The Pizza Cart
The Pizza Cart is a great American story. A young couple started selling pizzas from a pizza cart (thus the name) in the Ace parking lot, and because the pizza is so delicious and they had great success, they decided to put down roots in a permanent structure. They used Kickstarter for funding their venture and moved over by Ninja Restaurant. They had a health scare recently, but once the Health Department is involved, a restaurant ends up being the cleanest restaurant in town.  On Friday, I went in to pick up a pizza, because they have the best pizza in town, and they gave me 50% off my pie for supporting them during a rough time. Now, that's smart business. A lot of restaurants in Cedar City do not have a clue how to treat customers. When I find a restaurant that has good food, good pricing, and quality service, I will be a loyal customer. Those are the qualities that the Pizza Cart has. When I walked in to get my pizza, the owner greeted me by name. I pick up pizza every Friday for almost nine years in Cedar City and before the pizza cart, it was Papa Murphy's and Centro Pizza. Those two establishments never used my name, even though they should have known it since they always asked for my name when I ordered the pizza. Customers want to feel special and Pizza Cart has figured it out even though they are one of the newer restaurants in town. Thanks Pizza Cart! We love your pizza!

Always try to make people feel special and always make it a good day!

Customer Appreciation

Customer Appreciation - Jacobs Construction

Thank You Basket

We contracted with Jacobs Construction to build our mountain cabin in Duck Creek Village. When the job was completed, we received a beautiful and unique basket filled with a variety of goodies from Jacobs Construction thanking us for our business. They could have done nothing and we would have still been happy with the job they performed, but that was such a pleasant surprise to receive such an elaborate and unexpected gift. We felt very appreciated!  Quality Service Lesson:  Show your customers you appreciate them, and they will do your marketing for you!
 

Goin' Postal
This time of year is a great time to speak about the postal store called "Goin' Postal" which is located at 124 Main Street in Cedar City, UT.  I always dreaded having to go to the Post Office to stand in a long line and then be treated like a prisoner or criminal when I finally got to the window. But, one day I took a FedEx package to the Goin' Postal store for my job and discovered that mailing packages could actually be pleasant! I didn't have to stand in a long line and Doug and Vanessa are customer service experts! The only time I go to the post office now is if I have to pick up a package. I can actually enjoy the holidays now. Whenever I mail packages at Goin' Postal now, Doug and Vanessa greet me by name and make each visit enjoyable. They could certainly teach the post office a few quality service lessons. Thanks Doug and Vanessa! Quality Service Lesson:  Be personable with your customers!

Johnny the Bagger
An autistic grocery bagger makes a customer service difference. Watch this video.
Quality Service Lesson:  Be inspired and share your thoughts!






Remember - every day is Aloha Friday! Take the Aloha Spirit with you wherever you go and make it a good one!

Southern Utah University Quality Service Committee

Southern Utah University (SUU) Cares About Quality Service

The Quality Service Committee at SUU was created to assist with student recruitment and retention, and also to reward faculty and staff for quality service. It is easier to have happy customers when you have happy employees.
Faculty and staff at SUU care about student success. Students are reminded of important deadlines just by logging into their MySUU Portal on the website. Faculty help students when they get stuck on certain problems; administrators help students to stay enrolled through mentoring with encouragement and caring; and staff contribute to scholarship funds to be awarded to students who can use the financial assistance.  Faculty and staff are friendly and interested in what happens to their students, even after the students graduate and go on to their career. Many offices on campus hire student staff to help them stay enrolled in school.  Facilities Management hires over 200 students. Students are happy to have jobs and Facilities Management is happy to have the help.
Quality Service Lesson:  Help your customers to stay engaged.


Random Acts of Kindness (RAK)
Quality Service means making others feel special. Let's perform a Random Act of Kindness every day in December to celebrate the many religious holidays in that month. It could be something as simple as putting a random note on a car windshield, or taping a dollar on a snack machine, or buying someone else's lunch, or just giving someone a nice compliment - anything that makes someone else feel special.  Feel free to tweet about it using #RAKHoHoHo. 

Along that vein, SUU's Quality Service Committee hands out candy bars whenever someone does a special service for somebody on campus. That's gotta make you smile! Anyone can fill out a Red Handed Award and then the Quality Service Committee members deliver the delicious reward and comments from the nominator to the person nominated. Quality Service Lesson:  Make your customers feel special with treats!

