We Can Stop Outsourcing!

Or can we? Maybe we can. Or at least affect it in some small way by being vocal about the quality of customer service we are receiving. If you have had to call Dell lately, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

My personal experience with outsourcing has been with regard to call center contact. Aside from the obvious issues of moving employment opportunities off of American soil, I am not a fan of outsourcing for many reasons. The biggest current reason is that when I call a company with whom I do business and I have the privilege of speaking with someone whose first language is clearly not English, I get a little grumpy. Call me insensitive to diversity issues. Go ahead. I don't care. I have the right to speak with someone who is understandable and who understands what I am saying. I have the right to speak with someone who understands our culture and the way American citizens expect to be served.

So...yesterday, I called my credit card company to inform them that they should do something nice for me like change my card to a rewards card since I use it so much. After a few difficult exchanges, I asked to speak with a manager. I said to the manager, "I don’t know whether you outsource overseas or not, but every time I call I get to speak with someone whose first language is not English and with whom I have a difficult time communicating. As your customer, I have a right to be picky about the quality of service you provide to me…..blah blah….” She validated my feelings, acknowledged that they outsource overseas, and then gave me a toll-free stateside customer service number to use in the future.

How about that? So...maybe we can start a revolution. Okay, maybe not. At least now I (and you) know that this may be an option with other companies.

So, did I get my rewards card status? No, because I was so excited by the result of my complaint that I forgot why I'd called.

A Long Blog Entry...Great Weekend!

A Happy Saturday

My Saturday was great, because I spent a lot of it with my mommy (that's the two of us to the right!) and then later hung out with my pal Shalane (my usual Saturday night dinner and a movie buddy).

Mom and I had lunch (Aubrey's) & then caught a movie (Music and Lyrics). I am happy to report that the waitress did not utter one "absolutely" nor did she ask us if our food was fantastic or fabulous. She was just plain polite. (I had a chicken salad sandwich, because Aubrey's simply has the best in the city. Mom had the chicken salad salad. Yes, it really is "salad salad.")

Later, Shalane and I had a good dinner at Bonefish Grill (one of my very favorite restaurants). I had a filet medallion with to die for crab stuffed shrimp. Shalane had the monkfish. YUM YUM YUM!!! We caught a movie afterwards (Wild Hogs). The waiter at Bonefish was excellent. Of course, my assessment may be jaded by the fact that he did not charge me for my coffee. I didn't have any wine, because I really had a taste for something a little stronger. (You know my friend, Jack, don't you?) Seriously...the waiter was personable, attentive without being obnoxious, and he was well-practiced in traditional polite talk which didn't include one utterance of an "absolutely." Instead of asking if everything was fabulous, he asked, "How is everything?" To top it off, he was a fun guy with a good sense of humor (often needed when dining with Shalane and Christine having cocktails with their dinner).

My Sunday

Mass, grocery shopping, shoe shopping, and a great nap! I hung out with Curtis and his sweet girlfriend, Meghan, for a while this evening. Curtis is home this week on Spring Break. He'll be working all week. He works for The University of Tennessee bookstores and since the dorms are closed for the week, he'll be commuting downtown every day. He's not thrilled about the extra gas expense. You see, he usually rides his bike to work (on Henley Street in downtown Knoxville) from his dorm. In any event, it's been a nice restful weekend and I'm ready to hit the ground running with the start of new quarter tomorrow.

Music and Lyrics Synopsis (from Fandango)

Former music superstar Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) used to pack them in back in the 1980s, but now he is reduced to playing nostalgia tours and county fairs. Alex scores a chance at a major comeback when reigning pop diva Cora Corman asks him to write a song for her, but Alex hasn't written anything in years and cannot compose lyrics anyway. Noticing that Sophie (Drew Barrymore), the plant lady, has a way with words, Alex proposes that he and Sophie make beautiful music together.

