Internet Business Consulting & SEO - DocMurdock

Staples…You have MUCH to learn

By dmurdock on Saturday, February 18th, 2012 | No Comments

Yes Staples, as in Staples, Inc. the store.

Your Yorktown Avenue location in Huntington Beach, CA, the exact address being:

7131 Yorktown Ave., Huntington Beach, CA 92648 has much to learn about the words “CUSTOMER SERVICE”.

It’s sadly lacking at this location and after living in this area for over a year now and frequenting that store to purchase products, it’s time to speak up and voice what many others choose not to.

The store is not a pleasant place to shop. When someone walks into a Staples in Arizona for example, the first thing you get is “Welcome to Staples! May I help you find something today?”

When you walk into this Staples you’re lucky if a head raises up to acknowledge you’re there in the first place. That’s a warning sign. This email does not share a single experience. It’s the same thing, over and over again for more than 1 year. It has not changed. It’s time that you know there’s an issue. I find it surprising that nobody else hasn’t brought this up to your level. What does surprise me is that you’ve not acted on it because I know of more than 5 people who have mentioned this exact location to your corporate offices in the past year.

When you walk into a store and see 4-5 employees standing around and customers looking for help and not getting any, that’s a warning sign.

When you go to a register row, find NO cashiers, customers waiting and you turn to a person in a Staples Uniform with a Staples Name tag on and they say in response to your request for a cashier that “I don’t work for Staples”, either we’re on candid camera or this person is too lazy to be working in your store in ANY capacity.

If I were the CEO of Staples and I read this email posting, I’d take a serious look at things and start to see if there were perhaps holes in the system that as worked well at other stores for so long.

The other thing that took me by surprise today was that while all of this was taking place, the manager was literally standing there cracking jokes with some people and seeming to believe everything was just fine. Rather engage with this person and embarrass them in front of other customers I decided to take this issue to the Internet.

You see I was not the only person in the store. There was a total of 10 customers, there were more than enough employees, but they were too busy texting, talking with each other to be bothered with the little matter of customer service.

In their minds it’s little. In my mind and others who spend money, who buy stock, who purchase products that keep your doors open, it’s important. So perhaps you might want to look into things and see why your stock is trading around 15.00 a share when it could be trading substantially higher. Maybe more than just me is unhappy at the way your “Managers” are failing to take charge of your stores and operate them at STAPLES STANDARDS.

I hope this email is shocking. I hope it brings shame. I hope it makes some people angry. I hope it calls your managers into question and helps your management team figure out a solution to the problem.

Those of us who are the Boomers are tired of being treated like garbage by people who feel that they’re too busy to perform customer service. We’d rather shop online at locations other than yours so that we don’t have to deal with your people. You obviously don’t want to deal with them because there’s no fear in their eyes that there will be any repercussions surrounding an email such as this one.

I hope that’s not the case. If it is, please let me know. I’ll be happy to fly to your next shareholder’s meeting drag out a megaphone and call for your board to take a vote of no confidence in you, have you tossed out on your backside and install me as the CEO. I guarantee you we’ll take Customer Service up to a level that we had when I was at PIXAR working with and for Steve Jobs from 1991-1997. This type of lack-a-dasical attitude would not be stood for and replacements would be installed immediately to ensure our brand did not suffer.

What you do next is your choice. I intend on keeping this discussion alive on the web until such time as it’s resolved.

Thanks for taking time to read this and best of luck in finding a solution. You might want to consult with the television show UNDERCOVER BOSS and see about having them do an episode using your stores and include this one in a visit where you get to work in the store undercover so you can see how screwed up things are.

Best regards,

Michael Murdock, CEO

DocMurdock.com

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Followup to “So we met a dog…”

By dmurdock on Friday, February 3rd, 2012 | No Comments

Just a quick update to my story http://docmurdock.posterous.com/so-we-met-a-dog from January. I took a side trip today on my way down to teach the social media class for The Orange County Business Experts.

That trip was to see “Buddy Guy”. Buddy is the dog we found in January in Huntington Beach.