Subway's Customer Appreciation
The other day, I went to Subway to get my favorite sub sandwich and the gentleman behind the counter said, "It's Customer Appreciation Day, so you can buy one sandwich and get one free." Anyone who knows me knows that I can't resist BOGO! So, I paid for two sandwiches and got two extra sandwiches FREE so I could feed my three student employees. So, Subway's Random Act of Kindness towards me turned into a Random Act of Kindness to my student staff. They were very happy and I was very happy that I could treat them and it only cost me for two sandwiches. Thanks Subway! Quality Service Lesson:  Show your customers that you appreciate them. They will appreciate your gesture and will most likely do your advertising for you on social media!

Cindy's favorite sandwich:  Turkey, provolone, lettuce, tomatoes, banana peppers, mayo, salt & pepper on 9 grain bread.    

Thanks to all the companies and individuals who provided Quality Service Lessons for inclusion in my blog!

Remember - every day is Aloha Friday! Take the Aloha Spirit with you wherever you go and make it a good one!

Southern Utah University, Li Hing Mui, and Zappos!

Li Hing Mui - Yum!
Growing up in Hawaii, I learned to love certain foods that might gross out my friends on the mainland. Whenever we went to the movie in Waikiki - this was before the Waikiki Three was built - we would go to the cracked seed store right next door to the theater and buy our treats for the movie. They sold items like li hing mui (dried cherry), dried squid, cuttlefish, mochi crunch and other yummy things.  Once, I was eating li hing mui at my desk when I worked for Clark County Parks and Recreation and my friend Kelly asked if she could have one. I asked if she was sure she wanted to try one and she didn't seem to understand what I meant. So, I gave her one and she popped it in her mouth and then she spit it in the trash and asked why I would do that to a friend. I couldn't answer because I was laughing so hard.  Her face was priceless. I wish I had a picture now!  Anyway, if you grew up in Hawaii and now live on the mainland like I do, you probably crave such foods.  My sister Momi told me about her li hing mui dealer. She sells these yummy snacks on ebay and here is her link. The reason we both like her is because she sells a quality product at a reasonable price and then she adds that Special Touch! You not only get what you ordered and on time, but you get a personalized note wishing you happy snacking and she also includes some tasty samples of other products that she sells. Isn't that perfect?  By including the personal touch and adding some samples, she is promoting goodwill AND her business.  Quality Service Lesson:  Add that Special Touch and promote your business at the same time.

Zappos sells shoes AND Quality Service

Llama Land

SUU VP on a purple elephant

The Southern Utah University Quality Service Committee took a tour of Zappos to see how they consistently provided quality service. Well, we got lucky, because it was Employee Appreciation Day when we went to visit their facility in Las Vegas. What a blast! They had a live llama and a python for employee photo opportunities and they had all these cool motorized animals that you could ride around the parking lot. They gave away t-shirts and food and you could take a picture with a crown on because you were queen (or king) for a day. They invited us to join in the festivities, so we did! It was so much fun. They do a variety of things to keep their employees happy because they realize that happy employees give better service. It is hard to sit in a call center all day long, answering questions and taking orders and making others happy if you don't feel happy yourself. Well, Zappos has it figured out. Employees can decorate their cubicles however they want and they have team activities and a variety of other ways to keep employees happy to be at Zappos. Good job Zappos!  Quality Service Lesson:  Keep your employees happy so they will keep your customers happy!

Monty Python and Me

Southern Utah University (SUU) professors want students to succeed!

Not only do the professors at SUU have terminal degrees, but they really care about their students.

When I signed up for the Spring Semester at SUU to continue my capstone work for my Professional Communication Master's, I thought I was supposed to sign up for Capstone Continuance. Come to find out, Capstone Continuance is for the circumstance of having to continue your capstone if you don't complete it in two semesters. Dr. Barton, Associate Professor of Communication, e-mailed me and explained everything to me so I could sign up and get the right credit. That was so nice!  Throughout pursuit of my master's degree, I have not taken a class from a professor that disappointed me. Ellen Treanor has taught me so much about Social Media. I feel I could successfully run a marketing campaign through social media with all that she has taught me. I never realized all the platforms that were available.  I took a Statistics class from Dr. Husselbee and was lost at first, but I called him and he said I could come right up to his office and he clarified what was keeping me from understanding and I ended up getting an A in that class. He had me write a personal moral theory in his ethics class that I try to live by every day. He used experiential learning in the applied audiences seminar so that now I have experience conducting a focus group and an on-line survey.  Dr. Dubrasky in the English Department taught me creative writing which turned out to be one of my favorite classes. I learned so much in that class.  Working and getting a degree at Southern Utah University has been one of the best experiences of my life.  Quality Service Lesson:  Care about your customers. They will appreciate it and will remember that you cared and they will do your advertising for you.

