Restaurants Some Good and Some Bad!

I am sure we all have our favorite restaurants. They may offer great food, terrific value, friendly staff and atmosphere and of course convenience. Living in New Jersey, just 35 miles to the Big Apple has given me an opportunity to check out some of the best the East Coast has to offer. Add to this the fact that I am a photojournalist and my wife owns a travel agency and you can add many other opportunities to the list of establishments I have eaten in.

So you may ask, why am I writing this blog...well, over the past few months two of these restaurants stand out in my mind as the complete opposites and I wanted to share my opinions with my readers.

One of the best local restaurants I go to is called Houlihan's of Leawood, Kansas and has been in operation since 1972. They are one of 81 around the country and this particular store located in Holmdel, New Jersey is part of the A.C.E. Restaurant Group one of Houlihan's New Jersey franchise owner companies. Arnold Runestad president of ACE now has 13 locations in operation in our state with 10 more on the way and is now looking to expand into other geographic areas.

You can read more about Houlihan's by clicking here.

Now Houlihan's is one of the best casual dining restaurants we have dined in and we love to go back to our Holmdel, NJ location often. There menu is full of wonderful choices and I tend to be a picky eater, so this down home restaurant has many dishes I love. Some of my favorites include their Lettuce Wraps, Spinach Dip with Cheesy Lavosh, or their Blackened Chicken and Caramelized Onion Quesadilla for starters, and a hot bowl of their wonderful Baked Potato Soup which I order every time I go there. I like a soup that is thick and filled with goodies and I can tell you this soup will never disappoint you.

As far as their main dishes go, once again I love their Chicken Asian Chop Chop salad and usually order one and share it with my wife (they are huge) and then order either their Grilled Rosemary Chicken, Down Home Pot Roast, Blackened Chicken in a Spicy Cream Sauce over Pasta and a special dinner combo we order from time to time that comes on a huge platter with their Baby Back Ribs, Rosemary Chicken and their wonderful fried Shrimp (all this under $20). Since we often share this dish, we ask them to split it

Their entrees and a salad or appetizer should be shared , because they offer great food and true value to their customers. I won't go into their desserts, but let me tell you that if you do share dishes you can order one and once again, one is enough for two.

Now, why do we love Houlihan's? Well not only is the food my kind of food, the atmosphere is warm and friendly, their staff is exceptional and their manager Mr. Alfredo Rivera is one of the best we have seen anywhere. On occasion things may not go as planned. We might end up with poor service (it can happen anywhere), but rest assured if Mr. Rivera is there , he will come to your aide. He knows just the right things to say, will offer you a complimentary item to make up for your problem and make sure you are satisfied with the resolution and want to come back again and again.

My personal thanks to Alfredo Rivera for always showing us his special kind of hospitality. How can you tell who he is at the restaurant. Simply look for the hardest working man there. He might be showing you to a table or even serving you at a table, when his wait staff is short or in trouble. I have seen him clean off dishes from tables as well. Yes, boys and girls, he is a manager and a hard working one too.

Houlihan's is our top neighborhood pick and the best of the lot (Chili's, TGI Fridays, Olive Garden, Macaroni Grill, Charlie Brown's). Now if all of the above makes you want to visit your local Houlihan's, I have one other Bonus suggestion. Complete the service questionnaire that they put on each table. Make sure to include your birthday, anniversary and your email address. On your special day, you will get an email mail with a gift of a free entree or a free dessert and their are no strings attached.

We tend to order their huge entree with the ribs, chicken and shrimp, share it and the total bill comes to $0.00...you heard me, if you don't order anything else, there is no charge. No restaurant I have ever gone to will give you a free anything if you don't buy something else. Of course we order a soup, some drinks so our last bill on my wife's birthday came to around $5 and change with the tax. By the way, no sharing charges ever, and if you tell them you are going to share a dish, they will break it up in the kitchen, make sure you both have plenty of potato's on each dish and serve it to you. These shared dishes are usually bigger then most restaurants serve as a single order.

Note: Read a full review with photos of Houlihan's at our International Press web site.

So now that we know about Houlihan's and their good food, value priced menu and excellent service, lets look at one of the worst I had the displeasure to visit.

