The Importance of Earnest Service

Tom Brokaw, in a repeat of “In Depth” on Book TV–C-Span2–last weekend, took calls from readers about all his books, the most recent of which was “The Time of Our Lives,” [Random House Publishing Group].

In this book, and on the program, he addressed the benefits of drastically shortening two to three month student  summer vacations. He felt vacation time is wasted and detrimental especially to children in homes where both parents work and the kids hang out for months both unsupervised and uninspired. They lose the thread of what they’ve learned the prior year especially if their family doesn’t encourage them to continue to learn over the summer.

The long vacation originally came about because farmers needed their children to help with planting, farm chores and harvest. While this isn’t true anymore, think of the reaction of teachers, day and overnight camp owners and youth hostels that depend on these stretches of free time for rest or income.

One of the callers to the show said she was from the greatest generation-the title of another of Brokaw’s books. She was born to a family of seven children who lived with her parents in a one bedroom apartment in the Lower East side of Manhattan. She said she was calling from California, and a home with a view of the ocean. Education–free to her and her siblings–is what she attributed to their success.

This brings me to what a reader of this blog wrote to me the other week. After she found what she needed at a well regarded national discounter, she stopped a clerk to ask if the store carried paperbacks. He waved her toward the electronics section. She explained that she was looking for books and he stared back at her. She observed that his English was perfect, she put on her “best version of a good face and ran off to find customer service,” and concluded, “Sing praises to the wonderful school system!”

I can hardly believe that the clerk, even if he was 18, used e-books throughout his stint in school because they haven’t been around that long. I wish I could figure out where he’s been. Although this didn’t happen in New York City, the next paragraph gives a hint about where the clerk hasn’t been: At school.

In “New Ad Campaign Will Fight Chronic Absenteeism and Truancy,” on New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s blog, he wrote: “…far too many students are missing school. In New York City, one out of every five students missed a month or more of school last year - that’s over 200,000. And those rates are highest in our high need communities where school offers students the best chance for a brighter future.”

What do you think of shortened school summer vacations and efforts to encourage children not to miss school? Is there hope?

Things are not always as they seem.

In Training

I was waiting for a train to arrive at Penn Station in NYC and with nothing else to do, I chatted with the Information man, who had no customers at the time. He shared what he described as two silly questions he’s been asked recently: “Is this Penn Station?” was one and “What time does the 3:22 leave?” the other.

I didn’t think that the questions were necessarily silly. If I was from out of town or from abroad, I might want confirmation of the first–it’s impossible to tell that there’s a railroad station tucked into this building from many vantage points–and if the 3:22 was listed as “Delayed,” the second question would also make perfect sense.

Convenient Stats

Financial advisor Ric Edelman told his radio audience the other week about how a major life insurance company diligently searches social security records to learn if any of its annuity clients have died. Why? To immediately cut off payments.

However, the resource is not used to find out if any of its life insurance customers are dead. There’s no benefit to the company to promptly paying recipients their due.

So how does this strategy differ from a bank that keeps a deposit for a period of time–it’s there yet you can’t access it giving the bank time to play with it? It doesn’t. Stockholders love this approach.

Safe Slime

Reuters’ P.J. Huffstutter and Robert Burgdorfer wrote “‘Pink Slime’ May Force BPI Corporate Staff Cuts,” noting “In March, a public outcry erupted over the filler for ground beef, which is made from fatty trimmings that are potentially more susceptible to contamination than other cuts of beef. The trimmings are sprayed with ammonia hydroxide to curtail the growth of pathogens such as salmonella and E.coli O157:H7.

“Sales plummeted when consumers became aware of the common practice in the industry, despite U.S. Agriculture Department and industry experts saying the beef was safe to eat.”

Philip M. Boffey wrote, “What if it Weren’t Called Pink Slime?” in an op-ed piece in The New York Times. In a taste test Boffey preferred burgers with the filler because they were “more tender.”

This conversation reminded me of my stint as an Air Force wife living in Turkey for two years, [eons ago], which I wrote about before, but it’s again fitting to mention here. We’d buy our groceries from the base facility and because of the length of time it took for foodstuffs to go through the system, hang out on hot runways and linger in warehouses before they hit the shelves, there were bugs aplenty in our flour, cookies, cereal, chocolate chips and such. We were told that the insects were perfectly safe to eat.

