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Photo Credit to BBC Jennifer Tracey & Doug Savage
I realize this time of year I need to be grateful and joyous, but sometimes venting about situations just plain helps move from the “dwelling on it” phase to the “forgiving and letting go” phase- I can usually accomplish this venting with a few well worded facebook status updates, or perhaps a heated tweet. This time however, I am gonna go ahead and dedicate precious space on my personal blog, because, well to be honest there is a lot I need to get off my chest.
A few years ago Connor won the 99.9 KEZ Kids Cook contest in which they sent him a certificate to be used at the Young Chef’s Academy. He really enjoyed the class he took there because he felt like such a big kid using real peelers and other kitchen utensils to help prepare a recipe. So I told his grandma that gift passes to more classes there are always a good idea if she is looking for ideas of things to get him. Over the summer she got a smokin deal on a few classes and let me know that we are free to use the credits whenever.
With Christmas break coming I thought filling in some of the long boring hours waiting for THE BIG DAY to come with at least one of these classes would be a good idea. So on December 6th I went on their website to look for the calendar of classes. Here folks is where we run directly into problem #1- I could not easily locate the class schedule- the site was not at all intuitive and was difficult to navigate (and I am no spring chicken when it comes to the internet) even links that read as if they are taking you to “the december schedule” only linked back to identical looking webpages within the site–after finally locating a link to a .pdf of the actual calendar, I settled in to compare dates and pick a class or 2.
Here folks is problem #2- instead of linking to a calendar, (or even something somewhat similar to a calendar) YCA opts to create their own beyond confusing “list” of classes. As far as I could tell the classes were spelled out by date (12/20 12/21 12/22 etc. So I scrolled down to the dates that I knew fell in Christmas break and I looked for Wednesday the 22nd- right next to the 12/22 was a class for my sons age range at a time I could fit into our schedule so I sent off an email (as instructed by the website) to register for the class. My email was as follows:
Hello,
I would like to sign my son Connor up for the Wednesday December 22nd 4pm Hot chocolate on a stick, brownie biscottt and snowflake class.
My mother in law purchased classes for him and said that I would just need to give his name
Connor Geroux
6/13/2002
no food allergies
480-241-8876
Please let me know if there is anything else needed from me.
Thanks
Jessie Geroux
I heard nothing for 24 hours. Which fine, sue me for being annoyed with that, but it irks me in this day and age when companies request that things be done via the internet and don’t even have the courtesy of an auto reply letting the customer know that infact their message was received and that someone will get back to them ASAP. But I will go ahead and take my annoyance down a notch or 2 and reluctantly agree that -”24 hours is an ok response time” However the reply I got was this:
We do not have a class on Wednesday at 4 p.m. Our Jr. Chef class on Wednesdays is from 5:00-6:30 p.m. Is this the class you mean to reserve?
Kathy
Now, a few things really rubbed me wrong with this reply- none of which is the fact that the class I want does not exist- My issues lay firmly in the fact that it “reads” as completely unprofessional- No opening, no greeting, no thank you, no “I’m sorry you may be mistaken” no closing-plain and simple no “customer service” Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place for short and sweet messages- twitter, facebook updates, text messages, emails to close friends or colleagues etc I just think that when replying to customers (or potential customers)there is a certain level of etiquette that should be followed- and this completely lacked that.
Furthermore, since I had spent a good 15 minutes scrolling their website looking for which class would work best in our schedule, I was certain that I had not read their list wrong. So I went back to the site and low and behold right next to the 12/22 was the class I was asking for. So in my irriation I took a screen shot, used the tools in word to circle the class on their very own list (oh no she didn’t- oh yes I DID) and sent her back the following email:
Please see the attachment I made….to show you what I am seeing—am I reading the calendar wrong?
When I am viewing the calendar for Decemeber it shows:
12/22 Hot Chocolate on a Stick 4:00-5:30pm 1.5 hours Jr Chefs ages 7-11 Jo & Christine
Brownie Biscotti
Snowflakes
Hot Chocolate on a Stick 4:30-6:00pm 1.5 hours Sr. Chefs ages 12-19 Colleen
Brownie biscotti
snowflakes
If there is a Jr chefs class at 5pm for his age (he is 8) that is fine as well–I just want to be sure that you were aware that when I look at the calendar posted it reads to me like there is a class on Wednesday 12/22 at 4pm
Thanks
Jessie Geroux
Realizing that perhaps it was a typo (but forgetting that not everyone uses gmail and sees emails in “conversation format”) I then fired off this additional email 2 seconds later:
If its a typo and its supposed to say 12/23 making the 4:00-5:30pm class on Thursday then that is fine as well and in that case I would like to add my son Tyler to the class as well. He is 10 birthday 6/13/2000 dairy allergies/autism—I would actually prefer this option
——
**Side note–ALL email should be seen in conversation format in other words GMAIL RULES -we now return you to our regularly scheduled ranting**
24 hours later:
The only error on my calendar was under the Thursday classes, it listed the date as 12/22 and listed those two classes below. If you look under Wednesday classes which is 12/22 you will see the only classes offered are a 12-1 KinderCooks and 5-6:30 p.m. Jr. Chef.
So do you want the Wednesday, 12/22 Jr. Chef from 5-6:30 p.m. OR do you want the Thursday, 12/23 Jr. Chef from 4-5:30 p.m.? Let me know as I can get him into either.
Thanks.
Kathy
Wow- ok–wow. The only words that came to my mind when I got the reply would make a sailor blush. There are often times when I feel like reaching into my computer and slapping people, and this was one of them for sure. Granted if I was a hasty business owner that just got “schooled” by a customer I would be reluctant to apologize as well, but I wasn’t asking for her to create a class that didn’t exist-just to acknowledge that there had been a mistake and it was not MINE. A simple “I’m sorry the typo on our list has caused confusion- I will get that fixed shortly” would have gone MILES down the “now thats good customer service” road.
Instead her reply incited this from me:
Fact of the matter is there was clearly a typo, which for someone not used to your confusing calendar listing can obviously cause a misunderstanding. I feel like you are being very confrontational and defensive about this rather then simply saying-”yes, there was a typo, sorry for any confusion”
I’ll hold off on using the classes my mother in law already purchased until the bad taste from this email interaction has faded.
Jessie Geroux
I expected to either have to wait the traditional 24 hours for a reply to that diddy-or not see a reply at all but NOOOO I got a reply within 14 MINUTES. And it was the reply of the century in fact:
First of all, I apologize as that was certainly not how I meant to be received and do not understand how you could perceive my response as “confrontational.”
In my defense if that is how I am coming off and giving you a “bad taste”, I have been under a great deal of stress due to our home being robbed and trashed last week and everything taken including the cremated remains of our family’s dog.
It has been a very traumatic experience for myself and my children who refuse to sleep in their rooms and do not feel safe in their own home and is also why our December class schedule was delayed as they stole my home computer before I had a chance to download my schedule so I had to redo everything.
Again, my apologies. I will remove Connor until I hear back further.
However, our classes sell out quickly so if you do not want him on the class roster for the 22nd or 23rd I cannot guarantee class availability for the month of December.
Please let me know.
Thank you and Happy Holidays!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
I waited until the next morning (12 hours) and at 8:40am on Wednesday Dec 8th I sent this:
I am truly sorry for the difficult time you have been facing and can completely relate. Perhaps my own trials of late can shed perspective into why my knee jerk reaction is to be sensitive–I wont bore you with them in an email but if you want the insight, they are on our blog which is linked below, just know that yesterday I got a call from our vet letting us know that the cremated remains of our beloved family pet were ready for pick up, so we are in the same world of sadness as far as that is concerned-
I shared the typo with you in the first place for several reasons–
1-I know how difficult it can be to attract new customers and I recognize the power of a good website and good social media marketing -when I come across a good program/business that is (for the lack of better phrasing) “struggling” in the website and social media realm and I can see obvious reasons why- I know that I would want others to point out the flaws to help my business.
When I say “struggling” in the website department I just mean that I found it very difficult to even find the class schedule on the website in the first place -it took many clicks, through many pages of material and then I had to search for the pdf link within text to get to it–so I was already semi frustrated after many clicks through a confusing site–when I opened the schedule, I had expected to see a “calendar” type layout, but instead was met with the current format of listing by date and days of the week, which to be honest is very confusing and not intuitive to understand. It is also much easier to have something like a simple 1 digit typo set off an entire string of misunderstandings. This is just some insight from a customer–I am a very proficient web user, so if I found it difficult I assume others have also been met with the same frustration, so thats where the feedback comes from. please take it or leave it for what it is worth.
If there is still space for 2 boys for Thursday, 12/23 Jr. Chef from 4-5:30 p.m I would very much like my sons to attend.
Thank you,
Jessie Geroux
at 3:40pm that next afternoon, someone visited my blog and arrived via webmail.youngchefsacademy.com
Today- 11 ENTIRE DAYS LATER I get this email:
Unfortunately all of our Jr Chef classes have sold out so I am unable to accommodate your request this month. January’s schedule will be downloaded to our website by Monday.
So of course I, who can not let ANYthing go, sit here tonight STEWING- I am stewing because that was the ultimate “F You” and companies that relish in giving their customers “f yous” need to have that reputation spread far and wide.
And while my meager blog may not be very far or wide reaching, it will get shared at least 1 person will read it and I will be able to move past this and not dwell on it because it is now off of my chest.
Thank you Blog
Editted to add the link to my Yelp review of Young Chef’s Academy of Chandler