The Okeechobee Steak House in West Palm Beach, Florida is a restaurant that I had the misfortune to go to because of a recommendation from another couple that now live in Florida. Here is something I found on the net that gives you a bit of their history:

Open since 1947, Curtis and Jeannie Lewis have earned the right to call their restaurant a "classic American steakhouse." They cut and dry age all USDA prime and certified Angus beef on the premises. Come for the beef, not the sides, some of which could use updating...

So let me tell you what I hated about this restaurant...everything...

The place was so old and crummy that it looked like an old bar with very old wooden benched booths and old decor, tables and chairs. They were smart enough to keep the lights low or you would have walked out when you saw their menu and prices. I gasped when I saw most entrees ran from $25-$40 or more and they came with virtually nothing other then the main dish. Not being a big steak eater, I knew I was in the wrong place, but with any good steak house like Ruth's Chris, Morton's, Smith and Wollensky or others, you might pay these prices, but they are clean, modern, beautiful restaurants with exceptional service and food. I can tell you that the Okeechobee Steak House is not in this class at all, yet their prices are.

After looking at their prices and their lack of selection, I decided to just write off this one and ordered a $14 hamburger, thinking that at least it would be the best burger on the block for $14. They proved me wrong here too. I asked what came with the burger and was told I could have a potato or vegetable so I opted for a baked potato. I asked if they could put some onions on the grill for me so I could put it on the burger...my friend pointed out they charge $4 for fried onions. I asked if they could just put a slice on the grill for the burger and I didn't want a side dish. The waitress said she would ask.

My wife ended up ordering a fish dish and shared it and the pork chops that my friends wife ordered. I believe the two chops were $28, nothing special here and way overpriced considering none of these dishes included a trip to their shameful and sparse salad bar. Most salad bars are an exciting excursion and usually contain tons of fresh vegetables and some have fruit and nuts (Charlie Brown has a great salad bar), but not this one. Ice Berg Lettuce and a few other items and that was I believe $4.99 extra...can you believe their nerve.

So we passed on the salads, not worth $1.99, got the 1/4 pound dried out hamburger with a crummy small baked potato, nothing else on the dish except some lettuce, tomato and onion on the burger. Now remember, I asked the waitress to have them simply put the onion on the grill, right...well they wouldn't do it. The hamburger bun was nothing special and worse then a McDonald's bun. I think my wife had a glass of wine, the other couple had two drinks too. The check came to around $150 for the 4 of us and I ended up paying $57 including my tip for me and my wife. She had one pork chop, small piece of fish, I had a terrible burger, no ambiance at all, uncomfortable chairs and to top it off, I had to have them valet my car, because their lot was too small to park my own, so of course I had to tip just to get my car.

Now don't get me wrong. If I go to a nice restaurant, I expect to pay for their overhead, their decor, their exclusive location, their exceptional service and great food, but how in the world can this joint get away with this, I wondered. I figured they have to be living off the old customers, that for some reason, have remained loyal. I just can't imagine anyone in their right minds going there and enjoying their dining experience. After all how many people can sit down and eat a 38 ounce steak today, unless they were from the old world and didn't have to worry about eating this much poison in one sitting or paying $50+ by the end of the meal.

I give the Okeechobee Steak House my "Hall of Shame" rating for poor decor and atmosphere, inferior salad bar, overpriced menu, poor sides, and very poor value for the food they serve.

Oh, I forgot to mention, they wanted a $7.50 sharing charge if you wanted to share that huge steak...how is that for Chutzpah!

You know, I now realize why many of the independent restaurants have been unable to compete with the national chains...they just can't compete any longer when it comes for consistency in their menu, value, decor, professional staff and learning the proper way to treat their customers ... No Grilled onion, plate share charge, over priced salad bar and not included in their expensive entrees...Forget visiting this "Landmark Restaurant", their time has come and gone and they should sell out to the next developer that offers them a few bucks for their location.

Safeguard Self Storage 180º Turnaround from Bad To Great

Please read my updated comments now...Ben Martin is the current facility manager and is a prince among men. This man couldn't be nicer and as a result we are still with Safeguard and have expanded our space to a full 20X20 foot location. The turn around is 180 degrees for this facility and I would gladly recommend it now for your storage needs....8/22/2007.

