Off Target

Last week, I had a rather unpleasant experience with a major retailer. They advertised a sale, but in the store, the labeling was rather poor. I ended up picking up a couple of the wrong flavors, thus didn't qualify for the promotion and ended up paying more than I had expected. The cashier couldn't fix it at the register or easily identify which items were the wrong ones. I had frozen food and a trip home (Florida pre-summer) so couldn't wait for a manager, who probably wouldn't have been able to do anything either. So I walked out with the product planning to return it.

I was near another store later the same day. Tried to return the product. Was told I had to do same day returns at the same store. I'm thinking, "Wait, this is a national chain. Why does location matter?" I guess their IT systems aren't quite as real-time as some of their competitors. When I told the person I was dissatisfied he said something to the effect of, "I'm sorry someone at another store made you feel that way." And I stand there thinking, "Hello? This store, that store, you're all the same entity as far as I'm concerned. The only difference is that you happen to be where I am and the other one isn't. So much for brand identity."

A couple of days later, I returned to the original store and returned the product. The person taking the return seemed rather bored. Given the history outlined above, she didn't think all the trouble was worth anything more than a stock, "I'm sorry you've had trouble," that sounded very insincere, especially since she wasn't looking at me when she said it and spent more time chatting with her coworkers than speaking to me or listening to what I said. She tried to tell me she could only give me money back on a gift card. I insisted she credit the card I'd used to pay because I have no intention of shopping there again. After a couple of rounds of this, she called one of her coworkers over who hit a couple of keys and credited the card, after she'd insisted it couldn't be done.

My question is, how could this retailer be so off target? Don't they train their employees to understand that they are the company? Not this desk, this store, even this region--they are the company to the customer. Given that I'm talking about different groups of employees on different days at different stores, I have to conclude this isn't just an isolated case of a bad apple employee. Do their marketing people realize how much poor marketing tactics (putting some of an item on sale, but not others) and labeling (making it difficult to determine which is on sale, creating consumer confusion) costs them in the end? Arguably, I could have filed a false labeling complaint because the product I picked all came from rows that were labeled as being on sale (clearly some items were shelved in the wrong places). Do they not see the risk that could be averted by a simple sign listing exactly which flavors are on sale rather than labeling each individual shelf sticker? (Would one larger sign take less time to install than a bunch of shelf stickers that ultimately don't solve the problem?)

I wrote a letter describing what I've summarized above in full detail and sent it to corporate headquarters. I included my store credit card, cut in half. I'll pay the next bill and then cancel the card. I won't be shopping there again. I went out of my way to shop at this store because I liked their price. I still had to do some of my shopping at another store. I'm willing to pay a little more for excellent customer service. Or about the same for the expectation that I'll get mediocre customer service.

Bringing this around to a more personal level, I am very conscious of how my behavior reflects on any branding I choose to attach myself to, and how branding reflects on me. So I'm very conscious about wearing clothing or carrying accessories that attach me to the company I work for. Same with any organizations or affiliations I have. I don't put bumper stickers on my car--because I don't want any stupid thing I do to reflect poorly on whoever I value that much, and I don't any stupid thing they do to reflect on me. See, I recognize that I do stupid things, and I try to make sure those don't affect others. If I'm wearing someone's livery or visibly connecting myself with them by where I am and what I'm doing, I think three times before I do something to be sure I don't do something stupid. Even for things I'm not being paid for, haven't been formally trained for, etc.

So, if you're identifying yourself with a particular company or other organization by the clothes you wear, the umbrella you carry, the bumper stickers on your car, etc., consider how your behavior reflects on those organizations. Maybe we'd live in a happier world if people thought about the consequences of their behavior and how others perceptions affect both their own reputations and those of the organizations they affiliate with.

Banding Together

My son is in his school's band (middle school, 6th-8th grade). This is his school's first year with a music program in four years. The interesting thing for me is to watch him and the other students get on stage and perform or sit in the band room and rehearse. Not just the music, but their behavior, which is typically much more professional on stage than when I see them wandering around campus. I watch my son (and many other students) sitting straight, holding his instrument properly, concentrating, playing his instrument, taking feedback, practicing willingly at home, and am amazed at the difference. Band gives him something he looks forward to at school. If the school did not offer a band program, or if more of our school choice options offered a band program, we'd probably be moving to a different school next year. This is how important the band program is to him and therefore to my wife and I.

Our band director has been a major factor in the band's success. He has pushed the students to excel, coached them into improvement, committed over 4 hours per week of his own time (unpaid) for rehearsal... And that summary ignores all the other work he does outside of school arranging music, pulling events together, making things happen so the band can achieve things that make other band directors take notice.

Friday, the band performed at a local elementary school that is a feeder for my son's middle school. The music teacher there wrote a good article on her blog explaining her campaign to revive the music program at my son's school. This history was valuable to me, and she has my thanks for all her hard work. (http://www.schoolmusicmatters.blogspot.com/2012/05/kernan-middle-school-band.html)

Her post, other comments I hear, policies and rules I run into all provoke an interesting question. When I look at the level of maturity and professionalism these students demonstrate, the amount of work many put into the program, their passion, their focus, their ability to accept criticism and work to improve, I have to ask what other programs in school teach these skills or inspire a willingness to learn these skills? Probably not core academics. (Sorry, core academics teachers, but it's true.) So why are the programs that teach these critical life skills always first under the gun when the school looks for a way to trim budgets? Professionalism, responsibility, maturity, the sense that they work to achieve and achieve what they work for, these will serve students far better in the real world than some of the trivia core academic teachers are compelled to teach by one or another group's political agenda.

Maybe the state needs to offer incentives for excellence in some of these non-core programs where students can find their passion and explore a future that may be a road less traveled, that teach students these valuable life skills. Not everyone should be a scientist, mathematician, or engineer. (I'm an information architect with a degree in computer science and engineering, so I'm obviously not opposed to those professions.) To be honest, not everyone can be. It takes a particular mindset to be able to do some of these things, and not everyone has it. Some people can be and want to be musicians, artists, dreamers, creators. That also takes a particular mindset. We must support opportunities for all career directions or the world we live in will be much poorer. For that matter, many people in science and engineering are also creators, artists, musicians. There is an affinity between music and math--reinforced by my son's scores on statewide math tests, where he typically excels. Perhaps music should be seen as another aspect of a larger math education. Perhaps art should be seen as an aspect of composition and writing. Perhaps we should value people who create--be they engineers or authors, scientists or composers, mathematicians or sculptors--instead of those who manage, administer, oversee those who create, those who make, those who produce, but themselves create, make, produce nothing.

Enough politics, here are some pictures of the band warming up before the performance.

We not only have a concert band (pictures above) but a jazz band. Yes, this is one committed band instructor. (My son is leftmost in the jazz band.)