Remember - every day is Aloha Friday! Take the Aloha Spirit with you wherever you go and make it a good one!

What happens in Vegas . . . again!

Chicken Adobo Recipe
Adobo is one of the more popular dishes in Hawaii. It is a Filipino dish (not Hawaiian) and everybody loves it. Here is a recipe for Chicken Adobo that can be made in the crockpot. Yum! Just cook some rice in your rice cooker when you get home and make a chopped salad and you're all set! We enjoyed our favorite chopped salad at Cosmo's in Durango when we went on our ziplining adventure. Now Cosmo's is closed! Sigh. But, I recorded what was in their chopped salad and have made it at home many times. Everyone loves it.  Everything is cut small and laid in rows on the plate with a little dressing on the side: tossed salad, avocado, boiled egg, tomatoes, corn off the cob, bacon or salmon, fruit and nut mix, and cooked Acini di Pepe. So ono! A taste sensation!


Wireless Upgrade Fees - the Latest Scam!
So, you have to sign up for two more years to get the iPhone 6 at $199 and then you get to pay an upgrade fee. That's the latest scam from wireless carriers. I guess $200+ a month from us is not enough, they also have to tack on an upgrade fee.  That's not making customers happy and that's not quality service.  Many consumers are upset about this additional fee so any customer service capital that Verizon has built up is being used up now with this scam that has been kept a secret in the past until right before you made your phone purchase.  Social media has changed things like that because now customers are sharing this information with others. Quality Service Lesson:  Customers do not like to be nickled and dimed with extra fees. Lump the fee into the price of the product or eliminate it!

Scott Bakula

Scott Bakula had it right!
My husband and I attended a Star Trek Convention a while back - yes, we are geeks, but it's so much fun!  Scott Bakula was a featured speaker for one of the sessions. His advice was, "Treat everyone like a movie star!" That really makes sense. If you treat all of your customers like you would someone famous, how could they be unhappy?  After his speech, he made a running tour of the entire ballroom and "high fived" as many fans as he could. That's quality service!  Quality Service Lesson:  Treat your customers like movie stars!

Chef Ramsay

What happens in Vegas
On one of our Vegas vacations, we decided to try Chef Ramsay's Burgr restaurant. I am drooling right now just thinking about the food!  Chef Ramsay believes in providing fresh, quality food. If you have ever watched Hell's Kitchen or Master Chef, you know that Chef Ramsay will smash something with his hand after telling everyone to "touch it!" or will throw an entire dish - plate and all - into the trash before he will serve a low quality meal. Well, you can witness that fresh food yourself at Burgr in Planet Hollywood or his British Pub in Caesar's Palace. He even makes different varieties of ketchup for your homemade fries.  The burgers were amazing, but the shake - OMG - (drooling again!) - the shake was to die for!  It was chocolate shake with hazelnut flavoring on the bottom half of a giant shake glass, with a delicious layer of butterscotch pudding on top of the chocolate and a thick layer of freshly whipped cream on top of that. It was a taste sensation!  I would go there again just for the shake and have a delicious burger and fries to top off the shake - ha!  Gordon Ramsay knows quality and he only wants his guests to have a quality experience in his restaurants.  Go there!  Quality Service Lesson:  Give them fresh! They will love it and will keep coming back!

Remember - every day is Aloha Friday! Take the Aloha Spirit with you wherever you go and make it a good one!

KC Royals Steamrolled Again by the SF Giants!

'Sorry KC Royals!
You have to admit that the San Francisco Giants have been playing a great game. I have enjoyed the teamwork during these last couple of games. Nobody is trying to be an all star on the team - they just work so well together and that makes them all become "All Stars!"  