We have also been informed of the passing of Rob. He was a very young man and unfortunately passed away. I was told that his death might have been caused by medication he had been taking which created the wild mood swings he exhibited. I want to express my deepest sympathies to his family and friends for their loss of this very young man, who went before his time...12/28/2007

I am leaving this story on my blog to illustrate how companies handle their customers and how you might want to handle issues you have with companies. I hope this doesn't show my lack of respect for Rob's family, but I believe it is important to understand how some medication can in fact cause individuals to act irrationally and as in this case even cause death.

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I have spent the better portion of my life in people oriented positions which included being the owner of an executive search firm a sales and marketing manager in the women's clothing industry, and the owner of a licensed movie apparel company working with leading film studios. I also spent 7 years as a marketing and corporate communications consultant to one of the largest east coast parking companies in the country and many years as a consultant and writer. Currently I am busy running a 400 member organization which I founded called International Press Association. IPA is a web based organization made up of members of the media, photographers and journalist and has become a well respected international organization.

The reason for the brief bio is to let you know that all of my career positions were based on my people skills and understanding of how to motivate individuals to either do their jobs better or to convince people or companies to purchase my companies goods or services. I have been very successful in all of these career and personal choices and one only has to read the articles on my IPA web site or this blog to see I have a keen understanding of how a company and their employees should treat their customers.

A couple of years ago I had to rent some space in a local storage facility Safeguard Self Storage in Holmdel, NJ. At that time I had an incident where the local site manager accidentally closed the bay doors as I was backing in and by the time the doors sensor realized it hit the roof of my car and began to go up, damage was done to the roof rack of my SUV and to the top of my car.

I had to shame this company to pay for the damage done to the car and finally, after numerous attempts, settled for a small allowance against my monthly rent. I didn't want to get the manager in trouble so, I didn't make a big deal out of this and moved on. I left Safeguard when my needs for space ceased and later found out the manager, I was trying to protect, allegedly entered customers rented spaces and helped himself to some of their belongings. This came to my attention when reading an article in our local paper. I was surprised to see this, since he seemed to be a nice guy.

This year my son moved back to New York from Florida and needed a storage facility while he looked for an apartment in New York City. I shopped around for him and called Safeguard again thinking they were a nice, clean place and would offer us a competitive price for the space. They offered me a decent deal on a 20'X20' space and I ended up taking one in the middle of August with a move in date of September 1, 2006.

My son arrived in New Jersey and began to move his belongings into Safeguard and soon found out he needed more space. It was necessary to now take another 10'X10' space to supplement the first one. Of course the cost of the smaller space was much more expensive per square foot, then the larger space, but we felt it wouldn't matter since it was only a temporary situation. After all with the first month free it wouldn't be that bad.

We thought we would keep the 20X20 when my son moved into his apartment and give up the 10X10, but as it turned out, we were able to get his remaining items, after his move to New York, into the 10X10 space. Of course we were paying approximately 50% per square foot more for this small space, over what we paid for the larger space, but it was still going to be less each month then keeping the 20X20. We really had no choice now so we stayed with Safeguard. There goes the competitive pricing we got only 2 months before on the larger space.

The manager of Safeguard Holmdel is a young man named Rob. Rob is one of those guys that likes to play bully, you know the type, the Alpha Male. I understand from Rob, that he once managed a health club and had a number of other jobs in his young career, which is not really something I would be bragging about. Now he sits in a storage facility all day...from his list of jobs, it didn't seem like a lot of great career choices to me, but who am I to pass judgement. The only reason I mention this is to show his arrogance, which you will understand, as you finish reading this article.

Let me give you a little profile of Rob and his lack of people skills. One day my son forgot the key to his facility and asked if he could borrow the snips to cut it off. Rob informed him he couldn't let him use it and there was a $10 fee to cut the lock off. Now I understand this may be a company policy, but don't you think that either Rob or Safeguard should try to accommodate their customers especially on something so trivial? Rob was extremely rude and made what could have been a very simple thing into an adversarial situation. My son called me, I drove down with my snips and cut if off myself in 5 seconds.

