customer service Archives - Page 2 of 4

It’s Ba-Ack!

January 24, 2009 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

When we switched to our new shopping cart, we were euphoric. We even popped the champagne in the offices (a first). Alas, it wasn’t meant to be … yet.

We knew the new site would have some issues, despite lots of beta testing. We didn’t expect it to have so many issues. Wowzers! We still have more work to do on the new site and there are some kinks to work out before we give it to you again.

So, for now, we’re headed back to the old, tried and true, Bramble Berry site. Yes, it will still be the old shopping cart without the bells and whistles but it will be the old shopping cart that works each and every time.

We’ll get back to the grindstone on your new and improved shopping cart and while we’re doing that, I hope you get back to soaping with Bramble Berry products. You can buy them in our trusty, tried’n’true shopping cart at www.brambleberry.com

How Does a Plane Run Out of Gas?!?

October 22, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

My last day in San Francisco after the Dairy Goats Convention was amazing and fabulous. It was warm and sunny. And, I even got a chance to visit The Nova Studio. Lori Nova has been a force in the soapmaking industry for many years. She runs an adorable instructional studio and was kind enough to give me and my Mom a tour. The photo above is of me and Lori, in front of her “Classes Wall.” Everything behind us was made in a class that you can take at The Nova Studio.

After a lovely lunch in little Point Richmond, California, we headed off to the airport.

I’ve never really thought much about the mechanics of plane travel. Quite frankly, I don’t want to. As a naturally nervous flier who generally requires antianxiety medication just to get on a plane, I generally board the plane, belt myself tightly in, make small talk with the person next to me, put ear plugs in and start to pray. Sure, I look like I’m reading a magazine or a book, but really, I’m just repeating The Lord’s Prayer. Over and over and over. Sometimes, I’ll quit long enough to eat but generally, most plane rides are an exercise in deep breathing, self control and excessively cold sweaty palms.

If I had my choice, I would never get in a plane again. I however, do not have that option. I am gratified and humbled that I get asked to speak about and teach the art, craft and business of soapmaking all over the nation. So, I’m often on a plane to talk to the media, soap conventions or this week, the National Dairy Goats Association about Soapmaking, Lotionmaking and even Marketing 101.

This was one such week. Click here, here and here if you missed the week of posts on Goats, Soap & Cheese. On Friday, my Mother and I boarded separate planes in the San Francisco Airport to get back home to Washington. She was flying to Seattle and I was flying directly back to Bellingham on discount carrier, Allegiant Air. I did my Lord’s Prayer, tight seat belt, deep breathing thing as I was seated in an Exit Row (next to a delightful bank manager from Scotia Bank in Canada). We were told that the flight would be a quick 75 minutes. I breathed a sigh of relief because I had scheduled my husband and I to go to a dinner party at 8 p.m.

At 6:55 (or so), the pilot got on the loud speaker and said, “Well Folks, it looks like some weather patterns have changed since we took off in San Francisco and so we’re just going to need to touch down in Seattle to pick up some gas. We don’t have enough gas to make it to Bellingham Airport and land safely”

There was some murmurs on the plane as people struggled to understand this news. Pick up gas? Huh? What does that mean? Hey! Do we not have enough gas to make it to Bellingham?

Yes, that was indeed the case. It seems that Allegiant Air mis-calculated how much gas we would need to make it safely to Bellingham and just wanted to pop into Sea-Tac Airport to grab some more.

Except, we’re not driving a little 2-seater car going down the freeway. We’re in a huge jet, with 150 plus people, hurtling at 600 miles per hour, in the air, 40,000 feet above land! Airlines aren’t supposed to miscalculate the gas when the odds are that poor!

So down we went into Seattle. My Mom texted me that she was safe in Seattle. I texted her back that I too, was safe in Seattle. She was surprised to hear of the unscheduled stop. I was more than a little surprised and worried; the late dinner party seeming more and more trivial by the minute. The man seated one away from me started yelling obscenities, calling the pilot a “Flying Sack of [Excrement]” and generally making himself out to be a nuisance. The mood was tense and worried.