The Giants beat the Kansas City Royals 11-4 on Saturday night and then Bumgarner pitched a shutout last night to beat the Royals 5-0. It's the first shut out in the World Series in 11 years.  It's been an exciting World Series to say the least. I wonder if the Royals will win the next game to tie up the score again so that the World Series goes the maximum number of games. Both teams sure have been putting on a great show! That's Quality Service for baseball fans! Quality Service Lesson:  Keep the fans entertained!


Malasadas
Malasadas are delicious and here are three recipes for you to try.  We would always go to the Nanakuli bazaar when I was a kid and get fresh malasadas. They would fry them up and drop them into a brown paper bag and sprinkle them with sugar and you would walk around the bazaar, playing games and eating your malasadas from the bag. So ono! They sell them in bakeries in Hawaii too.
Quality Service Lesson:  Make your events special by providing something delicious!


Sheep Trials and Sheep Parade

I hope you all got to see the Sheep Parade on Saturday in Cedar City, UT. Thousands of sheep travel down Main Street as they are brought down from the mountain for the winter. The sheep are like a water flow - if one sheep heads in a certain direction, the rest follow. Last year KCSG Television reported on the parade. It is a sight to see, but since my husband and I are always seeing sheep parades (and getting caught in them), we didn't attend the parade this year. When we drive down Lund Highway during the time that the farmers are moving the sheep, we have to wade through the sheep in our vehicle very slowly. They are so interesting to watch, but you just have to hope you're not in a hurry to get somewhere. 

The Sheep Dog Trials are a blast to watch because the sheep dogs are so smart in directing the sheep where to go, but sometimes the sheep get feisty and "argue" with the doggies.  It's so entertaining! Quality Service Lesson: Use animals to provide entertainment for your products. People always appreciate animal entertainment.

Speaking of critters - I saw 7 wild turkeys this morning on my way in to work. Pretty cool!

Best Snorkeling Beaches in Hawaii

Hanauma Bay Photo borrowed from TripAdvisor

Before you go to Hawaii, check out this website for the best snorkeling beaches. When we went to the Big Island, we took a snorkel cruise. The company provided all the snorkel gear, a delicious lunch, hours of snorkeling, and a catamaran ride. They sailed us to Captain Cook Bay and we got some inner tubes and put our faces in the water (with masks and snorkels on) and kicked around enjoying the underwater show. We saw flying fish and dolphins on the catamaran ride there and back, and could not have asked for a more enriching and enjoyable experience. The snorkeling outfit even provided us with a video that we could purchase of everything that happened that day. Great memories! Quality Service Lesson:  Make sure your customers leave satisfied and give them great memories to take with them!

Well, that's all for today! Please tell me if there is anything that you would like to know about Hawaii. It was a great place to grow up in and it is a great place to visit.

Remember - every day is Aloha Friday! Take the Aloha Spirit with you wherever you go and make it a good one!

Great Service and Harry Potter too!

Onion Business is Nothing to Cry About!

Dixondale Farms sells a variety of onion plants for different growing areas around the country. I have bought several varieties from them over the years and they are all good. This year my yellow onions were HUGE. Everyone was amazed at how big the onions were and how delicious the fresh onions from the garden were. When Dixondale mails the onion plants, they include a pamphlet on how to grow them. It works! So, I was already pleased with Dixondale Farms, but then yesterday I got the e-mail below and was even more impressed!

Dear CINDY:

Your 2015 Dixondale Farms onion plant catalog has been recently mailed to you so you can expect its delivery within the next two weeks.

We want to express our sincere appreciation to you for your loyal support of our family business since 3/29/2012.  At Dixondale Farms we are well aware that it is repeat customers like you who are largely responsible for our continued success.

We are happy to have served you well in the past and we look forward to continuing to provide you with the freshest onion transplants in the future. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns during this growing season.

Thank You for Your Business!

Bruce L. Frasier
President
Dixondale Farms

This is how the onion starts look. Dixondale even allows you to order your onion starts and pick your delivery date. I asked for mine to be delivered the weekend of Memorial Day since it is not wise to plant in Cedar City before Memorial Day because there might be a freeze. Now that's smart business sense along with quality service! Buy your onion starts for your garden from Dixondale next year - you won't be disappointed!  
Quality Service Lesson: Provide your consumers with a great product, teach them the proper way to use that product, and keep that connection alive!

