start tracking my meal plans and posting them in case they help someone else out as much my favorite sites have helped me. With our family's various persnickety issues meal planning is a must and fast, healthy, tasty food is a bit tricky. This week we're attempting some new recipes to spice things up. All of these recipes will be slightly altered where necessary to be gluten, corn, soy and egg free (except the friatta which will be for me :)) Happy Cooking!

Monday: Beef Daube Provencal in the Crockpot
Tuesday: Brown Rice Penne with Sausage, Chard and Artichoke Hearts
Wednesday: Spring Chicken and Buckwheat Soup in the Crockpot
Thursday: Poached Chicken with Tarragon and Peas
Friday: Spring Rolls and Spicy Thai Curried Lentils
Saturday Lunch: Spring Chicken Salad & Toasted Pitas or homemade gluten free bread
Saturday Dinner: Mini Shepherd's Pies with roasted veggies on the side
Sunday: Mini Meat Loaves with sauteed broccoli and mashed potatoes

Breakfasts will be a combination of Friattas and Oatmeal and lunches will be made up of Pitas with whatever fillings I have on hand. I'm sure the occasiaional quesidilla will also make it's way in since it's a common standby in this house.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Quick Blog Update and then back to my lazy Sunday

Life is flying by so quickly recently I feel like someone in a movie who's standing still while everyone moves in fast forward around them. Livi is growing up so quickly, Alex is a self-proclaimed genius who never sits still and the daily grind just never lets up.

We're sitting around today doing our taxes in our jammies (don't knock it...it takes me a bit of motivation to get around to taxes... a jammy day and a mocha latte are significant motivation in my book). I use Turbo Tax and while I'm waiting on hubby to supply the numbers I've requested I decided to flip over and update my very neglected blog. Sorry blog, there are just not enough hours in the day for everything calling my name recently.

Soccer season has started and I'm happy to say Tryant #1 is enjoying his time on the field and I'm highly enjoying the hard core serious soccer playing that gets interrupted every 5 minutes by one of the boys bringing us flowers, or pointing out a plane or just dancing in circles instead of watching the ball. It's hilarious! Tyrant #2 quite enjoys watching the chaos and I truly appreciate the 2 hours a week when I'm forced to sit outside and do nothing. Ahhh

I have so many plans and such limited implementation time! Stay tuned for upcoming blogs on free business resources, great ideas for work at home mommies to stay organized and productive and some great stress relievers like online journals.