Since Allegiant doesn’t have a hub in Seattle, they had to land at a United hub and borrow gas. A little United van (really, it was quite charming) came screaming up to the plane. A man in a suit came running up the gangplank, the attendants opened the door and let him in. The United suit gave some paperwork to the pilots. Presumably, this was the bill for the gas Allegiant was now buying.

Finally, we were allowed to get back in the air for the additional 18 minute flight to Bellingham. We landed in Bellingham a good two hours late but safe.

In closing, the words of this experienced pilot make more sense than anything I could ever say about this:

If you’re not checking your fuel level before take off, not paying attention to your fuel consumption and consumption records, you don’t have any business doing the preflight planning, and even less business actually doing the flying.

You shouldn’t worry about running out of fuel because it should never happen, and it’s the responsibility of the pilot to make sure it never happens.

If you’re incapable of fuel management, you’re fodder for the Darwin Awards.

I will not fly Allegiant Air again.

Finish the Year Strong

October 12, 2008 Filed Under: Business Musings

It’s 10/12 … do you know where your resolutions are?

This is the perfect time of year to check in on your 2008 New Year’s Resolutions (if you’ve forgotten yours, 54 comments on this post may remind you). The lull between summer and the impending holiday rush is an ideal moment to take stock in how 2008 has gone for you. It’s the season to make small course corrections and continue to work towards fulfilling your dreams.

If you’re feeling foolish because you’ve hardly made a dent in those dreams and ambitions from January 1, take heart because you’re not alone. Most New Year’s Resolutions don’t make it past the first month, let along tag along through the chaos of the entire year. It’s okay to change your goals, to make them more manageable or shift them to fit changes in your life. Just take your goal list out and make sure that you’re actively working on it. It’s permissble to change your goals to make them mesh with your current reality. I had to.

One goal I had this year was to start an Otion II in Seattle. I diligently pursued this: I hired a real estate broker, did the demographic research, lined up financing, spent time walking top neighborhoods and ultimately, negotiated two leases in different neighborhoods. Unfortunately, both of those leases fell through. I was bitterly disapointed and vowed to start over. And then, the markets did their loop-de-loop and financing dried up for Otion II. This goal needs to be changed to reflect the current business climate we’re in. So, I spent this afternoon changing that business focus. I’m going to take the time I was spending on Otion II and devote it to pushing through a website redesign with a smarter shopping cart.

The secret to success in anything is relentless pursuit of your goals, small baby steps at a time. So, sit down, take out that list and get re-energized about your dreams and ambitions. It’s important to finish this year strong so that you head into 2009 with some serious momentum.

PS – The Calender pictured up top is available for $10 from Perfect Laughter here.

The Fine Art of "The Box Stack"

August 22, 2008 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Our Fed Ex driver, John, has been doing pick ups for Bramble Berry for at least five years. He’s practically one of the team and even jumps in to help when we’re running particularly close to the wire. Even after picking up all of this time, he’s never told us that he likes really tall stacks of boxes because he can stand inside his truck to load them. Then, he only needs to jump out of the truck for the bottom of the pile. We finally pried this last piece of information out of him and now, we’re learning the fine art of “The Box Stack.”

We can’t wait to hit the busy season so that we can stack the pile even higher for him!

This is Amy and Johanna in Customer Service, proudly showing off their architectural box marvel.

I only use DOVE!

August 12, 2008 Filed Under: Business Musings

Click here to see the entire list of Commonly Asked Craft Show questions.

Click here to see the answer to “Why does your soap cost so much?”

Click here to see the answer to “Cool! How is this made?”

Click here to see the answer to “Cool! Can you teach me to make this?”

Click here to see the answer to “Cool! Where do you buy your supplies?”

I only use DOVE! It’s over half moisturizers. How is your soap on my face?

Short Answer: Ah, Dove! That’s a good start for your face and certainly better than much of what is out there. I really like the soap we make here at Happy Local Soaping Company, especially because we have a gentle soap bar formulation with no fragrance or essential oil. It smells like … well, soap because sometimes fragrances or essential oils can irritate skin and we certainly wouldn’t want to do that. It’s just $6. Would you like to try a bar? (if no, end with: “Here, take a sample and try it for a couple weeks and see what you think.”)

