Please Listen!

Appell Pie

Post Show Issue

Please Listen!

Prior to going off on a three week road trip to Tennessee to see family and then to Atlanta and Orlando for trade shows I decided to buy a new cell phone because mine was not working properly and it was three years old, an eternity in tech time.

I’m not the kind of person that takes to change that easily so I tend to stay with what I’m comfortable with as long as it works for me, so I paid a visit to a local Verizon store to check out the newest and greatest phones. The only requirements I have in selecting a phone is a good camera, good volume, Android operating system, great battery life and the ability to set it up to work with my email system. The salesperson acted as if I was asking for purple cheese on my orange hamburger and was so dis-interested that after an hour of discussion I just packed up and left fully disgusted and annoyed. He wouldn’t listen to me.

I decided to go an extra few miles and go to the Verizon store I always use. I don’t know why I use them other than they are the closest to my office, they never have the same people working there so it’s not the personalized service.

I gave the unknown salesman my list of requirements and he immediately brought me the phone that had just been recalled and was subject to blowing up. Hello, anyone home? I finally got him to bring me the Samsung S7 which he touted very strongly.

On all smart phones there is a setting that allows you to erase your emails with or without erasing them from your server, allowing you to read them on your desktop, tablet or laptop after you erase them from your phone and that’s the way I like it, aha aha. After having several “smartphones” set up that way over the years I knew it wasn’t as easy as he said it would be. In fact he said if he couldn’t do it he would give me a case and screen protector for free. I just smiled and waited. After transferring my information from my old phone to the new one the time had come to check my requirements and get a free case and screen protector, lol.

It was a good thing the district store manager was there so the once over confident salesman could consult with him. To save time let’s just say I didn’t get the free stuff but I got a discount on them because it was not done by the salesman yet it was done, for now. I left the store and felt comfortable until I returned from the three week trip to find none of my emails on my desktop. I immediately called the district manager and his response to me was, “If you don’t want to lose the emails don’t delete them from your phone anymore” He just refused to listen to me from the beginning. I was able to call 611 repair for Verizon and I downloaded and app to allow them to take over my phone and correct the settings. So far so good. Why am I telling you this long story? Well it’s our job in the Hospitality industry to listen, whether as a server, desk clerk manager, bar tender or yes even an owner please listen and then act in the proper way to make your customer satisfied.