The bugs and ammonia hydroxide on fat to create “lean finely textured beef” might be perfectly safe, but are they appetite-whetting? Would a good PR job to change pink slime’s name to LFTB do the trick, as Boffey suggests is what BPI needs to do? PR can do plenty, but even the best can’t remove ammonia or bugs from food.

Can you share examples of instances of things that may not be as they appear because it depends on your perspective?

I’ve covered the topic from several directions and add these recent examples to the pile.

Taxing

A colleague told me he received a $7 penalty on his business tax due to a 26 cent mistake. He didn’t bother his tax preparer and sent the IRS a check by return mail. But the process of notifying him, opening his envelope, registering the transaction in a computer and depositing his check must have cost the IRS far more than it received from him. Meanwhile how many $millions are they missing from scofflaws?

School’s Out

And then there’s New York’s Independent Budget Office which Jill Colvin reported, on DNAinfo, could save a lot of money by cutting the summer school program. She wrote: “The city spends about $28 million a year on the dreaded programs, whose attendance has ballooned in recent years, from 10,000 third-through-eighth graders in 2009 to 34,000 in 2011…..” Kids don’t like to have to go to school in summer, but one assumes it helps some catch up. What price if they are left forever behind?

All Aboard

This instance could equally fit a post about the customer is always wrong. I noticed a white sheet of paper taped to the outdoor Metro-North ticket dispensers on the platform at Dover Plains. I checked it out on line to confirm it was official [which it didn't appear to be].

After a list of ticket types such as roundtrip, 10-trip or monthly-each with a warning that you have 30 days to return a ticket– there’s the line: “A $10 refund processing fee is charged for each refund transaction.” That news may be pennies wise for the railroad at the end of the year between all the people who buy and don’t use a ticket and don’t return it because of the fee and those who pay the it. However, I wonder if Metro-North calculated how many of those, who don’t take the train as a rule, will instead rent a Zipcar, take a bus or hitch a ride with a friend to avoid this penalty in future?

Do you have any pennies wise examples or thoughts about these?

In radio discussions after the Costa Concordia ran aground off the coast of Tuscany, I heard someone say that you sign away your rights to sue when you take a cruise.

That’s not the only place a customer can lose his/her traditional rights.

According to Christopher Elliot, whom Arthur and Pauline Frommer interviewed on their Sunday radio travel show a few weeks ago, there’s a creeping trend in the vacation rental property business to require clients to sign non disparagement clauses. Break the agreement and you’ll be fined.

Arthur Frommer said that he feared the custom would leak into the hotel industry as well. And doctors have begun to ask patients to sign such forms, according to Elliot.

In his post about vacation rental gag agreements, Elliot illustrated what happens with the Darows’ experience. They wrote a negative online review about their Scottsdale, Ariz. vacation rental that cost $3,500 for five nights. A letter from the rental agency which Elliot quoted went as follows: “It has come to our attention that you have written an unauthorized review regarding your stay at a home managed by Progressive Management Concepts,” it said. “If this review is published by VRBO.com, you will be in violation of the confidentiality clause of the rental contract you agreed to when you made your reservation.”

Indeed, Tom Darow had signed a form that stipulated not to “discuss or disclose the occupancy of the subject property with any entity not bound by the terms of this agreement without the expressed written authorization of the homeowner and the property agent representing the homeowner.” The price of doing so: $500-precisely the amount that appeared on the Darow credit card. Eventually, the Darows removed their review from VRBO.com and got their $500 back–plus a $200 refund.

Wrote Elliot: “The vacation rental industry may be warming to rental contracts such as Progressive’s. Several property owners echoed the sentiments of [Chris] Barski, [Progressive's attorney] saying that non-disparagement language is the only way owners can protect themselves from negative reviews. ‘Just a small comment can slide a slight negative sentiment to a disaster like, ‘Avoid this house,’ and boom! You could lose everything and go into foreclosure, simply because of that one review,’ says Ken Silverman, a principal for a land development company based in New York who owns a vacation rental property at a New Hampshire ski resort. ‘It would have to be offset by tens or hundreds of positives to not make a difference.’”