The news is great. Buddy is healthy, he’s happy, and he’s well cared for. It was such a thrill to see him, when I arrived to visit, his new owner went to let him out, Buddy ran to me and leaped into my arms. WOW what strength he has now that he’s being taken care of.

He was able to be off leash and obeyed commands from his owner. I was simply touched by this.

So once in a while there are pleasing continuations of great stories. This is one of them. I know from time to time we’ll see Buddy Guy, and he’ll do just fine out there.

Thanks again to the Universe for the amazing lesson in unconditional love. I am so happy and grateful that this came our way. We needed a refresher and it could not have come at a better time.

God bless Buddy Guy, his new owner and people everywhere who have dogs come into their lives. When it does happen, talk to your heart and see how you feel.

Michael

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Once in a while…

By dmurdock on Sunday, January 22nd, 2012 | No Comments

there comes a business and people you really want to brag about because they’re fun, they produce a great product and they bring smiles to many faces. This time that business is Mike Madden & his Cookies in Bloom shop in Phoenix, AZ.

Mike’s a great guy always smiling, always making me laugh, and always connecting with others and supporting them on facebook. He’s constantly liking pages, and pictures and keeping me on my toes on facebook which is tough for anyone.

While we were on our trip to Arizona this past week we had a chance finally to stop in and see Mike and his store. What a treat that was. Literally!! They’ve got a great location in Phoenix on the corner of 40th and Indian School right next to a large new trampoline park.

When we entered, we met Mike (finally), this is me in the photo with him and photos of the great products that they produce in the gallery.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Mike was kind enough to send us on our way with some goodies. The cookies did not make the trip to Tucson. One bite told me and Maria that these were well made tasty cookies that needed to be eaten. The thing that made it back with us was the Hannah Caramel Apples, the last of which was finished this very day.

I want to say THANKS to Mike Madden for sharing with us his time, his products, and the story of how they do what they do. You’re a credit to your business and a pleasure to know.

I wish you much success in your business and all that you do.

Thanks for taking time to read this one.

Michael

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So we met a dog…

By dmurdock on Friday, January 13th, 2012 | No Comments

On January 11th we thought we’d have a normal day. This was the day after launching The Orange County Business Experts. I was not 100% feeling well, but offered to take some equipment back to Irvine to return it, and on the way Maria needed to go to a quick meeting with our partners from Phoenix. So we went to meet them at their hotel in Huntington Beach. As we pulled into the parking lot we noticed this cute little dog bouncing around the parking lot looking for food. Nobody was watching him, he had no leash, no collar and it looked like not much hope.

As we got out of the car he saw us and came running our direction. This was the start of an amazing day. He appeared to be abandoned and we were shocked. This dog had a well groomed coat, perfect nails, perfect teeth and the disposition of a house broken puppy with a yearning to be loved. The universe had delivered to us a gift that we were to share with another.

Maria had her meeting with the team and while we were inside the hotel, the dog joined us and wandered around. The Manager at this particular hotel was not accommodating in the least. “Remove that dog” he said to us. Personally I was a bit miffed at the person who looked like he was just an unhappy person stuck behind a desk, so I took the dog to a local petsmart store had him checked over at the Banfield Desk there to see if there was a microchip present so we could track the owner. No chip. No license. We also noticed that he had not been fed in a while. They gave me a leash to put him on, see the picture:

So whoever had this dog, took good care of him, but yet starved him and they did not want him to be tied to them in any way…interesting.

We got on the road, headed to Irvine to return our equipment and where we did that we found who would 24 hours later become the owner of this wonderful fur-being. This guy was thrilled to meet this dog that had wandered into our lives and Maria was quick to say “HEY YOU WANT A DOG?” He said YES!!! I was a bit protective of our new friend as I knew there were things that had to be done to see if the current owner would surface, plus there was something else flowing into me that said this dog was here to teach us something and we needed some time with it.