At the same time my son needed to use their rest room and Rob refused to let him use it and told him it was out of order, again this could have been the case, but in both situations that day, Rob was not pleasant and was quite rude to my son. When I arrived at Safeguard to cut the lock, I thought Rob was just having a bad day, so I went to introduce myself to Rob. I decided to give Rob a nice Lenox China Christmas Salt and Pepper shaker set, as a gift (retail value $22). I was going to store these in my son's space, because I had bought a number of Lenox Holiday items at the Lenox outlet store that I was going to sell on eBay for Christmas. I thought by extending my hand of friendship and my token of good will, I would at least warm Rob up and just maybe, he would begin to treat my son a bit nicer then he had. I soon found out that was my mistake.

Now remember, that rate we first got on the 20X20 space, which now became a higher rate on the smaller space, became even more expensive. We received a notification that we would now have to pay a new 7% state tax which was being imposed on rent at these facilities. OK, we understand this happens when state government passes new laws, but how about the additional increase of another $10.70 each month, that Safeguard now added to this account as of January 1st, because their costs increased. I suppose on a month to month lease, the consumer has few rights to object to these increase and our rent increased another 15% or more between the tax and the Safeguard increase.

Once you have loaded all your items into a storage unit, it is very hard to move. That is why these places offer a free month, they know that most customers who believe they will only need storage for a couple of months actually stay a year or longer. Unless you want to pay for a truck rental and spend a day moving from one place to another, you stay where you are and they know it. Now remember, all these increases happened to us, in just about a 4 month period.

When we signed the lease and I paid the first month with my credit card and possibly the second month too, not sure, we asked Safeguard to bill my son's credit card for the rent each of the following months. For some reason December's charge didn't go through and we discovered the reason was that Rob at Safeguard forgot to include the 3 or 4 digit security code when entering the information. Of course Rob sent us a letter that the card was rejected and we had 3 days to call them and make the payment or we would incur a $10 late fee. I thought this was a bit harsh, but my son called, discovered the problem and while I was there with him, gave them the security code and information they needed for future charges. We thought there would not be any further issues.

Once again this month I received a notice from Rob at Safeguard dated 1/2/07. The notice explained that the credit card company declined the charge again and if they didn't receive payment by the close of 1/6 a late fee of $10 would be added to our account. The letter arrived in my home on January 4th. Since Safeguard is located near my home in New Jersey and my son is now in NYC, I called him to let him know there was a problem again. He told me he would call and was sure that once again, they forgot to include the security code when applying the charge to his account.



Today, I received another letter from Rob at Safeguard dated 1/4 (only 2 days after the first notice) that they have now charged my son's account the $10 late fee because the payment was not received. How could they charge a late fee when the first letter clearly stated that the fee would not be imposed before 1/6? It further stated that if payment was sent for the original amount that we should add the $10 late fee to next months payment. Now as you read this I am sure you can understand my outrage at these dunning letters. They didn't wait until 1/6 to impose the fee, they sent the notice with the late fee on 1/4 only two days after the first notice. Most companies would either mail you a polite notice, or call you and give you some time to contact them or make the payment, Rob at Safeguard did not.



Some companies have a policy to charge your card on file a week before the payment is actually due or will mail a rent notice out a couple of weeks in advance, so if there were any problems you still had time to correct them. I have never seen any company or any individual, in all the years I have been in business, or in my personal dealings, charge a late fee after two days after notification of a problem. Personally I have never paid any bills late, have an A+++ credit rating and don't owe anything to anyone, my credit rating is around 780 out of a high possible score of 850, Rob bragged he had a credit score of 800, see what I mean about being an Alpha Male. By the way their web site claims they have easy payment options and automatic credit card billing...as you can see their payment option is not so easy.

I assumed my son already called and got this matter cleared up but because of the second letter I decided to call Rob myself and find out why he had issued a second collection letter only 2 days after the first letter and only 4 days into the beginning of the month. He once again was short with me, told me that my son had called yesterday with another credit card and the matter was now resolved. When I asked why he sent out the second letter only two days after the first, he told me that he sends out the second letter 5 days after the first one...but as you can see from the scanned letter above, the first one was dated 1/2/07 and the second one went out on 1/4/07 that is 2 days by my count.