And Elliot opened the discussion to cover user-generated reviews, many of them faked and inappropriately glowing to make a property [or a product, book, experience-you name it]-appear better than it is.

He also provided a good reason for a property manager to ask to approve a review-because the writer might disclose information that might “make the rental unit vulnerable to theft,” such as a lock combination or street address.

The solution is simple: Before signing, read the small print. And before agreeing to a vacation rental property, find out whom you can call on the spot if something isn’t right. Call them in advance to make sure they’ll be there when you are coming, so if something happens, you’ll know what to do. The idea is to have zero reason to complain afterwards.

Do you know of other instances where customers can’t share their displeasure publicly without incurring fines or where their rights are restrained in other ways?

Friend and occasional guest blogger Nancy Farrell wrote about exercises her mother was doing that were similar to sign language her daughter was learning at an after school  club. She continued, “I love things that serve a dual purpose don’t you? For instance, my daughter’s private school sold wreaths and poinsettias in December so I bought a bunch of plants as gifts for the office staff.”

She touched on one of my favorite things to do: Killing a bunch of birds with one stone. When I don’t feel like dusting, cleaning or weeding, I tell myself that I’m exercising at the same time so it feels less chore-like. And if there’s an informative news program on the radio, I’ll claim doing three things simultaneously!

I bet gas prices help people if not multitask in the traditional sense, at least create a strategic list of errands for one trip. It’s remarkable how long I can wait to get all the things I used to want off my list in a trice. If the store isn’t near other places I need to visit, the item moves to the next “to buy” list.

I play FreeCell or Solitaire during a long private conversation or slow conference call, walk briskly for heart reasons–never stroll–in the city and try to walk most places. I keep an eye out for perfect future gifts when shopping for one, look for the best gas prices on my way somewhere so I know where to stop to fill up on my way back and iron or water plants while chatting on the phone.

Do you multitask? How? Does the concept drive you nuts?

I’ve written many posts that illustrate business behavior or decisions that deserve this reaction. Recently I’ve noticed a rash of examples that inspired me to revisit the question.

Humor Doesn’t Always Translate

I saw a scarf manufactured by a well known Italian fashion brand. Prominently printed along an edge in fancy script were the words “cheap & chic.” European or rich person’s humor, perhaps? At $80, the scarf represented the couture brand’s bargain basement price point. In spite of the pretty pattern and colors, the words translated to “what were they thinking?” Can you imagine the reaction of the recipient of such a gift?

My Stars

Another well known apparel brand, this one with retail stores of the same name, sells a tee-shirt with a yellow star reminiscent of the symbol Jews had to wear in Nazi Germany. Wonder what the stylist-and his/her boss-had in mind? One of the hosts of the WABC radio program “Religion on the Line” was not amused.

You Can’t Have That

Leafing through the pages of a once-favorite decorating magazine, I stopped at the image of a bright red and white bedroom ensemble. Most of the photo captions on the page were obscured by the dropout type on dark background. Centrally placed in the largest type on a white background I read: “____[name of store] no longer stocks this toile headboard, but the company still sells the matching dust ruffle.”

I couldn’t see the dust ruffle in the photo [though a friend said he could see a little bit of it]. The coordinating floral comforter took up most of the image but there was no mention of it.

Pay Your Debts

And then there was the Secret Service person who didn’t pay his Columbian prostitute. Now was that the time to be cheap?

Race to Play

On NJ.com, Christopher Baxter wrote “N.J. state troopers face probe for ‘Death Race 2012′ down Parkway to AC.” According to Baxter, two troopers “escorted a caravan of luxury sports cars at speeds in excess of 100 mph down the Garden State Parkway to Atlantic City last month.” Baxter quoted one of two witnesses, Wayne Gantt, who complained to the New Jersey Turnpike Authority: “I had the great pleasure today of nearly being killed by, not one, but two, Lamborghinis traveling in excess of 110 mph in a (New Jersey State Police) escorted ‘caravan’ of approximately 30 exotic vehicles all traveling well over 100 mph.” What a precedent for the next time a state trooper tries to ticket a driver for going 75 mph in a 65 mph zone.