I told the guy we had to check on the current owners and would get back with him. So we came home went to work on Craigslist, posting an ad there with pictures. I had posted one at Petsmart with our contact info on it, and then we took the dog to another spot to see if there was anyone looking for him or if there was a possibility to put him up for adoption. We contacted a local animal rescue NO-KILL Shelter, but they were full and could only refer us elsewhere.

We brought the puppy home and I named him “Buddy”. Hey Buddy! I said and he leaped up and licked my face. Maybe his name was Buddy after all! I fed him, watered him, and even gave him a quick shampoo to make sure he was nice and clean for the activities of the following day.

Our dog Sophie is a bit territorial so when she looked out the window and saw her Daddy fawning over this puppy she began growling and barking and well needless to say it was a bit interesting when I went to sleep, Sophie curled up next to me and all of a sudden out of no where the bed starts moving around underneath. Puppy had wandered up stairs into the bedroom and was under the bed playing with Sophie’s toys. The growling ensued and well finally all went to sleep after much laughter and a few OH BOY that was somethings!

The following day, I woke, checked all the places we’d posted Ads…Nothing. So we contacted our guy in Irvine and arranged to take the dog down to him. On the way I connected with Buddy and explained to him that we were taking him to his new owner and that he should be well looked after. He looked at me with these big eyes and then stood up and licked my face. A bit disconcerting to have that happen at 65mph on the freeway, but unconditional love is just that. It happens when it chooses to.

Buddy ready to lick Michael’s face! He’s quick on the draw!

Buddy pondering his new owner

Buddy resting a bit before we arrived

Upon arrival, I got Buddy out of the car, he saw the new owner and instantly ran to be with him licking his hands and face and saying a big hello. I told the guy that I had named the dog Buddy and he said “That’s so funny, that’s the name I wanted to give him”. So the name has stuck, in fact, he’s been named “Buddy Guy” after a Blues Guitarist of the same name. What a great name and it does fit! He’s a BUDDY and he’s a GUY doggie!!!

So what was the universe reminding us of you ask? Unconditional love. To show up as equals in this timespace and to treat all as same is truly important in understanding how to best serve the greater good in this time. When we do this we level the space in which we hold for others to show up and connect with us. There is no speaking down to or up from, there is equality and love unconditional. From this can come nothing but love, peace, joy, understanding and clarity of purpose in being here and now.

Here’s one video of him playing with me:

and here’s a second video I took of him, so playful he is. Am glad we found him a home:

Thank you Universe for this lesson, and thank you Buddy for your spirit and love in the time you spent with us. We appreciate you and are so grateful that you came and connected with us. Whoever let you go…we bless them and wish them well on their way and we thank them for letting you be free to choose who you desired to be with and mentor going forward.

We love you. We hope you enjoyed reading about Buddy Guy, the amazing puppy. We wish him and his new owner well. We pray for them and wish them much clarity, enlightenment, peace and understanding along their new path.

Michael

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Is your CUBE fun to work in? Or does it suck badly?

By dmurdock on Monday, January 2nd, 2012 | No Comments

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Contest Factory. All opinions are 100% mine.

Does your CUBE SUCK to work in?

Starting the 5th of January, Contest Factory will be taking submission videos of cubes at offices. From these they will decide at the end of the month the worst looking cube and award the Pimp My Cube prize!!

One thing I loved when I worked for PIXAR was being able to customize our spaces. We never had an opportunity to have someone come in and do it for us!!! This ROCKS!!!

What you want to do is upload a video of your cube (don’t break any work laws doing this) and share why your cube is the worst, your technology the oldest and why you should be the winner of the PMC prize. Once you do and fill out the registration information, you’re IN!

Click the link below to enter on the site:

Pimp My Cube Contest

How do you upload the video? You can use a phone or webcam. Once you get your video online, let your friends, family, coworkers know about it so that they can vote for you and help you win!

What’s the prize for doing this? It’s going to be a $1200 value of a high end computer system, desk, chair, espresso machine and some other goodies as well. A great way to become the new corner of your office for people to hang out at.

Also, check out this contest video sample right here: