To note: I’m still working on writing out pointers from the previously discussed Bettger book. I read part 2 & 3 and need to make a great summary because a LOT of things were covered in those chapters. Since then, I have also bought a couple more books from the thrift store about marketing/advertising that’ll I’ll be writing about as well.

Today’s discovery brought my “thirst for knowledge” to a whole other level (can you scream nerrrrrrrrrd!?). Dear ole iTunes sent me an email about ‘HEY GO CHECK OUT THE NEWEST COLLEGE CLASSES ON ITUNES UNIVERSITY!” Fine, I will. I went through a few places discovered that there are lectures/lessons/discussions about Mozart’s opera, Streetcar Named Desire, anything Oxford = love, a bunch of literature and then… I discovered this gem:

Essentials of Advertising & Marketing from W.P. Carey School of Business Arizona State University. 

The professor is amazing!! No matter what anyone says, we all know the professor will always make or break the lesson and so will the listener (student). I listened to the first and second lecture back to back and he still kept my attention (even though this was generally about class things that took place there and not anywhere else). This reminds me of a few wonderful professors I had when I was at KCTCS. I grew very fond of them due to their passion of teaching and the excellence they displayed in the classroom.

Of course, like in real life, the first few day and half of class is get to know you, stories, finding out how the class will go, asking any questions that need to be asked before class really starts, stories about OR of the professor, and so on. The second lecture I listened to, the professor gave out an assignment and even though this was from 2009 – I still think I’m going to do it.

Second portion (after the first day portion) discussed the value of a customer. He shared stories of customer service in service positions, he had others to discuss it, he talked about previous students actions {reactions} to their service jobs and so on.

So the assignment was something as follows – come up with a story of where you were on either side of the service (giving/receiving end) and share how the problem happened and how it was taken care of in the end.

ASSIGNMENT 1:

I worked at three different retailers for four years from July 2005 – March 2009 and then at a coin shop for two years after that. Even though we had plenty of angry customers, odd customers, moments of our own that we should definitely own (bad days), and so on… I can’t exactly pick a certain “subject” because I don’t really remember details too much. I do still have funny moments written down from those years, but it’s nothing of importance to show a before and after ripple effect.

My husband and I just recently moved to Florida in March 2011 and that ended my two years at the coin shop. Well, I continued doing one main thing on my own that I did at the coin shop and that would be working on eBay.

I took on eBay high strung by myself. I had to supply my own items to sell, instead of having someone supply them for me. Any mistake or cost came out of my pocket, so I made sure that I had enough pictures to show the customer what the object looked like, packed my items very well, placed a well-written paragraph in each description asking customers to message me if they wanted to toggle with price or had any questions and I even answered their questions as fully as I could to support their main objection (I guess you would say).

One day I was at the park enjoying my evening and I had my iPhone out taking pictures when an alert came across my email and eBay app. This customer had opened a case against me, and THEN emailed me this nasty message and threatened me saying that if I did not answer her, she would turn me into eBay. Well, she had already accomplished that by opening a case instead of contacting me first like the rules state to do.

The problem was that her item arrived broken. I knew that I had packed it well enough, even having put ‘FRAGILE’ on the outside — and the item STILL arrived broken. So, she offered to let me see pictures via email and I saw them. That was a great move to show the evidential proof. We talked a little bit more back and fourth and came to the conclusion that she’d send it back and I’d give her the money back.

After a moment’s thought, I ended up sending her a message back saying I’ll refund the money and she can just keep the item. With it being broken, she could toss it in the trash and not have to send it back to me – which makes an extra charge that I couldn’t really afford, anyway. Plus, I wouldn’t have been able to re-sell it.

She agreed to do that and the situation was solved. However, also included in that last message she offered to give me lessons on how to properly pack an item so I can avoid this situation again. I believe that I said ‘I’m extremely sorry that this happened and I hope you have a great day.’ I did not touch on her comment because it really offended me, even though that I had packed it to the best of my ability regardless of it arriving broken.

I continued eBay for a few months more, having to toughen my skin over a few more angry customers. I have to say after that, I took each person individually, found out what they wanted to do and took care of it their way. They gave me great feedback, especially for the customer service side. I only quit eBay due to how much it was to keep up a store and I couldn’t afford that, unfortunately.