Guess the police and the sports car drivers don’t remember how former NJ Governor Corzine was almost killed when he urged his chauffeur to travel at 90+ mph down a turnpike and the car smashed into something. Speed must be in the air in that state.

Can you explain what these people were thinking or add other examples to the list?

Matthew Hutson has written a book to be published soon, “The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking: How Irrational Beliefs Keep Us Happy, Healthy, and Sane,” and an Op Ed piece in The New York Times, “In Defense of Superstition.”

I’ve covered superstition before in “Service of Old Wives Tales” in April two years ago, by gum. Aha! What is it about April? Should I buy an extra lotto ticket? I don’t hop over cracks in the sidewalk but as I noted two years ago, I’m big at knocking on wood and saying “God bless you,” when people sneeze.

I wonder if everyone would agree with Hutson when he compares the affect of reciting psalms in a warzone with carrying a lucky charm to succeed at a game or playing better with a golf ball you’re told is lucky. All three examples might calm a person and might offer what Hutson characterized as “..Psychological benefits that logic and science can’t always provide: namely, a sense of control and a sense of meaning.”

He told us that in studies, those informed that they were playing with a lucky ball landed 35 percent more puts than those with a standard one and those playing memory and word games with a lucky charm did better than those without.

He then wrote: “In a more real-world example of this effect, the anthropologist Richard Sosis of the University of Connecticut found that in Israel during the second intifada in the early 2000s, 36 percent of secular women in the town of Tzfat recited psalms in response to the violence. Compared with those who did not recite psalms, he found, those women benefited from reduced anxiety: they felt more comfortable entering crowds, going shopping and riding buses - a result, he concluded, of their increased sense of control.”

Are those who believe in the “Bible” superstitious and believers in magic? Some might jump on those implications. And don’t all these examples illustrate “it’s out of my hands now,” and a matter of luck or God, rather than providing a sense of control Hutson reported that occurs when a person leans on charms, golf balls and God?

Hutson addressed the “everything happens for a reason,” perception which he calls “another law of magic.” He wrote: “In research led by the psychologist Laura Kray of the University of California, Berkeley, subjects reflected on a turning point in their lives. The more they felt the turning point to have been fated, the more they believed, ‘It made me who I am today’ and, “‘It gave meaning to my life.’”

While I can’t argue with Kray’s findings because this is what she observed about the people she studied, I’m struck and alarmed by the passivity of such thinking in many instances. I agree that things happen for a reason: The reason might be that I made a mistake or waited too long to apply or chose the wrong person to marry or decided to risk living next to an aggressive river that overflows its banks twice a year so my basement is flooded all the time. Fate didn’t make me subtract wrong causing expensive overdrafts in my bank account leading to financial disaster or misspell the client’s name in a proposal with the result I didn’t get–or lost–a financially lifesaving account.

Fate does have its place–who your parents are, where you are born, brought up or educated, that you were caught in traffic and missed a flight that crashed, your health. And if you’re lucky….

Where do you place superstition, magic and fate in your life?

The other week, NYC introduced its “Taxi of Tomorrow” and public advocate Bill de Blasio [Photo right, below] howled. I heard him talk about the city’s choice of foreign partner on the radio and on his website he noted that the billion dollar contract for “the exclusive right to manufacture New York’s taxis” is going to a business that operates in Iran. It’s one of a dozen car companies on de Blasio’s “Iran Watch List” that “targets businesses that operate in Iran and undermine economic sanctions.”

The website quotes de Blasio: “You cannot do business with the people of New York City with one hand, and prop up the dangerous regime in Tehran with the other. For our billion dollars, taxpayers and taxi riders deserve a guarantee that ____ will stop selling its vehicles to Iran.” I put the space in the quote although de Blasio identifies the company on his blog.

When I’ve met investment advisors, they’ve asked me if there are any companies or industries I wouldn’t want to support. It’s a good question for many reasons. Some might forget and inadvertantly invest in–and be accused of insider trading–stock in a company the firm they work for advises. Cigarette or arms manufacturers might be on the “no” list for others.