As I discussed their procedure and how it was a bit harsh and wouldn't build customer loyalty, he seemed to care less. I further explained that this was simply a credit card issue and not a case of a dead beat, he replied that this was the second time it had happened as if to say "We are Dead-Beats". I was a bit in shock but still kept my cool and tried to reason with Rob. Now remember the first time they forgot to put in the security code, the card was good, it was their error, not ours that the card was declined. We even came in to the facility in person to correct the problem and make sure that had what they needed to charge the rent each month. When I asked Rob why their was a problem, he said it never happens on other cards, but on their system it some how didn't save the security code on his card and it was rejected...I really think they might have just written the wrong code down in their records because the card is fine when used anywhere else.

I asked him why he just didn't call us to ask for a new card or for payment and he told me he doesn't have the time because he sends out 500 invoices each month. I seriously doubted this is really a problem because he also told me he as at least 8 problems like this a month. I had suggested it might be better to simply make the calls or even send out an email to those customers it would take less time then mailing the notices and would be a more efficient and friendly want to deal with any credit card problems. He once again seemed annoyed by my comments and suggestions on the proper procedure to deal with his customers. He told me he didn't have Internet access so he couldn't send out email notifications, another one of my suggestions. He explained that Safeguard would shut off the access to their facilities except when they had to do some company business. He also said he personally felt insulted because he is a manager and should have the access all the time. He further explained that he likes to receive his Sirius Radio over the net because he can't get decent reception because of all the steel in the facility. He told me how he wanted to listen to Howard Stern on Sirius Radio and couldn't...I could have guessed this has to be a Howard Stern fan...remember he is the typical Alpha Male.

I once again tried to explain that I have spent years as a consultant to Kinney Parking Systems in New York and this was a similar business to his. We had to rent space each month in our facilities as they did in theirs. I told him that at Kinney, I would go out of my way to satisfy a customer and even had a company newsletter that I wrote and produced that was distributed to our customers. The newsletter was geared to offer customers benefits and savings and always had my direct phone number so customers could call me directly with their concerns. It was the only way I could tell what was broken and what I needed to fix at Kinney. That input was valuable and I encouraged our customers to contact me.

Rob the AM, continued to be rude. He basically told me that he too had years of great business experience (remember he managed a health club) and thanked me sarcastically for telling him how to do his job, yes he really said that, I couldn't believe it, but it is true. I had previously told him I was a journalist, gave him the URL of my web site and told him I write many different articles including some about companies that just don't treat customers correctly. He told me that he hoped I wouldn't write about him, well Rob, you earned this article.

I tried very hard to be pleasant and professional and continued to explain how these letters and his actions would only cause his company to truly piss customers off, he basically told me to mind my own business. At that point I decided it was a losing battle and said good-bye.

I will send a letter to Safeguard corporate or a link to this blog and see how they respond. I have a feeling from my past experience with Safeguard that companies that hire people like Rob or the last guy who was convicted of stealing customers property, often are not aware of these problems. One of my friends told me years ago that "when you see a company with poor customer service or management, you can be sure that the Head of the Fish Stinks" this meant, that when the head of a company is bad, it filters down, or stinks, from the head of that fish down to the tail or the lowest employee. Of course I can be wrong, after all Safeguard states on the web that "We guarantee your complete satisfaction every single day." so we will see if they actually can live up to their companies tag line.

When I think of companies that go the extra mile with exceptional customer service, I think of, Costco, Ben & Jerry's, Nordstroms, HearX to name a few. I am sure you can add to this list, there are so many companies that just know how to treat and appreciate their customers.

Rob, you are the tail of the Safeguard fish and Rob you stink. I only hope that the head of your company is simply unaware of your actions and would never condone them if he knew how you bully their customers and are bitter because you can't listen to Stern on the radio. Stay tuned to this blog and I will report their response to my letter.

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1/30/2007

Update on letter sent to Ken Finlay, President Safeguard Self Storage - 3350 Peachtree St. - Atlanta, GA 30326

On January 12th, I sent a cover letter to Mr. Finlay to explain my background and the reason for writing a letter directly to him regarding this situation. I enclosed copies of the invoices and notices I received from the Holmdel facility and a copy of this blog posting.

To date, I have not received a reply, either by phone or in the mail from Mr. Finlay's office. I can only conclude Mr. Finlay did not want to comment on my concerns and condones the actions of his Holmdel manager. So once again we find that the saying "The fish usually stinks from the head down" might be a true statement in this particular case.

