So, after my two other articles about Big Lots, it had me thinking. How many other times have they been sued in the past year by their customers or employees?
4/2/2015
Big Lots Hit With Overtime Pay Lawsuit
6/26/2015
Big Lots Sued over Slip and Fall
7/15/2015
Woman suffering burns sues Big Lots.
7/27/2015
Big Lots Background Checks Breach FCRA, Class Action Says
8/3/2015
Big Lots violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
Big Lots disclosed too much information
10/12/2015
Big Lots facing fines after boxes smash employee
10/23/2015
City Counsel candidate sues Big Lots for ADA violations
11/27/2015
Big Lots sued over delay in distributing final paychecks.
Big Lots to pay $400,000 for race discrimination
Monday, February 1, 2016
Morton’s Steakhouse: Airport Delivery
Here is a pretty amazing social media story by Morton's steakhouse. Pretty amazing to think that within 3 hours of a tweet that Morton's was able to act on it, get approval, order placed, food cooked, delivered in a completely different city! Major props to Morton's for the approach they take with social media management!
Do something unexpected for a loyal customer – when they want it most.
While waiting for takeoff in Tampa, Florida, Peter Shankman jokingly asked Morton’s Steakhouse to deliver a porterhouse steak when he landed at Newark airport.
While departing the Newark airport to meet his driver, he was greeted by a Morton’s server with a 24 oz. Porterhouse steak, shrimp, potatoes, bread – the works. A full meal and no bill.
When you think of the logistics of pulling this off, it becomes even more impressive. The Community Manager needed to get approval and place the order. It needed to be prepared and then driven by the server to the airport, to the correct location and at the right time. All in less than three hours.
Some of the comments on Peter’s post suggest that this isn’t an anomaly. Another reader shares his experience of ordering a baked potato and getting a full steak meal – delivered and for free.
Shout out to Samsung....They get Social Media Management!
Samsung: A Unicycling Kangaroo and a Dragon Phone
There are several lesson's to be learned here:
1. You do not get what you do not ask for!
2. Don't take yourself too seriously
3. When a social interaction goes viral....Find a way to capitalize on it!
As a loyal Samsung customer, Canadian Shane Bennett asked for a free unit of their latest, soon-to-launch phone. To sweeten his offer, he included a drawing of a roaring dragon.
Not surprisingly, Samsung said “no”. But to say thanks, they sent him their drawing of a unicycle-riding kangaroo.
Shane then shared both messages (and drawings) to Reddit where it went viral. In response, Samsung Canada sent him the phone he asked for – and customized it with his fire-breathing dragon artwork.
Costco is becoming one of America's favorite places to buy a car thanks to one huge perk
How you can buy your toilet paper in bulk and get your new car to drive it home in....
Costco's power in the auto industry is growing.
The warehouse retailer sold 465,000 vehicles through partnerships with auto dealers in 2015, a 16.8% increase from the previous year.
That's not far behind the No. 1 auto retailer in the US, AutoNation, which sold 533,000 vehicles in 2014.
Costco has one major perk that traditional car dealerships lack: fixed prices. That means customers can skip the bargaining and upselling that is expected at traditional auto dealers.
The company sells cars through 3,000 dealerships to Costco members across the US.
REUTERS/John Gress JG/GN
Costco also announced that members bought or leased 58,000 vehicles during its 2015 GM Holiday Sales Event, a 34% increase from the previous year's holiday-season promotion. More than half of the people who purchased vehicles through the event said they switched to a General Motors brand such as Chevrolet, Buick, or Cadillac because of Costco's promotion.
"General Motors is pleased that Costco members continue to find our holiday offer with Costco Auto Program valuable," GM spokesman Dan Flores said in a statement. "We were able to work with Costco Auto Program to ensure that we offered a diverse vehicle selection and value that resonates with Costco members, and received great results that included conquests from other brands."
Experiment nets pay raises for all
REELEY (AP) – In the past three months, the franchiser of Greeley’s two Qdoba restaurants has been banking on a lofty experiment in management.
Enlarge photo
Joshua Polson/The Greeley Tribune via AP
Christine Reyes carefully grabs some lettuce for a burrito on Wednesday at the Qdoba off of 11th Avenue in Greeley. Qdoba is experimenting by paying employees $11 an hour for 3 months to create more stability in their workforce.
Could boosting employees’ pay by $2 per hour keep staffing stable while creating a better customer experience?
The answer, after the past 90 days, would be a resounding yes, said Bill Nelson, director of operations for Q Investments, which has 17 restaurants in the franchise. Greeley was the test market for the experiment.
“It was a success, and we are going to continue to do it,” Nelson said. “It’s been fantastic. The attitude of employees has been fantastic. The service has been better and turnover has been lower. It’s been a win-win for everybody.”
That $1,800-$2,000-per-month gamble will now become a $500,000 annual hit to the bottom line for the company. Nelson said based on Greeley restaurants’ success, the company will roll out raises for employees at all of its restaurants, which includes 14 in northern Colorado, two in Wyoming and one in Nebraska.
It wasn’t as simple as a request for better service to their customers. The company boosted hourly wages to $11 per hour, bringing employees above most other minimum-wage level employees across the city.
But the crews had to work for it. They needed to show up to work on time; if they had to take a day off, they were in charge of finding someone to work for them. They needed to work as a team.
“They knew up front what they had to do,” Nelson said. “It got to the point where during the test, the employees were policing themselves.”
Management used sales, of course, and customer surveys, as well as absenteeism as the barometers for this experiment.
Customer surveys in Greeley already are improving, Nelson said. He said it would be a good six months to a year to determine how actual sales figures were responding.
And managers finally get the chance to relax in their time off rather than make frequent trips back to the restaurants to solve problems. Nelson said a regional manager who covers six stores in the area remarked that the two Greeley stores no longer need much oversight.
“He said, ‘I don’t have six stores anymore, I have four,”’ Nelson said. “And both (Greeley) managers have said their jobs have never been easier.”
Where they used to get maybe 10 applications for employment each week, they now have folders 2 inches thick of those wanting to don the blue visors and roll burritos. The stores have only lost one employee during the entire experiment window.
The whole point, of course, was to take care of people on the front end and see if they would respond in kind.
“The employees are happy to be here. They’re excited to be here. It’s a whole different atmosphere,” said Nickiey Gallegos, general manager for the Qdoba at 2527 11th Ave. in Greeley. “I think it can only go up. I see every week it’s more positive. They’re more excited to be here, and the customer service is amazing.
“I think every restaurant should do it. It’s amazing.”
The program comes in the middle of a nationwide debate on minimum wages; some fast-food workers on the East Coast, for example, have lobbied for $15 per hour.
Nelson said that kind of an increase is a bit extreme, and not the statement his company franchiser, Steve Lauer, is trying to make.
“Typically, what happens is that minimum wages go up every year, and restaurants will just raise their prices to cover that cost,” Nelson said.
“We took a price increase around October 2014, and we’re just going to accept that this will be a little bit of a higher cost. But there are the intangibles you can’t measure, such as time spent on training, uniforms being lost, that type of thing.
“We know that over time with better service, you see better sales. . We’ll lose a little profit, but it will make us stronger.”
The company will roll the program out to its remaining 15 stores by March, Nelson said. Nelson has been approached by other Qdoba franchisers curious about the program’s success, even Qdoba corporate. He’s preparing a report for corporate leaders this week.
But this won’t be the last of it. Nelson knows they could face complacency among the ranks as time goes on. That’s why they’re working on a plan to institute profit-sharing of some sort to employees whose stores meet specific goals in the future.
“There will be some additional reward for achieving sales goals, and some will go back to the employees,” Nelson said. “That’s our intention.”
Shopkeeper shows just how to deal with angry customers - by pulling out samurai sword
Well, I guess the British have a totally different approach to dealing with disgruntled customers....It includes swinging a samurai sword!
A customer planning to pick a fight in his local store got more than he bargained for when the disgruntled store owner pulled out a samurai sword.
The conversation quickly gets heated, with the customer making angry gestures at the other man before rushing towards him.
A customer planning to pick a fight in his local store got more than he bargained for when the disgruntled store owner pulled out a samurai sword.
The conversation quickly gets heated, with the customer making angry gestures at the other man before rushing towards him.
It is then that the storekeeper fumbles behind his desk and pulls out a samurai sword which he wields at the man.
The terrified man is then seen running out the shop with the sword-wielding staff member on his heels.
It's safe to say that's one store he won't be returning to again.
Angry Comcast customer set up Raspberry Pi to auto-tweet speed test results
A Comcast customer who is dissatisfied with Internet speeds set up a Raspberry Pi to automatically tweet at Comcast each time speeds are much lower than advertised.
"I pay for 150Mbps down and 10Mbps up," Reddit user AlekseyP wrote over the weekend. "The Raspberry Pi runs a series of speed tests every hour and stores the data. Whenever the down[load] speed is below 50Mbps the Pi uses a Twitter API to send an automatic tweet to Comcast listing the speeds. I know some people might say I should not be complaining about 50Mbps down, but when they advertise 150 and I get 10-30 I am unsatisfied."
Customer Attacks Clerk for Not Smiling Enough
While it is always polite to smile and is always a good thing to do during interactions with customers, apparently failing to smile can prompt some customers to start a physical altercation with you!
54-year-old customer walked into a convenience store for some late-night snacks around dawn on Sunday. The convenience store clerk completed the transaction in a professional manner and handed over the bag, but apparently he was not cheery enough for customer’s liking. The customer left, but then came back moments later and started calling for the clerk from outside the store, demanding that he come out and apologize for being surly and give him the smile he was owed.
The clerk went outside to confront him, and it escalated into an actual fight!
Bottom line, failing to friendly may not only cost you a sell, but apparently you might even get a butt kicking!
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