Note: In my opinion, the key when addressing any of these comparison type questions is to remain positive about the “competitor” (or fellow vendor) while pointing out your products’ positive features. If you say negative things about your fellow vendor, it’s possible that this negativity will reflect poorly on you. Plus, while a sale is a sale, it’s rarely a good plan to scare a customer into buying your products. Gentle, positive persuasion is a more sustainable sales tactic.

Longer Answer: Ah, Dove! That’s a good start for your skin and certainly better than much of what is out there. You’re in good company. Dove has about 23% of the facial beauty bar market so there’s lots of people that like it. In fact, I used to use Dove myself before I started making my own soap. One of the reasons I really like my soap is because I use only vegetable oils and which definitely makes my soap over 25% cream ingredients too. After all, what’s a cream except water and oils mixed together?

My Gentle Skin Soap is fragrance free too. Did you know fragrances often can irritate sensitive faces? Another reason I prefer my soap to Dove is because Dove actually has a pretty long ingredient list and while life can be better with better chemistry, in this case, I like keeping it simple. My soap has X ingredients: coconut oil, palm oil, olive oil and a little bit of shea butter. It will clean your skin and leave it nicely primed for your sunscreen or night cream application.

Finally, I really appreciate that you’re here at this local show. Did you know that money spent on buying local usually contributes three times as much back to the community as dollars spent at chain stores? Sales with me help to fund small business jobs, helping me contribute to the city through my taxes and allows me and the other crafters here at this show invest in our community. So, thanks for thinking about switching from Dove to my soap. It’s just $6 per bar and I think you’ll be thrilled about it. Do you want anything else with that bar?

Resources:

Dove MSDS Sheet (showing “fragrance” as an ingredient)
Ingredient List in Dove: sodium lauroyl isethionate, stearic acid, sodium tallowate or sodium palmitate, lauric acid,sodium isethionate, water, sodium stearate, cocamidopropyl betaine, sodium cocoate or sodium palm kernelate, fragrance, sodium chloride, tetrasodium EDTA, trisodium etidronate, titanium dioxide
Market Photo: “Les savons de Marseille” by Garrulus
Dove Ad: courtesy of RoadsidePictures

Customer Service Team Soaps

July 2, 2008 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

I am positively bursting with pride over these two batches of soap and it’s not because I made them!

That honor goes to Courtney and Adrienne in Customer Service. They took an afternoon to invest time to learn about swirling and layering from Erik over at Otion. Their soaps turned out extraordinary.

Catch up with Courtney and Adrienne as they candidly interview each other about their soaping experience.

Courtney: So, Adrienne, was cold process as hard as you thought it would be?

Adrienne: Oh my gosh…NO! Honestly I was a little intimidated to try cold process. But Erik, the manager at our retail store, Otion, was so great! He walked us through it step by step.

Courtney: That’s what I though too. I was most nervous to use the lye, but Erik had all the protective gear that we needed including those stylish goggles. The safety gear made me feel better.

Adrienne: Those were attractive goggles, weren’t they? So, Courtney, what was the coolest thing that you learned from our afternoon of soaping?

Courtney: I learned how easy it was to swirl by just alternating our pours. I think some techniques include swirling with a knife, but we just poured both colors in and the batch turned out great…If we don’t say so ourselves.

Adrienne: I might have a biased opinion, but they do look good!

Courtney: What was your favorite part of the soaping experience?

Adreinne: I loved making our second batch because we did it without the help from Erik. That gave me the confidence to know that I actually can make cold process soap. I can’t wait to use it now! According to our “tongue test” yesterday, I think It’s ready to use. Don’t you?

Courtney: Totally! It’s time to test!

Adrienne: So what advice would you give to new soapers out there?

Courtney: Hmmm, I would say to just dive in and don’t look back! Do the first batch as an experiment knowing that it might not look the greatest. But you have to start somewhere.

Adrienne: That’s what I would say too! It was fun to have a partner in crime for the first time, so grab a friend and try it out!

Courtney: Is that a wrap?

Adrienne: That’s a wrap!

Make It Easy for Me!

May 26, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

If you want my money, please make it easy for me to give it to you.