It would seem strange to me that Mr. Finlay wouldn't want to address this matter since bad publicity can cost them new customers, especially if one is on the net and does a google search of "Safeguard Self Storage - Holmdel, NJ". Do it and see what comes up. The first match is their listing for the facility with contact information and the second listing is this blog. I would think, based on this alone, they might want to correct the problem or at least have the decency to answer my letter.

This appears to be another company that doesn't deliver what they promise.

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Letter of Appreciation 32 Years Later...

My father is nearing his 93rd birthday and I had to clean out some of his old papers and personal items when I moved him to a new assisted living facility. He has a small stack of papers with a rubber band around them and I began to look through them. Some were old legal papers, birth certificate and other assorted papers that no longer were needed, but in the stack there were two sheets that caught my attention.

The first was a Letter sent to one of my fathers companies dated January 30, 1974 from a customer who was looking for a new Condo in Florida and happened to meet my father the sales manager at that time of "Lime Bay" a new condo development.

I have scanned this letter so you can read it here.


Although it might be a bit hard to read here, the letter deals with how pleasant and professional my father was to this customer. Now remember this letter was one of two I found in my fathers only personal papers and he kept this one for 32 years.

The other paper I mentioned was one he received from one of the companies he worked for and acknowledged him as being the first salesman to reach the million dollar mark selling mutual funds. This too was dated or or around the mid 1960's.

So the next time you meet someone that does their job well or goes out of their way to help you, take the time to write a letter to their employer and let them know about their exceptional staff.

You letter can also end up being the one they save and cherish as my father did his.

A Simple Compliment To An Employee Can Make A Difference

Many of us go through our lives doing what we do each day and the only recognition for a job well done is a pay check. I used to have a boss that would never give you a pat on your back for a good job. He used to say "the pat on the back is that you still have this job and you get paid each week".

This type of boss, doesn't know how important that little thank you or recognition can be to an employee. When people discuss a good boss, you will always hear things like, he is understanding, supportive, appreciates what I do and "I would do anything for this man/ woman, he is such a good boss".

So if you are an employer, learn this important lesson, people need to be acknowledged when they do a good job. It doesn't mean you have to begin to hang the "Employee of the Month" plague on the wall, but it does mean that a simple, "Job Well Done" or "Thanks, you did a great job and I really appreciate it" can go a long way in building a strong relationship between you and your employees. Treat them fairly and acknowledge them and you will find the rewards are far more then offering them a few dollar raise.

Today there is so much pressure on all of us that these simple acts of kindness and appreciation can make the difference in a persons life. Don't think about it, do it, you will be surprised how this Good Karma will come back to you many times over.

Reply From HearX President

Please read the cordial reply from Dr. Paul A. Brown, Chairman of HEARx

Let me reprint the second paragraph of this letter for you:

"That is why we are particularly pleased to receive such kind words as yours. We join you, by copy of this letter, in praising Robert who truly exemplifies the HEARx commitment to quality patient care and satisfaction"

A copy of his letter was sent to Robert Rosengarten the individual I was impressed with and wrote about and his regional manager.

Now you understand how important it is to send a letter to a company president when one of his employees impresses you or extends himself and shows he has exceeded your expectations of what you would expect him to do.

I feel as strongly about writing a nice letter as I do a complaint. Both have their place and both alert a company to the good and bad individuals in their employ. It also doesn't hurt your chances of getting exceptional VIP treatment the next time you have to go into the store or use their services.

A few important points in writing a complimentary letter

1. When an employee extends themselves to you and you want to show your appreciation let them know you would like to write a letter to their employer and find out who the president or senior executive is of their company.
   
   
2. Ask them to supply the proper name and address for you to write to. In some cases they may offer you a comment card. Make sure you copy the information from the card and write a letter which has more weight then completing the card.
   
   
3. Make a note of the particulars of the incident...flight number, date, time and other specifics. This will be important when writing your letter.
   
   
4. Once again stick to the facts and keep the story as short as you can but still tell your story.
   
   
5. By all means compliment the company and the executive you are writing to to let them know that you understand that having such a wonderful employee is a a direct result of their efforts in hiring and training their employees.
   
   I have also found that certain companies care about their customers and their employees show it, while others are owned or run by executives that are arrogant and believe the customer is never right and it shows when dealing with their employees.
   
