A Rambling Post About Complainers*

Be warned, I’m not really sure where I’m going with this post. It started out being about how some people really can find anything to complain about, then turned into a reminder about how communicating with your customer makes for good customer service. I think I still have ‘vacation brain’ with my thoughts flitting around and just ending up on tasty frozen drinks.

Anyways, I was reminded yet again on this year’s cruise that some people are just never going to be happy. You can put someone on a beautiful ship and provide them with tons of delicious food available 24/7, fun entertainment and amazing weather. However, you’ll still have people who are going to find something to complain about.

In our case, there was an obnoxious guy whose complaining caught the attention of one of our new friends. He could figure out ways to complain about anything and wasn’t shy in sharing his thoughts with anyone around. Nothing was good enough for this guy, and one of the things that he was annoyed about was that our ship was late into a port.

Now, everyone was a bit put off that the ship was late, but you are traveling by boat so weather does sometimes play a factor in how long it takes to get places. (There was a rumor going around that we were delayed because the ship waited for a couple who was late coming back from Disney World, but does it really matter why we were late?) Anyways, you can deal with the news by bitching, complaining and stomping your feet because your excursion was cancelled. Or you can accept it and enjoy the rest of the afternoon laying around the pool and drinking fruity drinks. I’m obviously in the fruity drink category.

In fact, most everyone was in the fruity drink category (oh yeah, it’s a thing now). Yes, most excursions were cancelled that day because we were a couple hours late. However, the cruise director noted in his announcements that all money would be refunded automatically so that nobody had to waste their time standing in line at the excursions desk. So, why bother getting all worked up about it? Frankly, it was kind of a bonus that $64 was refunded to our credit card and we got some extra time lazing around in the sun.

Showing that they care about the guest experience**, the cruise line tried to nip any discontent in the bud by not only making refunds painless, but also by offering another [unfortunately more expensive] excursion option. This notably lightened the mood around the pool and everyone seemed fine with the change. I mean, you’re on vacation and not working, that’s pretty much just a whole suitcase full of rainbows and butterflies right there.

However, there is always going to be someone who isn’t happy. And for some reason they tend to be the loud people that we all try to ignore. I’m pretty sure it’s not just me that always seems to know a Debbie Downer-type of person who can turn winning a new car into something to whine about.

I’ve had people complain to me about the fit of their company-provided polo shirt, the menu choices at a free event, their options for a holiday gift, even the venue choice for a tropical company trip to the Bahamas. Yes, people complain about these things. And no matter what you do in life, there is SOMEONE out there that isn’t going to be happy.

It’s really hard for me to just ‘not care’ and go on my way, because as a marketing person I have this innate desire for everyone to be happy with what I’ve worked on. However, I’m trying really hard to stay over here on the positive side of the street. When I hear someone start complaining (and believe me, it can start from anything!) and I want to stick my fingers in my ears and sing “lalalala” at the top of my voice, I just smile at them and listen to what they have to say. Most times they just want someone to listen to them complain. Then I shrug it off, walk away… and take my frozen margarita with me.

* In hindsight, I guess this post is really just me complaining about complainers. lol

**See I told you I’d get around to a whole different point in this blog post…rambling, rambling, rambling…

Like what you see? Share me with your friends!

I Like My Coffee Sweet and My Gratification Immediate

I hate waiting. Hate, hate, hate it. I am NOT a patient person and I like my gratification immediate instead of delayed. Picture me stomping on the floor and flailing around my arms to get the real picture of how I feel about waiting. Yeah, I totally realize that you’re staring at your computer with a total lack of surprise on your face.

My point is I feel like even though our world has gotten so much faster with all of our technological advancements, some things just seem to go soooooo sloooooooow. Of course, it could just be that my expectations of how much time things should take have shrunk due to me being plugged in 24/7. Now when something takes what would have previously been a ‘normal’ amount of time, it feels like it takes forever.

Anyways, long story short – I still don’t know anything about whether that person is interested in my house. I spoke to my Real Estate Agent on Monday and was enthused/massively hyper/6 year old with a mouth full of icing ecstatic at the thought that a contract would be coming in this week. Maybe even THAT DAY! Of course, this is all in my head as nobody actually said that a contract would come in that quickly.

