Lindsey’s Daily Deal: There’s Nothing We Can Do, The Sad Beauty of a Plastic Bag and Hit the Slide

By Lindsey Campbell, Captains of Industry

Hey Captains’ readers,

Here’s your Wednesday Deal:

1. There’s nothing we can do

This is a phrase that anyone in customer service dreams of saying, but would never dare utter. (Actually, most of us, with enough time and the right kind of customer, can dream of something far more colorful to say, but that’s a different blog post.) Why? Because the customer is ALWAYS right.

In my waitressing days, I had to do things that were beyond comprehension for guests. I held umbrellas over their heads on their way to their cars during a torrential thunderstorm. I drove to the nearest liquor store to get someone’s favorite wine because the bar didn’t have it. I even baby-sat their children while they drank their dinner even though I had 4 other tables to serve and cocktailing duty. Did I WANT to do all these things? Absolutely not. Did I do them anyway? Yes, unfortunately, I did.

Being in the customer service biz can be tough. But at the end of the day, no matter how crazy, strange or idiotic you think a customer is, you still have to put on a smile and do everything in your power to make them comfortable and happy. Which brings me to a little tale I’d like to call, “The Leaky Ceiling.”

According to Edward Boches of Creativity Unbound, his stay at a Marriott Hotel last night (yes, literally LAST night) was more than bad. Not only did Boches have to deal with an endlessly leaky ceiling, but an unaccommodating staff as well. During the middle of the night, Boches just couldn’t take the dripping any longer, and decided to call the concierge. After listening to Boches’ complaint, the Marriott employee that answered simply said, “We’re sorry, the hotel is totally booked. There’s nothing we can do.”

Whoa, whoa, whoa. If I have to stand outside in a thunderstorm with a metal umbrella and a white polo, you have to find this guy another place to sleep.

Not only was Boches peeved, but he wrote about his experience on his blog. Right now, 14 people have commented and 19 people have tweeted this story, and I’d also like to note that not one of them is a Marriott representative. In today’s world, EVERY company has to be the best waitress ever. What do I mean by that? Well, you need to monitor what people are saying about you so you can fix it before 14 bad comments become 14,000. It just goes to show how important it is to make each and every one of your customers happy. Or at least TRY to.

What have you done in the name of customer service?

2. The sad beauty of the plastic bag

Other than the opening of “American Beauty,” what’s the first thing you think of when you see a plastic bag rolling around like a tumbleweed across a parking lot? For me, it’s the word, “pathetic.” I just can’t understand why people would think that there won’t be any negative ramifications to the disgusting amount of plastic we use everyday. And I’m not the only one. In his latest post on Make the Logo Bigger, Bill Green commented on DDB’s new “mockumentary” called, “The Majestic Plastic Bag” for Heal the Bay, a nonprofit environmental organization located in California. The four-minute video is done Nat-Geo style and traces the plastic bag from its first leap out of someone’s trunk to its perilous journey to The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The video itself is funny, but in a desperately sad sort of way. And watching the park-goers and various pedestrians ignore its majestic flight above their heads is even more depressing than its swim to its final destination.

In the words of the great Bill Green, “Let’s open that shit up and make it a national issue.”

What do you think of this web video?

3. Hit the Slide: To quit one’s job in truly stunning fashion

You know you’ve made it when you inspire a word or phrase that’s put into the Urban Dictionary.

Last Friday, I told you all about how Steve Slater, former JetBlue flight attendant, quit his job by grabbing a beer and escaping a (grounded) plane via inflatable slide. Well, this week he’s more than an American hero, he’s an advertising star just waiting to be born.

Briskman Stanfield of Beyond Madison Avenue comments in his latest post that the social media rooms are “abuzz” about Slater and predicts that it won’t be long until creative directors everywhere begin contacting him to star in their campaigns. I’m thinking the product range might be anything between beer and Slip n’ Slides.

Why are agencies eyeing Slater like a juicy steak fresh off the grill? Because capitalizing on what’s popular in the social media world is so damn tempting. After all, it’s impossible to predict what people are going to love or hate these days. And with the overwhelming support and props Slater’s gotten for his stunt, using him in a campaign might just be a slam-dunk.

The question is, who’ll bite first?

Until tomorrow,

Captain Lindsey