Government Customer Service
For seven years my husband had been maintaining the dirt road to our property which is actually an Iron County road. It's not a short road and it takes some doing to maintain it because the weather often damages the road.  During our eighth year on the property, we wrote to Iron County and asked if they would grade our road a couple of times each year. We didn't ask them to snow plow every time it snows, or bring in road base to keep the road in decent shape. We just asked if they could have someone grade "THEIR" road a couple of times a year. The Iron County Commissioners approved a Rocky Mountain Power substation in our pristine area north of Three Peaks and so we thought maybe they would be willing to help out grading the road - since they drive on it all the time.  The response that we got from Iron County was that they could develop an "assessment area." That means that besides the $1,700 that we already pay in taxes, for which we get NO SERVICES, they want us to pay even more just to have a decent road to drive on.  He Who Shall Nay Be Named that sent that veiled threat could use some quality service training. That's how government gets its bad name. Quality Service Lesson: When someone asks for services that are not being provided, don't tell them it will cost them even more money!

Dumbledore and Me

Harry Potter Style!
On the other hand, Southern Utah University (SUU) is a government agency, but they believe in providing quality service to their students, the campus community, and the neighboring community.

The Staff Association held a luncheon that rivaled that of the best Hogwarts feast. There were balloon owls hovering over the tables, staff were divided into Houses - Gryffindoor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, food was served family style, all staff members received bookmarks that reflected their house, the luncheon was held in the Great Hall on campus (which resembles the Great Hall in Hogwarts - note the photos on the wall watching our magic battle), long pretzels were dipped in chocolate to look like wands, and the President of SUU was dressed as Albus Dumbledore.  Students were playing Quidditch on the grounds during the luncheon, staff members dressed up for the occasion, and many prizes were given out.  President Wyatt (as Professor Dumbledore) spent the entire luncheon walking around, visiting with staff and taking pictures with anyone who wanted a photo op. That's quality service from a university president! It was a wonderful luncheon and most of the planning was done by a former Quality Service Committee member - Thanks Jared for a wonderful experience!

Check out the real life Quidditch Match on YouTube!

Quidditch in real life - T-bird nation style - Go T-Birds!

You can't beat Southern Utah University for a great experience!

The reason I write about Quality Service is because I am on the Quality Service Committee at SUU. Our aim is to provide students, faculty, staff and visitors with a quality experience every day.

Remember - every day is Aloha Friday! Take the Aloha Spirit with you wherever you go and make it a good one!

San Francisco Giants Steamroll Kansas City Royals

Giants can steamroll like nobody's business!
The SF Giants are on a roll! The giants started the World Series out by steamrolling the KC Royals who had not lost a post season game until last night. The Giants beat the Royals 7-1 and they were playing on the Royals' home turf! Brandon Crawford who generally plays like a very precise machine actually had an error last night. It's nice to see that he is human. Now that he's gotten that over with, he can go back to being the machine for the rest of the World Series. Go Crawford!  Speaking of Brandons, Brandon Belt has done quite well for himself even though he started the season with an injured thumb. Good job Brandons!  The way the Giants dominated the Royals last night was impressive, so I am really looking forward to tonight's game. I hope the Giants keep up the teamwork! They put on a great show for baseball fans everywhere and I am sure Giants fans everywhere are celebrating!  Quality Service Lesson:  Put on a good show for your fans so they keep supporting you!

Chicken Yakisoba - Fried Noodles
One of the favored dishes in Hawaii is fried noodles called Yakisoba. You can add chicken, or kielbasa, or steak or pork and lots of vegetables. You can find the noodles in some grocery stores and most Asian markets. One bag has three packages of noodles and seasoning packets in it.

  
Recipe
Two boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 pkg. Yakisoba noodles
10 snow pea pods (the whole pod, not just the little peas)
1 carrot, sliced
1 celery stalk, sliced
1/2 onion sliced
cabbage or won bok can be added
2 tbls. oil
1/4 cup water

Slice the chicken and vegetables. Heat 1 tbls. oil and add the chicken to the pan. Sprinkle chicken with half of the sauce base packet. Save the other half for the noodles. Stir fry the chicken for about two minutes and then add vegetables and stir fry until veggies are tender crisp.

Remove the chicken and veggies to a plate. Cover with foil to keep warm.

