ShanaRay.com

I work from my laptop which means when not working from my kitchen table, I work out of various coffee shops around Sonoma County.  Mainly in Healdsburg and Santa Rosa, but I have been known to frequent a few in Sonoma, Petaluma and Windsor.

I would also like to add that I worked as a supervisor at Starbucks for over three years while living in San Diego, so I know what it takes to provide great customer service while managing employees.

Many times while working, I tend to twitpic images of what I am eating or drinking or talk about my surroundings.  Mostly I experience great customer service and while my drinks/food may not be outstanding, my overall experience is usually pleasant.

Then there is my experience at one specific place where I have tweeted on three separate occasions about my displeasure with an owner of a coffee shop in Santa Rosa.  I hesitate to call them out because even though I really hate what I have to listen to (I will explain soon), it is such a great location and it is quiet so it is a coffee shop I will be going back to again.  Anyone who lives in Santa Rosa reading this probably already knows which place I am talking about and most likely has had a similar experience.  And, if you ask me, I will gladly tell you their name.

Okay, imagine this:  You are sitting at your table, drinking your tea, eating a bagel at about 8:30 in the morning.  The cafe has two or three other customers on their laptops or socializing with each other.  The owner of the cafe is working from her own laptop at a table near by.  She gets up to talk to the barista and instead of taking her in the back room to discuss work matters, she proceeds to yell (yes, yell) at the young girl, telling her that if she didn’t do the order right she would write her up.  You look at the other customers who also can hear this woman yell and then look at the barista apologizing for her mistake, clearly noting that everyone is listening to the conversation.

Or, another scenario: One of the barista’s is 10 minutes late and the owner yells at her saying she was writing her up… Oh, in front of a short line of customers waiting to order their coffee.

Or, the owner yelling at one of the barista’s for leaving something in the food shelf out.

All of these obviously happened and all of these events could have really been simple matters that wouldn’t be a big deal if handled properly.  In this economy and this new media age, I am astounded that any small business owner thinks that yelling at their employees is a good idea.  In any era it is not good business practice, but with inventions like wifi, Twitter, blogs and Yelp, I am even more in shock.

Employees are usually the first contact that a customer has with a brand.  The servers and tasting room staff and sales people are the people that create an experience for the customer and they are also your best Word of Mouth advocates because they talk about their job to their friends and family, thus bringing in customers that already have a connection with the brand, which means that they will possibly tell their friends and so on and so on.   Why would anyone want to mistreat the people who can make our break your business?

Second, the internet has allowed me to voice my own opinion of this restaurant though Twitter, turning away several people I have talked to about which cafe it is… Even if their Yelp page has 8 comments, all with fairly good reviews (all commenting on the new decor) it is the repeat customers that  make a coffee shop or restaurant stay open.

Anyways, now that I am done with my rant on mistreating your employees, I will end it on a high note.  For restaurants or anyone in the customer service industry, the Food Channel has a few words on building your brand by connecting with your customers.  Also, I just came across an awesome blog called ALL THINGS WOM and their latest blog post on a hamburger joint called Mighty Fine Hamburgers in Austin, TX gave me hope that some small business people still do have the common sense to treat their employees and customers with respect.

Below is an expert from a post from today’s top story on MediaPost Publications: A Tale Of PR And Social Media

Like any disruptive innovation, social media has come at a time when everything in our lives — online and offline — has changed so dramatically. We could almost document the rise of social media over the past 18 months of turbulence in the US and abroad. So it’s no coincidence that social media will become the marketing be-all as we kick off a new decade: social media will be to 2010 what email was to 2000.

We’re starting this journey and mapping out a new course, making it up as we go along, friending each other — PR and Social Media — until we get it right. There are many lessons to be learned and like anything new, there are bound to be mistakes. Practice, after all, makes perfect. Companies big or small are not immune to public ridicule in having “tweeted” out of line or handled a social media crisis poorly. Corporate Tweeting now comes with a 25-page “how to” manual. PR companies, digital marketers and corporate Tweeters – we are bound to mess up along way. The point is that most of us simply don’t know until we try.

The article as a whole is a good one to read for any PR/Marketing person working at for a brand or at an agency getting into Social Media Marketing.  And, yes I am taking just one of the many points that author, Vanessa Horwell brought up.  But I think it is a valid  thought to bring up the idea that social media is NOT the marketing be-all.

It is not.

It is still just as much about the message as it is about the medium.  Social Media is a buzz worthy word, but it is a tool.  A simple and fun tool, yes.  But still — it is only a tool to get your message across.

As soon as people see them like this, the sooner Social Media won’t seem as scary to brands as it once was.

Personally, one of the most influential blog’s is gapingvoid by Hugh Macleod.

1. Add 25% to amount of hours you work every week, and fill them with fun, interesting, useful, stuff. Google allows its employees 20% of their work time to devote to their own personal projects. If your employer won’t allow you to do this, you should unilaterally make the time for yourself, hence the extra 25%. Your peers in the office may think you weird at first, but after a while it’ll start paying off.

You have to know what is out there, playing around on MySpace has actually helped with a few of my ideas along the way…. What other industry rewards you for being a MySpace geek?

2. I had no life in my 20′s. Get used to the same. While my peers were partying or zoning out to TV sitcoms, after work I’d head for the coffee shop or the bar, and crank out cartoons until bedtime. Sure, I must have looked a real lonely ol’ saddo, sitting there doodling away, but at the time I didn’t really care. I enjoyed doing it, plus I knew I was on to something. Besides, the typical twentysomething TV-enhanced nighttime existence didn’t interest me too much. Tis more blessed to make than to consume etc.

This is some great advice… It is actually month six of my year long TV strike (month two for the writer’s strike) and I have learned that there is much more to read, create and play with then old re-runs of Friends. 

3. All business is creative, just sometimes it’s hard to see it. And it’s especially hard to see it when you’re leaving the office at the same time as all the other yutzes you work with.

This goes along with number 2, put in the hours…. They will be worth it…….

4. Creative people like other creative people, even if they’re far more senior than you. The great thing about creative people with power and money, is that they would much rather have somebody working for them who reminds them of themselves when they, too were young, rather than remind them of the jocks and cheerleaders they went to highschool with. And you know what? Finding those kind of young people is actually harder than it seems. Truly bright sparks who are honest, reliable and hard-working are rare, even in the younger cohorts. So if you ever meet an older “Creative” like that, don’t be scared of her. Don’t be scared to seek her out. She’s probably just as delighted to have found someone she can give a real opportunity to, as you are for finding someone offering a real opportunity.

 This describes my boss, Cheryl

5. P.S. When I use the word “creative”, I prefer to use it in quotation marks, metaphorical or otherwise. As words go, it’s pretty meaningless. There are a lot of people in the “creative” industries who wouldn’t know an original idea if it jumped on their lap and peed on them. Aimee Plumley was right. Hipsters ARE annoying. Truly creative people tend to defy the usual stereotypes. Always keep that in mind.

6. Never, ever forget the “Sex & Cash Theory”.  The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs: One is the sexy, creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills. Sometimes the assignment covers both bases, but not often.

Our CDB campaigns vs. HP direct mail

7. Always remember: You’re playing the long game. General Kutuzov told the Russian Royal Court that all he needed to defeat Napoleon was “patience and time”. His approach horrified a lot of people close to the Czar, who were hoping for something a bit more swift and glorious. But it was “patience and time” that allowed the good ol’ Russian winter to come along, and freeze all those poor Frenchman to death. The rest is history.

Great advice…….