Customer Service, it’s not that hard.

The other day my wife Julia commented on how nice everyone is at Rose City Vets, and how having an exchange with them makes her feel good. I had a similar experience at a restaurant recently, and it made the whole meal much more enjoyable. It’s a shame that positive customer experiences are rare enough to be refreshing.

The equation seems simple: It’s not difficult to be nice. We would all rather interact and do business with nice people. We’re going to talk about the mean people and then never go back.

So, if customer service is so important (at least to me and everyone I know) and seemingly not that difficult, then why aren’t more companies pouring their attention into it? There is a local grocery store chain here in Oregon called New Seasons, they pride themselves on their customer service to the point they even advertise it. I have never dealt with a more friendly or helpful establishment. It’s a joy going in there. New Seasons gets it and they’re thriving. So what’s so hard to figure out?

Joel and I are just two regular guys who want to make ZooFaroo successful. We know we can’t do that without you. We may have come up with the name, but it’s an empty shell without you all. If you ever have a question, comment, criticism, suggestion, or just want to shoot the breeze, drop us a line we’d love to hear from you.

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The great networking network

What if you’ve written a killer screenplay but live three thousand miles away from Hollywood? How do you let the industry know that you’re ready to offer the next blockbuster? Who has time to write hundreds of query letters? Who has the money to pay for all of that postage? So what do you do to get the exposure? Just do what my dad did, he put his script on ZooFaroo Los Angeles. He lives in Maine, and yet taking five minutes to post on ZooFaroo Los Angeles suddenly exposes him and his script to the people that count. And it didn’t cost him a dime. The Wedding Guests

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Never thought I could love tea…until now. How Steven Smith Teamaker changed my life.

Let’s start off by stating that I am not a regular tea drinker.  Do I like tea?  Sure, I even drink it every now and again, but my main warm beverage of choice is coffee.  Hands down it is coffee over tea every time.

Tea has never really blown my socks off.  Until now.

A couple of months ago my brother Zachary (shameless plug: www.zincarchitecture.com) and his wife Nicole very generously gave my wife Julia (shameless plug: www.ThinkingOutDog.com) and I a gift certificate for a swanky restaurant here in Portland, OR.  (I won’t mention the name…you’ll understand later)

Julia and I got all fancied up, which is saying a lot for me because I usually wear my cargo pants and hoodie to the office, to the grocery store, to the bank, to the ball, to the weddings, to the funerals, you get the idea.  (Julia is classy all the time)  This was a big night for us.

The restaurant atmosphere was very pleasant.  That’s about as far as the positives go.  The waitress we had was distracted and seemingly uninterested in our overall experience. The food was just okay.  Not horrible, not amazing.  The thing is, for the amount that was spent I wanted amazing.  Oh well. (now you understand why I will not mention their name)

At the end of our meal Julia ordered a tea.  I remember the waitress telling us their selection was from Steven Smith, a local tea maker.  The name wrung a bell.  It so happens I had just recently heard an interview with him on NPR.  This guy was a rock star in the tea making world.  His history includes: co-founding Stash Tea, and founder of Tazo Tea.  Yeah, this guy is the man.

Julia’s tea arrived and as soon as she took a sip her eyes lit up.  ”Oh my god, you HAVE to taste this tea.”  What?  Seriously?  Tea?  I imagined it was good but I also thought (forgive me Julia) that my wife was embellishing a bit.  I took a sip.  Nope she wasn’t.  This tea was amazing.  Flavors like I’ve never tasted in a tea before.  I am not joking.  Remember, I am not a tea guy so for me to react this way the tea had to be amazing.  And it was.  The blend we had that night was ‘Steven Smith White Petal Blend No. 72′.  I suggest you run, don’t walk and go get this stuff.

After dinner we went to New Seasons and bought the No. 72.  The price is not outrageous but it will be more than your major brands, but trust me, it’s worth every penny.

I love community, I love passion, and I love living locally.  Steven Smith Teamaker is all of that.  Just had his Peppermint Tea last night made with all Oregon grown peppermint leaves.  I highly recommend it.  www.smithtea.com

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ZooFaroo and the ‘Soft’ Introduction

With many online classified/auction/retail sites the one thing I’ve always found difficult is not knowing exactly who I am dealing with.  Yes, user reviews are great and ZooFaroo’s user reviews will be a valuable tool for getting the sense for how this person deals with others, but what about more?  Here at ZooFaroo we really love the idea of community.  When you register with our site you’re given the option of adding your Facebook page, Twitter page, Google Plus page, your LinkedIn page, your own website, and whether or not you’re a business.  All of this is optional of course, but isn’t it a great way for someone to get to know you a little bit before contacting you?  A ‘soft’ introduction if you will, just an extra bit of confidence to enhance the ZooFaroo community and cultivate positive and interesting exchanges.  And who knows, you may even make new friends out of the process. Personalize Your ZooFaroo Experience

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Oh my gosh, I can’t believe we’re almost there!

Having Joel come out west for a business trip was ultra productive!  We got so much done and came up with some super cool new features for the site.  Man, oh man, let me tell you, it’s been a long haul and a heck of a lot of work but we see the light at the end of the tunnel and the site is going to be fantastic.  Hang in there, we’re almost done and we can’t wait for you to check it out.

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Countdown to launch: 4 days

I’ve traveled from Portland, ME to Portland, OR for a few days of marketing and publicity timed with the launch of Zoofaroo next week. No video games on this trip – just lots of programming, writing press releases and letters of introduction, etc.

All the wonderfully humorous posts from our testers will soon disappear from the test-site and Zoofaroo will be bare once again when it goes live next Monday. We are counting on you to fill it up! It will be free as always to post – so please sign up and join the community. More users makes for a richer more interesting social marketplace for everyone. You are limited only by your own imagination.

 

 

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