I haven’t heard anything. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. In an effort to contain my crazy, I have not called my agent because if something happens she will obviously call me. Of course, it is very possible that they said they weren’t interested after all or even that they’ll be holding off for a week because the person is out of town on business. Without communication though, I’m just left to sit here and imagine what might be going on.

That is my other point: people feel a lot more relaxed when there is communication.

Let’s say you order an expensive item off of ebay and an automated email tells you when it’s shipped out. Days and days and even a week go by without the item arriving at your door. At this point, you’re freaking out thinking that you’ve been scammed and you’re getting ready to leave the seller negative feedback. If the seller would have just sent you an email saying, “I delivered the item to UPS on Friday and it is expected to take 5 – 7 business days to arrive,” then you wouldn’t even worry.

How many of you have applied for a job in the last couple of years? You see the job description and think “Wow, I’m perfect for that position.” So, you work really hard on writing a great cover letter, tweaking your resume to better highlight the experience they’re looking for and email it to their HR department paying special attention to your subject line and spelling. Then you wait. And wait. And wait. You wonder if your email was lost in cyperspace or maybe just got accidently deleted. Your excitement about the position turns into negative thoughts about that stupid company that couldn’t even let you know it received your information. After a while, you totally forget that you applied for the position at all. Most likely you never hear from them. Or, you could be totally surprised (like my husband was) and receive a call a year later asking if you’re still interested.

Obviously in either of the above situations you could follow up and ask when your package will arrive or if they received your resume. But wouldn’t it be nice if people communicated a little better so that you didn’t have to follow up with everyone?

Think about your expectations and give other people the same considerations you’d like.

Oh yeah, and buy my house please.

Like what you see? Share me with your friends!

Squeezing my Eyes Shut and Wishing Big!

I tend to be one of those people who when I get excited, I get really, REALLY EXCITED! I also happen to be someone who believes in ‘signs’ and ‘feelings’ as dorky as it may sound (even to me). So, now that you know both of these things about me you won’t really be surprised that I’m crossing my fingers, wishing on a star and hoping as hard as I can that we get a contract on our house this week.

Let me back up a bit. We originally put our townhouse on the market last May and over the summer we had a bunch of showings but no actual contracts. In September, my husband’s job was up-in-the-air, which would have impacted where we would live, so we decided to take the house off of the market until we figured everything out.

Well, for 6 months I worked like a demon to get as many house projects done as possible. We replaced our kitchen appliances with all stainless steel models, rearranged the living room to include a dining area, updated two bathrooms with new vanities/mirrors/lights, and repainted and fully decorated our finished basement to look more like a den. Then, we relisted our house for the exact same price as before.

I know, after all that work and money we spent it would have been nice to get a little more money out of it. However, it’s not like we were fighting off the offers before, so hopefully we’d get at least one this time. So anyways, we relisted our house in the middle of March and at that time I told my husband that I’d be really, really happy if we could get an offer by the end of April.

Fast forward to this past weekend – we had a showing on Sunday. Unlike many showings where you can’t even tell that someone has been in your house, I could tell that they actually looked around. There were shower curtains out of place, telling me that they looked to see if the tubs were in good condition. There was a smudge print on my basement stairs, which told me that they walked out the back of the house to check it out. They even took THREE of the house flyers that I left out on the kitchen table. (Yes, I know I’m a regular Monk/CSI/Bones). Anyways, I had a ‘good feeling’ about it.

This morning, I woke up in a great mood… even though the sound of my husband accidently setting off our house alarm is what got me out of bed. I saw my lucky number a couple times on my way into work and came into the office with an obviously dorky skip to my step. I wasn’t even surprised when my Real Estate Agent called this morning to tell me that the person’s agent had asked for more specific information on the number of parking spaces and age of our roof. Apparently they’d like more information and may also want to see our house again.

Of course I’m thinking that I might get my wish of a contract before the end of the month.  I know I should reign in my excitement and try not to get ahead of myself. But this kind of excitement/passion/supernova happiness is what makes life worth living!

So do me a favor and throw a wish my way that we get a wonderful and competitively priced contract on our house. Cross your fingers. Wish on a star, a butterfly, your lucky number on a license plate or even a flyaway eyelash. Any little bit will help. Right?

Like what you see? Share me with your friends!