Add the other tbls. of oil to the pan and 1/4 cup of water before the oil gets hot, in order to avoid splatters.  Cut the noodles into shorter pieces and add to the water and oil mixture, separating noodles as they heat up. Stir-fry noodles for three minutes. Sprinkle the remaining sauce on the noodles. Add the chicken and veggies to the noodles and stir well.

Serve hot. You have a one dish meal with meat, veggies, and noodles and it's delicious!  I like extra noodles so I usually put two packages of noodles in. Just be sure to add an extra 1/4 cup of water for each package of noodles that you add. Enjoy! 

http://www.aibento.net/2007/04/spam-musubi-bento-for-zoo/

Mo'ne Davis throws like a girl and she's proud of that!
Thanks Chevrolet for that commercial! I love that Chevrolet is trying to change the culture that says girls can't be sports stars. Quality Service Lesson: Sell your product but give something back at the same time.

Remember - every day is Aloha Friday! Take the Aloha Spirit with you wherever you go and make it a good one!

Hawaii is a lot more than just a place!

Hawaii is a feeling . . . 

Plumeria flowers

Hawaii is way more than just a place. It is an artist's dream, a florist's fantasy . . . Mother Nature at her best. You can't beat Hawaii for romance because the air is cool at night, the variety of flowers, such as plumeria, maile, gardenia, etc. scent the air along with the sea spray, and everything is beautiful, especially the green mountains with all the waterfalls. Check out these videos of some of beauty.  My husband and I enjoyed this Helicopter ride over Kauai. It was a big adventure. Check out all the waterfalls! Growing up in Hawaii was a fantastic experience. I was a toddler when my family traveled to Oahu on a boat - right, it wasn't a five-hour airplane ride - it was a boat ride that took several days. That was a popular form of travel way back then. In fact, Hawaii was not even a state yet. I was in Hawaii for a couple of years before it became the 50th State. It was still a territory when my father received his Navy transfer to Hawaii and we hopped on a boat! Can you imagine a time when Hawaii wasn't yet a state?  

I was spoiled growing up in Hawaii because I thought all beaches would be as beautiful as Hawaii's beaches. When I traveled to the mainland, I discovered that not all beaches can compare to the beaches where my family and I searched for shells. If we had known that all those broken shells that we ignored would become the craze in the form of puka shells. Puka means hole. Somebody got the idea to pick up all those broken shells and make them into necklaces and the puka shell necklace craze began. We would walk the length of the beaches and push pieces of driftwood back into the ocean. Sometimes the pieces would be huge so the whole family would have to put our backs into it to set that piece of wood adrift again. We had many relaxing days on the beach. We had picnics and barbecues. We looked for caves to explore; checked out sea creatures caught in tidepools; and had many shell hunting adventures. Hawaii is a great place for a honeymoon because it is so beautiful and romantic. Check out these sunset shots that my brother-in-law Allwyn took the other night. Beautiful yeah? Tell me that's not romantic!  Quality Service Lesson:  Get Mother Nature involved - she will sell your product for you!

Thanks Allwyn!

Today's Hawaiian Recipe - Chicken Laulau

If you can find ti and taro leaves where you live, please try this recipe. If you don't like to cook, take a trip to Hawaii and make sure the luau you attend serves Chicken Laulau. It is delicious!

Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah

If you have never been to the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah, you are missing out on some quality plays. For a small town, this Shakespeare Festival puts on some fantastic plays. I recently took two friends to three of the plays and they said the quality of the plays rivaled plays they had seen on Broadway. This festival does comedy so well! My husband and I went to see Boeng Boeng the other night. What a funny play. The actors are amazing! I loved the German Air Hostess and of course, Robert, but all the actors were great! Sadly, the Festival is over for this year, but be sure you visit it next year. Just remember www.Bard.org! Quality Service Lesson:  Always provide a quality product and you will have people coming back for more and more and more.

Back to UPR
Come to find out, Bryan Earl, Station Manager at UPR, was at Boeng Boeng on the same night that I

Bryan Earl

attended the play. He was nice enough to contact me on Friday to see if he could stop by my office on campus to meet me since he was in town. Unfortunately, I had taken the day off and was not on the campus, so I missed out. That's just another part of the great marketing that UPR excels at. I was so excited that he wanted to meet me! After I wrote about Kerry Bringhurst in my blog, Bryan contacted me and offered me a certificate for the Shakespeare Festival. That was so nice! So I got to see Boeng Boeng courtesy of UPR. Thanks Bryan and Kerry and all the hard workers at UPR! Your radio station is the best! Quality Service Lesson:  Hire quality people who understand the importance of quality service and are willing to go the extra mile.