   You can see from Dr. Browns reply that he is a gentleman as was his employee and it is his ultimate direction to his staff that helps them hire the type of individuals that can help them run a successful business and keep their company strong.

I hope this helps my readers in composing their own letters. I can tell you that I get a proud feeling when I know that in some small way I was able to put a smile on a good guy or gals face at the end of the day. By letting them know that some of us, do appreciate their hard work it can make their day. Wouldn't you smile too if someone you dealt with told you how good you are or how they appreciated working with you? How often do you tell a waiter or waitress how you appreciated their good service (aside from a good tip, which they might not even look at).

Try this simple experiment...the next time anyone in a store, on a plane in a restaurant or even someone performing a service for you, impresses you, verbally let them know it. Watch their face and see how good you will feel doing it.

Watch for information and links to my "Bad Boys" web site. You won't believe what I did to expose some of the worst on the net.

Len

How To Write A Complimentary Letter

Read a letter sent to the President of one of the largest hearing aid retail companies in the US.
This letter was written on my company stationary. As president of IPA, I felt sending a letter from one corporate head to another would be the correct approach.

November 28, 2005

Dr. Paul A. Brown
President
HearUSA
1250 Northpoint Parkway
West Palm Beach, FL 33407-1912

Dear Dr. Brown;

I wanted to write to you to let you know about your exceptional audiologist Mr. Robert Rosengarten who helped my 91 year old father correct some issues with a new pair of Siemens digital hearing aids we purchased at another one of your locations. Mr. Rosengarten who is located at your Monmouth Mall location in Eatontown, New Jersey did more for us in the one visit then a number of visits at two of your other locations.

My dad originally resided in Deerfield Beach, Florida and was moved north to stay with my family in Long Island, New York. The first set of hearing aids we purchased had to be returned to the Florida store because we just couldn’t get them to fit or work correctly. Part of the problem, I am sure, was the limited time he still had in Florida before the move to New York and not having family in Florida to help him with the hearing aids and the problems.

We ended up returning these hearing aids purchased in Florida (that didn’t seem to do the job) and purchased a more expensive and supposedly more powerful set of Siemens Prisma 2 P BTE in the Glen Cove, Long Island store. We also had issues with these, regarding the fit and the correct adjustment for optimum hearing and were tempted to simply return these for a refund as well.

My father came to visit me for the Holiday week (I live in New Jersey) and I decided to take one more shot and scheduled an appointment at your Eatontown store where, Mr. Rosengarten works. Mr. Rosengarten is a warm and friendly gentleman with a great deal of patience. This and his professional expertise helped my father (who was not able to hear a thing) with these Siemen hearing aids. Through a number of tweaks on the computer and verbal tests, he helped my father gain some of this lost hearing. Although, we know it will never be back to what it was and we still might have to go back for some more adjustments, for now my father can take part in conversations and will not feel as desolate and isolated as he had been before.

I would like to thank you and your staff at this time for employing staff like Mr. Rosengarten and wish your company continued success and a happy holiday season.

Sincerely,



Leonard Rapoport
President

International Press Association

See his answer to this letter in my next post...

6 Tips To Writing A Winning Complaint Letter

Many years ago I read a book that was a tutorial on how to write letters to corporate executives and actually get them to read them. The trick was to order and use the engraved stationary from Tiffany because, their stationary was watermarked with the Tiffany name and was quite impressive to the recipient. Remember, 20-30 years ago Tiffany was known for their beautiful engraved personal stationary items and usually purchased by those that had good taste and a good bank account. Today, I believe you can only purchase their over-the-counter stationary items because they no longer print this custom stationary.

The concept of using their stationary is quite ingenious. You see most key executives receive tons of mail and have their staff sort through it for them. Only those letters that appear to be important or of a personal nature written by the execs wealthy friends, would ever make it to the executives desk. When you address the envelope, you always address it to the executive, c/o of the company and mark "Personal" on the outside. Because the envelopes have your engraved name and address on them and the quality of the paper is of course Tiffany quality, the secretary will put this on the executives desk "unopened" thinking you are a personal friend of their boss. Once the exec opens your letter and looks and feels the impressive and expensive stationary, they will read it and in all my cases using this stationary, I have received replies.