My Review

And so they make beautiful music...literally. Cora likes what they come up with, but then she wants to commercialize it with her brand of a "steamy and sticky" Indian & Hindu flavor. Sophie won't compromise. Alex wants a hit and to make some money, so there's a little romantic conflict leaning towards a broken heart. In the end, he convinces Cora that "steamy and sticky" isn't the way to go and Sophie is won over by Alex. Romance, comedy, and a happy ending where Alex and Sophie end up together and, no doubt, have a great songwriting partnership ahead of them. I am a sucker for a happy ending. I know I've said this before, but it bears repeating. It even makes up for a movie that has a spot where it sort of slows down a bit. If you have fond memories of 80's music and like the nostalgia of Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Wham music, then that's another reason you may enjoy this movie.

Wild Hogs Synopsis (from Fandango)

Tired of their humdrum lives, some middle-aged friends (Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy) decide to temporarily ditch their responsibilities and take a motorcycle trip. The freedom of the open road holds many surprises for the group, including an encounter with the Del Fuegos, a hardcore gang, who take a dim view of the novice bikers.

My Review

LOTS of laughs! Great to see middle-aged men with saggy chests skinny dipping in a pond-like body of water. We see that these men are real and it's fun to see they are clumsy, less than self-assured, and dealing with their own relationship issues. They have the common sense to know it's time to get the heck out town for a little while and regroup. There's nothing wrong with that. Betsy Pickle disses this one, saying it's "programmed, formulaic and designed to appeal to the widest spectrum at the lowest level."(KnoxNews.com, 2007) Whatever...if what we need to escape for a few hours and laugh is a programmed, formulaic comedy which uses actors we love, then I'll take it and I am not going to criticize. I enjoyed it and I'm pretty sure Shalane did since she laughed way harder than I did!

Does Anybody Else Find This Amusing or Annoying?

This might be another one of my complementary coffee rants, so watch out!

Where in the world is "You're welcome?"

Restaurants must be training wait staff in innovative ways to communicate with and serve their customers. Or maybe those young whippersnappers have just reached a consensus among themselves that dissing traditional polite talk with niceties like "absolutely" is the cool thing to do...cuz everybody's doing it. I've noticed recently (at more than one restaurant...at least 3, in fact and I can name them, if you like) that wait staff who are eager to please are also eager to let you know this with new and different responses to your requests.

Waitress: Would you like to start off with a cocktail tonight?

Patron: I'll just have a glass of water, please.

Waitress: Absolutely.

Waitress: Is everybody ready to order?

Patron: Yes, please. I'll have the blah blah blah and the blah blah.

Waitress: Absolutely.

Waitress: What side dish would you like with that?

Patron: The steamed vegetables, please.

Waitress: Absolutely.

Waitress: I'll be right back with some bread.

Should we say "absolutely" at this point? Is it our turn to reciprocate? Is this the new way to politely exchange pleasantries? Instead of responding in kind, we just talk about her when she walks away...that's more fun.

...Food is served...meal being enjoyed...

Waitress: Is everything tasting fabulous for you ladies?

...goes away and returns...

Waitress: Is everything still fantastic?

...goes away and returns eventually with the check and high expectations for a nice tip since she's been so fabulously polite...

Okay, first of all...when did "absolutely" become a response for just about every verbal transaction at a restaurant? Secondly, I don't recall mentioning to anyone that my food was either fabulous or fantastic, but it seems to be a new trend for wait staff everywhere to communicate in this manner and at least try to convince you that what's on your plate is either fabulous or fantastic with a preemptive "Is everything tasting fabulous?" approach.

Again, I can name the restaurants where I've experienced this, if you like. That way you can check it out for yourself and get back to me with your impressions.

What Makes You Happy?

Is that easy for you to answer? Someone close to me asked me about 4 years ago what I wanted for my life. All I could say was, "I just want to be happy." I wasn't sure what being happy looked like for me at that time. I can tell you that the two gifts you see below certainly make me happy. I am happy just to be in their presence and to laugh with them...to hear about their lives and know they have set out on their own paths to use the tools that I think I provided to them...to know that they are pursuing their dreams and goals, and are becoming adults of whom I am very proud.