Remember - every day is Aloha Friday! Take the Aloha Spirit with you wherever you go and make it a good one!

Quality Service and Quality Marketing!

50th State Fair
When I was a teenager, I used to hang out on the beach with my friends for the whole day. I met my friend Christy who lived with her Mom in California during the school year and came to visit her father on Oahu for the summer. We had the best summers together. Christy's father owned a restaurant in Waikiki called Clark's, so one summer, he decided to have a booth at the 50th State Fair. Christy and I worked in the booth and we served strawberry waffles which were perfect for summer and were delicious.  This blog has the recipe you can try. At the 50th State Fair, we had a Belgian waffle maker which made nice crisp waffles. We took a quarter section of the whole waffle and added strawberries in syrup and then covered the waffle with whipped cream. Yum! They sold like hotcakes - ha! Oh, and we had shorts on so that attracted the fellas to our booth even before the waffles did. Quality Service Lesson:  Promote your business with something delicious at community events - like State Fairs!

I am happy to get recipes from my blog readers so I can cook or bake something new. Thanks for reading! 

Great Marketing Kerry Bringhurst!
I have enjoyed and appreciated Public Radio for years. Now, I feel like I have a connection with Kerry Bringhurst, one of public radio's brightest stars.  I e-mailed Kerry to ask about getting a link for a segment that Steve Eaton did on a Monday. (You want to listen to this audio file, but you can also read along as you listen. It will make your belly shake too!) I did not know if I would get a response or not, but I really wanted that link and could not find it on the website. The same day Kerry responded saying she would get the link posted or would e-mail it to me. I was so excited to get such personal attention from Kerry. I thanked her and told her that Steve makes my belly shake, not thinking she would respond, but she did. She said "Belly shaking is the best!" Which it is, of course, but I was pleased that Kerry and I had a back and forth via e-mail. Then Kerry sent me an e-mail five days later letting me know that Steve Eaton was going to be on the air one morning helping with the membership drive and would provide some "fun early morning conversation."  It was nice to hear from Kerry again with information that interested me, and it was very smart that she did some promoting of the fund drive while she was at it. That is exactly the type of marketing that businesses are supposed to be doing, according to my Social Media class. No hard selling, just some helpful news. Good job Kerry! That's great marketing! Now whenever I hear Kerry in the morning, I feel like I have a friend on the radio. I follow her on Twitter because I like the subjects she covers and I check out UPR's Facebook page regularly. If you are unable to listen to UPR, check out their website for amazing stories and coverage. If you have not contributed to UPR yet, please do so, and be sure to catch Kerry every day on Morning Edition. You will not be disappointed!  Quality Service Lesson:  Make your customers feel special while promoting your business - then your customers will do your marketing for you.

Cleaning GE Burner Grates

Continuing with quality service and great marketing . . . in 2011, after 4 frustrating years of scrubbing my stove burner grates like the one in the photo, I finally decided to see if General Electric had an easier way to clean them.  I e-mailed GE and got this response from Tara, their Appliance Specialist:

On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 2:09 PM, <answerctr@ge.com> wrote:

Dear Ms. Moxley,

Thank you for contacting us regarding your gas range. I regret to hear that you are experiencing difficulty cleaning the grates. I am sure this is very frustrating and I apologize for this unfortunate experience.

Below you will find the various cleaning methods recommended by GE for the burner grates.

Enamel on steel or cast iron grates and caps:
Grates and caps should be washed regularly in hot soapy water, rinsed in clean water and dried before placing them back on range.

You can also place the grates and caps in a sealed bag or covered container with 1/4 cup of ammonia. Allow to sit for three hours up to overnight to loosen soil. Rinse thoroughly and dry. To prevent rusting of cast iron grates apply a light coating of cooking oil to the bottom of the grate.

I certainly hope this helps.
Again, I greatly apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.

If I can be of further assistance, please feel free to e-mail me again, Ms. Moxley.

Sincerely,

Tara
Appliance Specialist
Consumer e-Response Team
GE Appliances
www.geappliances.com

Check out GE Appliances on Facebook and Twitter!

Happy Camper!