There’s a side issue to de Blasio’s point that’s worth a mention even if off-topic. I identified the car manufacturer to a friend who observed: “Why didn’t the city pick an American brand?” As I began to write I also remembered a buy American initiative where participating manufacturers hung the red, white and blue “Made in America” tag with logo on clothing, appliances and other products. Would this be unfitting today?

In wartime, many won’t buy anything made by their enemy. Some have longer memories than others and children often keep up their parents’ boycotts. Is such a consideration anti-business and therefore inappropriate in a tight economy? Or do we have no enemies?

Are there things you won’t invest in, buy, attend or support on principle, or is such thinking so yesterday?

Deborah Brown is a newly retired [ha] award-winning marketing and communications professional whose focus ranges from retail and home furnishings to publishing. She’s been a buyer, sales promotion director, retail merchandising editor at House & Garden, director of home furnishings, ad and marketing director at House Beautiful. She’s sat on countless prestigious boards and committees and is currently a mentor in Baruch College’s Executives on Campus.

Debby wrote “Service of Responsibility“  about a retail experience for this blog in December 2009.

She learned so much from her recent move that she kindly shared highlights with us:

After Walking up four flights (78 stairs) many times a day for over 40 years, opportunity knocked when a ground floor apartment opened up in my NYC upper west side brownstone.  Newly renovated into a duplex (note the small’d') with a garden in back, I decided to approach the landlord about the possibility of relocating.  How hard could it be, moving within my building, just downstairs, I thought!  Once the final lease was vetted by attorneys, I had a two week window to prepare for, and actually complete the move. Here are 10 things I did or wish I had done.  And yes, it was worth it after settling in one month later!

1.  Talk to everyone you know and tell them what you’re doing. 

Everyone knows someone who can help, offer resources, information or shared stories of their own moving experiences.  From my network of dog friends, one introduced me to a top real estate attorney who helped me negotiate the lease.  Another offered to call a friend who had recently undergone a renovation and expansion with issues similar to my new space.  The information that came back was invaluable in knowing what to ask my landlord. Who knew I should ask where the boiler was located to ensure that there would be no issues that might affect my ground floor apartment; if there was a drain in the basement in the event of flood and if permits had been properly filed and inspections passed so that there would be no surprise digging through my freshly painted walls?

2.  Keep a notebook with you at all times dedicated exclusively to the move. 

Document every phone conversation with each company involved in your move.   Include phone numbers, account information, confirmation codes; time, date and name of person spoken to.  In the event you have a problem or questions down the road, you can document who told you what and when. 

I also included in this notebook room dimensions and measurements of furniture I expected to fit into the new apartment.

3.  Line up your phone/cable/Internet/gas and electric services ahead of your move date. 

My phone provider at the time, (rhymes with “Horizon”) managed to turn off my landline the morning of the move, promising to have everything up and running by 5:00 PM.  After three days of excuses why it was not reconnected, and being stonewalled, they promised to send a technician between 8:00 AM and 5:00PM.  No one showed.  After being given the run-around again, I finally got to a supervisor who insisted nothing in their records indicated a problem with the line, and there existed no paperwork in the system to send a live person to search the problem!  I am now with another provider but wish I had arranged this crucial connection before the move date.

4. Get written estimates or Email confirmations from everyone providing you a service. 

In actuality, the moving company part was the easiest.  I ended up using a Russian-owned firm with professional and efficient movers who delivered both services and fee as quoted on the phone and in a follow up Email.

5. Don’t move “stuff” you don’t need or want. 

Get a shredder; donate, toss or recycle the rest.  It’s true.  If you haven’t used it, worn it or looked at it in more than five years, out it goes!  This can be clothing, china, Tschokies, etc.  I surprised myself with countless king size garbage bags of shredded materials I had held on to, “in case I needed them,”  including decades-old tax returns, letters home from camp lovingly saved by my parents and of course, passed on to me; outdated files and lists of “stuff” I’d never use again. 

6.  Create a punch list for your landlord and do a walk through before you sign anything. 

If needed, take a digital camera along to document the issues.  It was here I had to point out unfinished electrical work with exposed wires in an unfinished wall, a recycled toilet seat, missing light bulbs, intercom system not connected; then making sure all appliances were in working order.    Look in every cabinet with a flash light for open holes that need to be plugged, evidence of roaches or worse to come.