I recently tried to renew my membership to a national organization. I tried to log in on the web site last week but found I couldn’t. At this point, I suspect most people would have quit trying to renew their membership. But, I tracked down the “Contact Us” and wrote a quick note to the Organization to ask how I could give them my money for another year.

When I wrote the administrator, I got this in response:

“If you were having trouble logging in, it’s because your membership expired on May 13th. If you were expecting a reminder email, I’m sorry to say that system on the website isn’t working right now. I think the website will assign you a new password when I process your new membership.”

Okay, so let me get this straight:

1. You didn’t remind me to renew my membership because the web sit wasn’t working

2. I can’t actually renew my membership because now, my log in isn’t valid.

3. If I want to renew my membership, I have to sign up as a new member and fill out all the forms (name/address/payment) all over again?

If you really want my money, you’ll make it easier for me to sign up.

This made me sit down and think about some of Bramble Berry’s policies that weren’t so helpful – I came up with a list of things that we can improve on – starting with our web site. One of the things that I’m ranting about with this company is that I have to enter all my data every time I order. The BB web site doesn’t save customer data either.

We need to change that. Thanks to this negative experience, I’m all over researching new shopping carts that will allow our customers to save their shopping carts to come back to and have a password protected account that remembers them.

It will be a long process but I’m sure it will be worth it in the end.

Alaska Treats My Mom Right

March 20, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

My Mother recently had a great experience with Alaska Airlines. My parents run a psoriasis skin care company. She went to the mid-year meeting of The American Osteopathic College of Dermatology (that’s her, on the right with Lorelei, the manager of Ontos) to promote their products.

On their way home, in San Jose, the plane broke down on the tarmac (whoops). Alaska promptly sent an engineer out to fix the prop that was broken. Unfortunately, the mechanic was called away to another issue before fixing the problem. After 2 hours on the runway, all the passengers were offloaded. Rather than forcing all the passengers to remain overnight in San Jose, Alaska Air went the extra mile and scheduled multiple shuttles to another airport, San Francisco, so that my Mom and others could make it on a flight back to Seattle that night. My Mom especially liked stewardess Deb (who makes her home base out of Portland) and thought the pilot was hilarious. Apparently, he was cracking jokes the entire time they were stuck on the runway. Kudos to Alaska for not only treating my Mom right but for making a great customer experience turnaround out of an otherwise dismal situation.

Somehow, I doubt that United would have done the same.

Remember my little United fiasco? They gave me $225 in credit to use on a future flight and an apology letter that thanked me for my “candid remarks regarding their staff.” Of course, this was after “Nathan” in Customer Care told me that, “they don’t compensate for bad behavior.”

After the way Alaska treated my Mom, I’m going to try to fly more with them.

Uh, Can I Put You on Hold Again?

March 19, 2008 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Just a reminder – if you’d like to be entered to win all of the tools I used in the Springtime Cutout project, sign up for the FeedBlitz emails on the right hand side of this page. I’ll be doing a random drawing this week for a winner. The value is a full $75, including the colorants needed, the fabulous jelly roll baking pan, melt & pour and fragrances.

And, if you’ve written Bramble Berry in the last 24 hours and we haven’t written back, please write again. We just got a fabulous new phone system to handle or increased call volumes. The phone system went “live” yesterday around 4:30 p.m.

When we came to work this morning, the phones worked great! But, there were no emails from the entire night. Amber called and argued with Qwest for over two hours about our missing emails. They kept saying, ‘Well, maybe you didn’t get any emails last night” despite Amber’s assertions to the contrary. After two hours on the phone with them, and multiple hold times, the Qwest Technician came back and broke the sorry news that all of the emails were gone, never to be recovered.

So, if you wrote Bramble Berry last night or this morning, please write again. Or better yet, you can call and check out our cool new phone system. It’s 1-87-SOAP-STUFF.

United – Where Pay Doesn’t Match Performance

March 2, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

I promise to post the next part of the Springtime Cute Cut-Out soaps today and get back to regularly scheduled soaping projects! But first, one more ranting United indulgence.

