Written by jbisenius on February 21st, 2010
In order to simplify my parents’ lives, I decided to investigate options for locks to the house that required only 1 key, rather than several different ones. That is when I decided to call several shops I thought would be able to help, one of them being a chain of shops named Batiself. A very friendly man on the phone “explained it all” to me, but said it would probably take him two working days to get an exact quote, and that he’d get back to me latest on Wednesday (my call was on Saturday).
So a week later (yay), not really happy anymore with the promise of the friendly man, I called them again, and I was told he’d call back. A few days still later, I decided to go to the competition’s shop, and purchased what I needed there, and though the security levels were lower, it also came at a very low price. However, another week later, the man finally called me back with a quote that was twice as high as what I’d already paid, but still a low price, considering that the security was almost twice as strong; he told me he couldn’t order it without a deposit, so I decided to check it out.
That is when I thought I’d traveled to another, “lonely”, planet. In the whole shop, there must have been about 5 employees, and about 50 customers, each looking for answers to their questions, and none of the employees seeming all to be happy to be working. They were happy to chat to each other, but as soon as they were “interupted” by customers with questions, I thought I’d recognized a couple of looks from old Westerns.
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Posted in flexible LU – marketing | 1 Response »
Tags: attention, attitude, bad service, customer service, failure, overall experience, poor customer service, service failure
Written by jbisenius on February 21st, 2010
Over the years, it has come to my attention that Luxembourg has a few obvious issues 
– and the one for today is me going hungry on Monday nights unless I cook myself! Unfortunately, this particular case only applies to my experience in Luxembourg, but maybe some of you out there will be able to identify my particular issue with one of their own?
So basically, as mentioned before, I really do enjoy going to good restaurants and have a good time with my friends. There are a few very usual places for me such as Adriano’s or Kyoto, but there are also a few more that I enjoy going to if I want to have a little change: Bacano, Miggi’s in Bonnevoie, Lo Sfizio, Patagonia and so on. But none of them seems to be opened on Monday nights! Now in a very catholic country such as Luxembourg, I would be totally understanding of restaurants being closed on Sundays (which most are anyway), but why are my favorites ALL closed on Mondays? Is it a common but secret knowledge that Monday is dine-at-home night? Or is it more the fact that they all tried Mondays, but as there might really be less customers out on Mondays, they all decided at the same time to be closed on Mondays?
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Posted in flexible LU – marketing | No Responses »
Tags: availability, convenience, customer service, gap, market-lead, opening hours, restaurant
Written by jbisenius on December 22nd, 2009
As I was ill this weekend, I couldn’t go to London, which leaves all the more time for me to look forward to next week where I will return to Innsbruck! Yay
Can’t wait to leave for another road-trip, with Chris, and I’m sure it’ll be lots of fun! In the mean time, and for your very own pleasure, a few pictures from past trips to Innsbruck.
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Written by jbisenius on December 22nd, 2009
When I was a young boy, my parents taught me to be a good boy, to stand up for what I believe in, and to play by the rules. Those rules applied to anyone that wanted to be just a good boy as I was, and ultimately to those that “wanted to go to heaven”. These rules slowly transposed to everyday situations, and quickly enough I understood instructions in public transport, at cinemas or other public places to be important and to be followed. The example I want to focus on today is restaurants.
You are taught to sit up straight, not to play with your phone, generally: to follow standards that were in some case created hundreds of years ago. You are also asked to order from a menu as this is what the chef decided to be the best – the chef’s rules so to speak.
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Posted in flexible LU – marketing | 3 Responses »
Tags: adding value, attention, customer service, loyalty, overall experience, repeat custom, service, the extra-mile
Written by jbisenius on December 22nd, 2009
This is a small sample of pictures I’ve taken over the past 2 years with my EOS 30D. For a beginner like me, it took ages to find ways to take pictures I was happy with, they all required a tripod, a lot of tries, and a nag to not just yet go home, even when it’s already late! – I hope you can enjoy them at least as much as I do!
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Written by jbisenius on December 22nd, 2009
So, I’ve had the “great pleasure” of kicking my well deserved holidays off with a bad case of the flu, maybe even the famous one. Ever since friday night/saturday morning, I’ve been very feverish, dizzy, coughing and feeling as “wimpy” as men do that catch a virus. As you can imagine, and as my holidays were well deserved, I had had other plans: London!
Going back just a slight step, some may remember my episode with Luxair in 2007? Where I was not allowed to “lateboard” (or JIT-board if you like ) a plane in London City Airport as I looked like a student? If you don’t, here’s the brief summary:
I was travelling the UK for a few days to meet the EF School staff on site as this was helpful for sales in the Luxembourg office. Extremely exhausting as it was, I arrived at London City Airport late, 30 minutes before departure, but I had one bag filled with all the stuff that needed to be scanned, and in the other hand my papers (no checkin luggage), so in theory, I could have been at the gate in 8 minutes (I’ve managed that in the past). The guy informed me it was too late, and when I pointed my preparedness out to him, he agreed to call the gate. Whilst in call, he looked at me, replied to the other person: “no, a student”, hung up and informed me that it was indeed too late, and I needed to buy another ticket. It took me a few minutes on my way to ticketing to realize what had happened, and so for the longest time, all new EF students would fly with VLM instead of Luxair – I couldn’t risk them being refused boarding just because they looked like a student!
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Posted in flexible LU – marketing | 3 Responses »
Tags: bad service, failure, loyalty, luxair, price sensitivity, reservation, service failure, telephone
Written by jbisenius on December 16th, 2009
The first project I was able to actively influence, more than 10 years ago!
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Written by jbisenius on November 23rd, 2009
Here is an overview of a few pictures showing the nature of the dynamic project jugendparlament.lu
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Written by jbisenius on November 1st, 2009
The other night, I had been invited to a short notice presentation of a rather new cinema as a channel for our marketing messages. As this coincided with a larger project I am working on, I registered my colleague and myself for the presentation and was already considering ways that would be useful to our purposes.
The next day, I received an email confirming the presentation had to be rescheduled to a later date as the chosen date coincided with the Marketing of the Year awards…hm. Nonetheless, we would be able to come and see the place, watch a movie, and ask questions. As the presentation was rescheduled to January (!), we decided to go anyway.
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Tags: attention, failure, follow-up, overall experience, presentation, short notice
Written by jbisenius on November 1st, 2009
As some of you might remember, I have in the past already praised the customer service team of the Wallstreet Journal, but they continue to positively surprise me! Since my change of address, the delivery didn’t reach me twice (this would be a negative point, I know ). I called their helpline where a polite young woman apologized for the mishap, they kindly confirmed details and asked me whether or not I wished to receive the newspapers I had missed, or whether I wanted my subscription to be extended. Both times, I received my missing papers the same day, within a couple of hours I would say, and they extended my subscription anyway.
Great customer service you would say?
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Posted in flexible LU – marketing | 2 Responses »
Tags: adding value, anticipation, attention, attitude, customer service, delivery, loyalty, overall experience, the extra-mile
