Day one of my first NaNoWriMo. I don’t know what really to expect, so I probably overprepped. I planned on planting myself in front of the computer and not moving for hours and hours. So, to make sure I was uninterrupted, I ordered food from Pizza Hut to eat first, or during, or whatever. This post isn’t about the writing part, it’s about the food part (but not about the eating part).
I got to PH and picked up my pizza. It’s a different crew tonight and I don’t recognize anyone. Seeing as I go there weekly, more or less, we kinda know each other. Anyway, when the counter person came out with my food, she handed the pizza to me and walked off. That’s kind of rude in and of itself, but the question popped into my head that I wasn’t asked to look at the pizza first to make sure it was done correctly.
When I got to my car, I wondered more. Wasn’t that a thing for Pizza Hut? Something like, “Your pizza is free if we don’t ask you to look at it?” Now, I don’t particularly care if my pizza is free or not. I’m pretty sure I still have a credit on file with them that I’ll probably never use since I always order online. But, Pizza Hut was obviously concerned about customers seeing their pizzas at some point. It’s logical. Catch mistakes before they leave the store. The customer won’t be nearly as pissed off as they would be if they had to turn around and drive back for a replacement. So to incentivize this behavior in their employees, they established this rule, with the penalty of having a charge-off if the employees didn’t comply.
Ok, so an employee didn’t follow the protocol. But when I looked back in my memory, I didn’t see the rule promoted or displayed anywhere in the store. At least nowhere that I noticed it. How does a rule like this just end? That’s like my Quicken post where Intuit promoted better customer service free for a limited time. It’s not worth doing if you’re not going to do it all the time. (And in retrospect, how weird is it to explicitly say you have to pay for better service? It’s more like an unspoken thing.)
The same thing for DQ and their upside-down Blizzards. The Blizzard is supposed to be free if the cup isn’t flipped over when they hand it to you. But that’s not a universal rule. When I was back in PA, the DQ there had a sign stating they were not participating in the “upside-down or free” promotion. I’m unsurprised by that considering the customer base in that town, but regardless, I know the “upside-down or free” promotion will end at some point. And then what? It just goes back to the way it was. Why do it in the first place? In DQ’s case, I suppose it’s a wow-factor, albeit a lame one. Yeah, it’s thick, yippee. And if it’s always going to be thick, why not always flip it? Or why ever do it? What does giving it away for free have anything to do with anything?
When I stand back and look at it, I find it weird that a company has to reward a customer for a employee not doing a particular action. Granted, there are some examples like “if you don’t get a receipt”, which only exposes the fact that the business hires thieves. But how about, “if we don’t tell you about our drink specials” or “if we don’t ask you to order an appetizer”? Your meal will be free if we don’t annoy you?
Maybe this has contributed to the rise in online ordering and take-out orders.
Times have changed and so have I. A recent reassessment of myself via personality profile informed me of such. It was just a very simple personality test, one meant to be simple and easy to administer, but useful enough to apply in a workplace environment. The test is called
In my earlier results, I was classified as a “discoverer”. This was the person in the village that would leave and go in search of great things and bring them back to the village for everyone’s use. And that’s pretty much what I did in my work life. I would find new technologies and techniques and present them to everyone, then I’d be off again. It sounds like every team would want one of these people, but you also have to understand that discoverers are hard to pin down and may have trouble focusing on current tasks because they would much rather be exploring. And that’s pretty much what I did.
In my most recent test, my result was a “dreamer-minstrel”. I think their role is to encourage and cheer everyone up, like a wandering minstrel. I never really thought of myself as encouraging at work. I’ve been pretty cynical for quite a while and have a slightly bleak outlook on the company’s future.
I think I might have experienced this spray nozzle once before in a hotel and I was impressed with the power of the spray while it still used very little water. So I sought one out for myself. When I got it installed, I learned a few things. One is that novelty wears off. If I had stayed a full week at that hotel instead of a night, I would have learned that the sensation of the spray isn’t all that wonderful, day after day. The other thing I learned is that when I used the shutoff switch, the water immediately starts cooling, so when the switch gets turned back on, you get a blast of cold water. Nope, this is not the last showerhead I will own.
In 2012 (according to sales records), I purchased a Dream Spa showerhead. This head had a major advantage in that it had a hose on it. I don’t know why manufacturers always try to suggest that you will grab the showerhead and spray all over your body with it. I just turn around in the shower. It’s not that difficult, people. However, the hose allowed me to clean the the shower much easier than a stationary head would. Being a typical guy, it was not out of the realm of possibility to run a garden hose into the bathroom to spray the walls down. I’m not saying I did that… often, but then again, I’m not saying I clean… often.