I got up early today with the intent of crafting a letter to United about my bad experience. When I was researching the UAL Board of Directors (yes, John H. Walker and James O’Connor, you’ll probably get a letter from me too), I found a bunch of information about United. I find it interesting from a business standpoint (especially with Bramble Berry’s commitment to fanatical customer service). You may find it totally useless. If so, thanks for indulging me.

United might have the worst customer service in the industry. Or maybe not. It depends who you ask. According to JD Power & Associates, they’re about average. University of Michigan disagrees. Their surveys found that United did indeed have the worst customer service in the industry with the highest dissatisfaction rates.

United is the 2nd largest carrier in the world, with some of the youngest planes of any fleets in operation. United does over 3,600 flights per day with over 55,000 employees. I wouldn’t plan on flying much of January 2010 since the entire United employee group (pilots, mechanics, engineers, flight attendants) is up for a contract negotiation.

Brace Fredric, the CFO of United, keeps selling shares (like crazy!). One does wonder what he knows. Or maybe he just has a kid in college to pay for. The Chairman of United, Glenn Tilton, doesn’t seem like a bad guy. After all, he serves on the board for an after school non profit program and a museum in Chicago. Then again, he did work for the gas and oil industries for years (Chevron Texaco and Dynergy). No word on whether he was the Chairman of Dynergy before or after they were accused of massive fraud and corruption. He was in the top 500 top paid executives in 2006 and the highest paid executive of any airline, despite losing massive amounts of shareholder money, in 2005. His total stock return % to shareholders during his entire tenure at United Airlines? A whopping 0%. He’s been paid over $11million dollars over 4 years to lose money, go into bankruptcy and return $0 to shareholders.

Passengers complain, a lot, about United. They had the highest number of customer complaints per 100,000 passengers in 2006. The most recent, February 2008 reports (covering the year 2007) on United show that only 66% of their flights arrived on time in 2008. Ouch! 8.8% of United’s flights actually arrive late over 70% of the time. Only carrier American Eagle beat United out for this um, distinction. They cancel almost 7% of their flights, putting them 4th in that category. Compare that with Delta who only cancels 2.2% of their flights. Graham Atkinson, the Chief Customer Service Officer, for United certainly has his work cut out for him.

Between October and December 2007, there were 937 other travelers on United that were forced to give up their boarding passes and bumped. A full 16,380 were voluntarily relieved of their boarding passes (volunteering to give up their seats for some sort of travel voucher). Presumably United was so thrilled with their record in this area, they managed to come in 5th in “Involuntary Denied Boarding Pass” contest for 2007, kicking 4,448 people off flights.

United’s competitive spirit was in full force for December 2007, when they handily outpaced every other airline in the entire industry with number of customer complaints with a full 16% more passenger complaints.

That’s one dubiously bad achievement. Here’s to hoping that 2008 will be a better year for United and its customers.

Non-Stop, Direct or just Not?

March 1, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

I already was miffed with United for the not-so-non-stop Flight 315 from La Guardia to Denver and onto Seattle.

When I checked into my flight yesterday, I learned that Flight 315 was delayed by one hour. That turned into two hours; then, three hours. Worried, I checked with the gate person to make sure that all was okay to fly from the Denver to Seattle leg. The gate agent informed me that, “No, you definitely won’t make that connection.”

The gateperson graciously gave me a seat on Flight 409 from La Guardia to Denver and switched my Seattle leg so I would make the connection with minutes to spare. They even gave me an exit row.

We boarded. I made friends with my seatmates. I even told the guy in Seat 9B that I was getting really lucky with my seat assignments and that “I had good seat karma.” The captain told us to belt up, the flight attendant shut the door and we got ready to fly.

I surreptitiously popped a Xanex. I’m a nervous flier and a little bit of anti-anxiety drug keeps me from running down the length of the plane, shouting at the top of my lungs, “What are you people doing in this tin can flying 700 miles per hour? Don’t you know that this is crazy and unsafe? Surfing the wind in this tube is dangerous!”

The pilot made his announcement that the door was closed and we’d be taking off. Then, there was a pounding in the closed little exit door window. All of us in the exit row looked at eachother nervously. Someone in row 10 said, “Well, you guys are the exit row. You’re supposed to know how to operate that thing.”