I can tell you the last time I wrote a letter on my engraved stationary it was to report a manager of a local movie theater to the head of his company...Shari Redstone. Shari is Sumner Redstone's (CEO and controlling shareholder in Viacom and the man that fired Tom Cruise) daughter and a key executive who's day-to-day task is to guide their National Amusements theater chain. With some 1,500 screens and more than $500 million in revenues Shari is guiding them through the toughest patch in the industry's recent memory.

But with all she has to do each day, this intelligent and caring woman took the time to cordially answer my letter and then took the necessary action to correct the problems I had described in my letter.

Without getting into too much detail here is the story...

The manager of our local NA Multiplex theater was acting in a rude and unprofessional manner and was in fact a bully. One evening I had decided to venture out with my wife to see a movie. I had a torn Achilles tendon and in a cast and on crutches. We were waiting on line outside the theater, in the lobby area, while they cleaned it for the next showing. As we and about 80 other patrons waited to go in, I asked if I could get a head start to the seat before the crowd trampled me. After all the theater seats around 300 and it wasn't as if I wanted a special seat.

He actually refused my request and explained it wouldn't be fair to the others. Now you know that folks that are handicapped, elderly or in need of additional time to reach a seat are always afforded this simple courtesy. The people around me that heard him, couldn't believe it and were in shock, yet he still refused. This was only one of the poor decision's we witnessed this man making.

There was no question in my mind that a letter was due and who else should receive my letter then Shari Redstone.

I knew from my own experience as a marketing executive that companies want to know what they are doing wrong so they can make adjustments when necessary. Companies spend tons of money running focus groups to determine what we think about them...so I was sure a well written letter on my fancy stationary would receive an answer.

A couple of weeks later I did receive a reply directly from Ms. Redstone and it couldn't have been more cordial. I was told this matter would be reported to the local Regional Manager for action and he would contact me within a couple of weeks. Shari even invited me to write back to her to inform her of the resolution to this problem.

The regional manager had not contacted me as promised by Ms. Redstone and after waiting almost two months I wrote a follow-up letter to Ms. Redstone to thank her for her letter and concern and to inform her that I was never contacted by her regional manager.

In less then one week after my follow-up letter, the regional manager's secretary contacted me to let me know he was on the road and would call me soon. He contacted me a day or so later, apologized profusely and explained what course of action would be taken regarding the manager.

He offered me a number of free passes to the National Amusement theaters, which I refused. You see it wasn't about compensation, I explained, it was about letting people know that they are accountable for their actions. He insisted I accept the free passes and I did and a few days later received about 20 or so which we used over the next few months.

The manager was ordered to attend a course in "People Skills" and is a born again gentleman who now takes great steps to endear himself with his patrons. Each time we go to this theater, the manager gets up at the front of the audience with his megaphone to welcome and thank us for attending his theater. He even explains a bit about the making of the movies or runs trivia contests to keep us entertained until the movie begins.

I think my letter of complaint in this case has had a very positive effect on all of the customers that attend the movies shown in this Multiplex theater and a positive effect on the manager who is now a better person and one that does his job the way it should have been done.

Here are six key tips on writing an effective complaint:

1. Purchase that expensive, engraved stationary, from any upscale company that watermarks the paper with their name.
   
   
2. Do your research on the net and find out who the top person is at the company you want to write and address the letter to them.
   
   
3. Keep the letter as short as you can, but do explain the facts, accurately to them in your letter.
   
   
4. If you can, give them your recommended solution to the problem. In this case I clearly explained that this manager needed to improve his "People Skills". I did not ask them to fire him or demote him, just to send him for training.
   
   
5. Don't get angry in the letter or you will lose their interest and they will simply think you are another nut case writing one of these letters.
   
   
6. Be clear, accurate and professional...do not become emotional in your letter.

I have used my Tiffany Stationary now over the past 25 years about 2 dozen times and each time I have had amazing results. At the time I paid about $100 or so for a few hundreds sheets and matching envelopes, but that was 20 years ago or longer. I figured it cost me around $1-$3 or so for each letter I had to send, but I can assure you it was well worth it. Over the years I have received thousands of dollars in compensation and free gifts from companies and all of this was deserved, but would never have happened if I didn't take the time to write my letters on my engraved stationary.

Watch for more success stories, coming soon.

Len