7. Best money spent: a custom closet that accommodates clothing, linens, china and other possessions.

I also decided to pay for lights on dimmers and a screen door to the garden that would allow fresh air and additional security.

8. Next best investment:

Signature TJMaax shopping bags at .99 each in which I toted everything from dishes and books to last minute “stuff” that just kept cropping up.

9.  Biggest mistake: not following my instincts. 

I was talked out of a Murphy Bed in lieu of a day bed. I bowed to a furniture placement design recommended by a professional that ultimately didn’t work and I had to change it back to my original vision for the space a couple of weeks later. The day bed went back to the store, I switched the furniture arrangement and I now sleep on a Murphy Bed.

10.  Thank your neighbors, friends, family and everyone else who helped, gave advice or actually schlepped your stuff.    

Gift cards to Star Bucks, Pain Quotidian and Fairway as well as wine is always appreciated.   

Do you have any questions for Debby such as whether she feels the slightest twinge about the things she tossed? What if she needs the camp letters for her memoir? Did she consider selling any of her belongings on eBay or through an eBay drop-off? Do you have moving tips to add to Debby’s?

The old saying “never volunteer,” takes on a new meaning since last week when I read about The Brooklyn Museum and how it treated its now defunct Brooklyn Museum Community Committee: It tossed out the 64 year old group like last week’s garbage, half promising to dedicate to it yet another wall plaque.

In “Ousted Museum Group Angry Over Breakup,” in The Wall Street Journal, Jennifer Maloney described the committee’s beginnings in 1948: “The group, tasked with raising the museum’s profile, started a docent program, gave presentations in low-income schools with items from the collection, and planned events.”

Until December, its office was in the museum but it paid all its expenses, such as a part-time secretary, from the money it raised. At one point the committee produced the yearly fundraising gala which was taken over by professionals about a dozen years ago. One committee member had served 50+ years. Quoting the museum’s director, Arnold Lehman, Maloney wrote: “‘The world of fundraising has become much more complicated, much more sophisticated and much more competitive over the past couple of decades.’”

She continued: “Indeed, in order to compete for public and private dollars, nonprofit institutions must have trained professionals on staff to coordinate fundraising, said Marian Stern, adjunct assistant professor at New York’s University’s Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising.

“Even as the Community Committee’s role shifted, its relationship with the museum’s successive administrations was positive, members said. When it no longer had a gala to organize, the committee created an annual award to honor women in the arts. The museum administration and curatorial staff became increasingly involved, committee members said.

“But last year, committee members said, the relationship soured. In the fall, without explanation, they said, the museum began intercepting their mail, sending it instead to the development office.”

The article ends: “Ms. Williams, the museum’s spokeswoman, said a plaque in the museum lobby lists the Community Committee among major donors. The possibility of another plaque or marker to honor the group is under discussion, she said.”

I was gratified to read that some of the ex committee members have removed the museum from their wills and that one is giving her print collection to the Jewish Museum. I congratulate Jennifer Maloney for writing the story and The Wall Street Journal for covering it. I hope that readers of the paper’s “Greater New York” section who currently support the museum [or plan to], either write the director or follow the lead of the disgruntled committee members making clear the reason.

I belong to an organization that grosses about $1 million for its major fundraising lunch, run by a fulltime volunteer, supported by other volunteers–all women. They are professional at what they do but not one makes a living fundraising.

I can’t think of a good reason for the Museum to have disbanded its committee of 35 to 40 people. Some conjectures:

The museum….

**Didn’t want an image associated with old people in favor of hip, wealthy up-and-comers  

**Fired its PR and/or community relations department and then made this decision

**Needed the office space used by the committee for another activity

**Forgot it was in Brooklyn and that a contingent of longtime borough supporters speaks well of it

**Knows that neither its professional development nor administrative staff will get old and seemingly useless

**Fired the person who coordinated fundraising efforts with volunteers

**Lacked the imagination to put these loyal, enthusiastic promoters to work

What do you speculate the institution had in mind?