Finally, a flight attendant came. There was some gesturing and then, he opened the door. And in popped a nervous little man in a United uniform, who started yelling at me to “Get off the plane! You never should have been given this seat! Get off the plane!”

I looked around. Surely, he couldn’t be talking to … me? Out of all these people, he’s yelling at … me? Why me?

“You’re not Premier! You’re not Premier! You never should have been given this seat. Get off the plane. Now! Go!”

My seatmate said, “I don’t think you need to do that. You have a ticket. You have a boarding pass. I don’t think you have to go.”

I looked at the gate agent and said, “Do I HAVE to give you my seat?”

While I’m still not sure if I had to give up my seat, my preference not to get arrested got the better of me. I got my bags and followed the gate agent up the gangplank. Standing at the top of the gangplank was the man that I was being kicked off the flight for. I looked at him and said, “Are you really kicking me off this flight?” He stood silently, accepting that his Premier status gave him the right to arrive 45 minutes late for a flight and still demand that he get a seat.

Meanwhile, the United gatekeepers tried to put me on a flight to Chicago. Given that Chicago was boxed in with snow and storms, this was either dumb or just an attempt to to placate me long enough for the gate agent to make his escape.

After many more hours in various airports, I finally got home to Seattle. Over the course of the night, passangers watching the original drama with the Premier Member and my seat came up to me and commiserated. Their opinions ranged from, “Sucks for you. That’s what you get when you don’t fly enough.” to “Wow! That was so cool! I’ve never seen them actually pull a plane back for anyone. I wonder what that guy does!” Most passengers agreed that United was one of the worst carriers in the industry.

I have to say that I agree.

United’s definition of "Non-Stop"

February 28, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

I have to go to NYC tomorrow. I’m flying a red eye tonight and flying one back Friday night. Despite not really liking United (I never did get that refund from this debacle), it was the last seat available in the time period I needed so I took it.

When I booked the flight, I made sure it was a non-stop flight (United Flight 315 from La Guardia) so I could take a sleeping pill and zonk out.

I just looked at my flights and saw a strange little notation about stopping in Denver. So, I called United. The conversation, word-for-word, went like this:

A-M: Hi! I’m flying from La Guardia to Seattle tomorrow night on flight 315 and I notice there’s a stop in Denver. Do I have to get off the plane?

United: Yes, you do have to get off the plane, change flights and board another plane.

A-M: Really? Because, um, I bought non-stop.

United: This is a non-stop flight.

A-M: Really? Because I could swear that this is one stop. I mean, landing, getting off the plane, boarding another plane … that all really sounds like a full stop to me.

United: It’s not considered a stop because no passengers are getting on the plane.

A-M: Are you sure? Because stopping, disembarking and boarding another plane sounds an awfully lot like a real stop to me.

United: I’m sorry we were not able to meet your travel needs today. Have a safe flight.

We love our commentors! Guest Commentary

February 27, 2008 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

This is a guest commentary by Johanna, our knitting genius. That’s her, above. Click here to see her etsy shop.

I would like to praise everyone who is involved in the communities of soaping local and abroad. I have been involved in this wonderful craft for 6 months or so now, working for Miss Anne-Marie (who, by the way, is a genius for seizing the opportunity to make such products widely available for us all! thank you!) I am finding that soaping and cosmetic making are such versatile crafts. One more to add to my overflowing life of projects!

I put together another “Portland Soapers Unite” gift bag (with Milky Way molds, fragrances, 3-D mold, a soap rope and jojoba beads) randomly chosen a winner from my hat for this weeks prize! ….drum roll….and the winner is NahiaCreations from Pullman, WA! Congratulations and thank you for being involved in the soaping community.

Bragging on the BB Staff

February 5, 2008 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Created by Johanna in Customer Service (yes, the same knitting Johanna from this post), these adorably detailed soaps are made even more precious by the hand drawn labels.

Isn’t she talented? Johanna just started soaping which makes these first few soapy projects of her all the more amazing. It goes to prove that you don’t need an amazing logo or professional labels to make a great impression (though, if you don’t want carpal tunnel syndrome, computer printed labels are helpful!)