Can you imagine a better response than that?  She even made a suggestion to check out GE on Facebook and Twitter. Now is that great marketing, or what? I put my grates into a Ziploc baggie over night with 1/4 cup of ammonia and the next morning, the burned on crud just rinsed away. The grates looked brand new. I was so happy! I told my mother-in-law about the new cleaning method because she was having the same problems and she was elated when she tried it. She kept mentioning how happy she was that she no longer had to scrub her burner grates.  Good job General Electric for hiring Tara and for training her to be an asset to your business!  Quality Service Lesson:  Make life easier for your consumers. Maybe even have helpful hints about your products or company on your website.

Remember - every day is Aloha Friday! Take the Aloha Spirit with you wherever you go and make it a good one!

Dr. Scott Albrecht Knows Quality Service!

Make it Right!

Best Eye Doc

Dr. Scott Albrecht in Cedar City, UT knows quality service and could write a book about it. What he claims in his mission statement on his website is true. He is a doctor you can trust. He does make you see better, and he does make you smile. He loves Southern Utah University (check out his t-shirt) for which he mentors and trains many SUU optometry students.

I had my annual eye appointment this morning and after I had been sitting in the exam room for over an hour, I started to wonder what was going on because usually I am not required to wait very long at all. When Dr. Albrecht came in, he apologized profusely and explained to me that there had been a miscommunication with his staff and he just did not know I was sitting in the exam room waiting. I could tell he was really sorry that he had made me wait. He owned up to the mistake and assured me that it would never happen again. I believe him. He is the type of person that will ensure that never happens again because he really does care about his patients. He has been my eye doctor for years now and his attitude has always been one of quality service. I feel like I am visiting a friend when I go to his office. So, instead of being irritated that I had a long wait, I felt lucky to have been provided with a great quality service lesson to share on my blog! He not only apologized and owned up to his mistake, but he also gave me 50% off the cost of my lenses! That's quality service! Quality Service Lesson:  Own up to your mistake and make it right!

Quality Realtor

1. Michelle Kim, Zephyr Real Estate

Continuing with stories about great attitudes, I have to write about Michelle Kim from Zephyr Realty. My aunt passed away last year; so as executor of her estate, I had a daunting job ahead of me. Luckily, my two sisters were there to support me and we had the best realtor in the world on our side.  The day that we scheduled for realtor visits to my aunt's San Francisco house happened to also be the day that we had banking and post office and other business to deal with. My sister stayed behind and met with the realtors. She did a great job because she picked Michelle out of the pack to be our realtor.  My aunt had lived in the house for 40 years so even after my sisters and I boxed up all of her clothes and personal items for donation and removed two dumpsters full of stuff, there was still a lot to do.  I will compare Michelle's energy with that of a tornado. She said that she would take care of everything for us. She said she would schedule an estate sale, which meant boxing up the rest of the items in the house to be transported to the estate sale property, getting minor repairs completed in the house, having inspections completed, writing up the paperwork, having the entire house and yard cleaned and made presentable, and showing the house to realtors and prospective buyers. I wasn't sure she would be able to do all that she promised, but she provided me with a schedule and she stuck to it. Once Michelle was involved, selling the house was the easiest item on my list of estate duties.  The house was beautiful when she was done with it and it sold for way more than the asking price.  Instead of my sisters and me having to make several more trips to San Francisco to clear out the house, Michelle took the bull by the horns and completed the job for us. Michelle was always upbeat and very friendly and accommodating. I love her attitude! Thanks Michelle!  Quality Service Lesson:  Follow through on your promises and do it with a great attitude!

Plate Lunch

Plate Lunch - So Ono!

Local people in Hawaii love plate lunch. Here's a great video on some delicious ribs and macaroni salad. So ono! If you don't know how to make sticky rice, go to the grocery store and buy calrose fancy rice (in the Asian section) and get a rice cooker. Rinse the rice to get most of the starch off and then put enough water in the pot with the rice so that the water measures one knuckle on your middle finger between the top of the rice and the top of the water. It doesn't matter how much rice you're using if you always measure the water with your knuckle. Works every time! Perfect sticky rice! Make yourself a plate lunch and sit on the lanai and enjoy!

Feel free to share your favorite recipes with me - I love food!

Remember - every day is Aloha Friday! Take the Aloha Spirit with you wherever you go and make it a good one!