Back to School Trends

Hi All,

The dog days of August have just passed into memory and next up is the Labor Day holiday!  And then, after Labor Day, is the first day of school!  My how time goes by!  Can you remember when we were planning or 4th of July festivities?

Farmingdale public schools have their first day on September 2nd.  Click here for a link to the Farmingdale school calendar.

But the meat of this blog entry is article '12 Big Back-to-School Trends That Every Parent Should Know' from Time Magazine/Money Magazine.  The article is presented as a slideshow of sorts so look for the arrow icon to view the next trend in the article.

Pinterest also got into the 'back to school trend' act with their article titled, 'Top 10 Back-To-School Trends of 2015'   Creative lunches, artful notebooks and nice notes are some of the more entertaining trends that made this list.

Not to be outdone, MarketWatch posted an article titled '7 Back-To-School Shopping Trends' in mid-August.  Not skimping on supplies and uniforms are some of the trends MarketWatch sees as being popular. 

Finally, the NRF (National Retail Federation) created a infographic for their article 'Top To Trends For Back-To-School and College - 2015'  The infographic is colorful, easy-to-read and very darn interesting!  Click on this link for an even deeper dive into the information presented by the NRF!

Enjoy the links - and here's to being trendy.  Have a great school year!

Regards,
Stu

Customer Service - Getting What You Want...

Hi All,

Now that the holiday season is fast approaching, customer service is something that consumers might want to think about - a bit at least.  This blog entry will discuss ways to get better customer service - and it might help you save time and money during the upcoming holiday season....

We've all been there...you purchase something at a retailer and for whatever reason, you need to return it. However, for any number of reasons (perhaps you lost the receipt, you are returning the item after the specified period of time you had to return the item, a surly cashier doesn't know how to process the return or the line is too long and the retailer won't let you return the item or....you get the idea) the retailer won't let you return said item.

What recourse do you have?

Indeed, great question.  Click on this link and you'll connect to an article from Yahoo! Finance's section on 'Financially Fit'.  Entitled '3 Ways to Get Your Customer Service Complaint Resolved' the article emphasizes that customers 'Shouldn't go all social media on your prey just yet'.  Which essentially means don't post on your Facebook page or Twitter stream your tale of retail woe. 

Next up is some good advice in most any situation, 'Always keep your anger in check'.  Good advice, especially since there is always a time and place to 'emphatically voice your opinion' at a future date....

Finally, the third piece of advice the article posits is 'Flattery will get you everywhere'.  In this section, terms like polite, nice, empathy are liberally sprinkled throughout the article.  Great advice...and intelligent, and easy to try.

For an article that supports the Yahoo! Finance article discussed above, click on this link.  Entitled 'How To Get Better Customer Service' the article from WikiHow - To Do Anything (which, in itself is a very helpful website) discusses ways to, well, get better customers service. 

Some of the advice is common sense - treating retail and customer service employees is common sense, as is not saying 'the customer is always right'.  Other things like calling employees stupid or incompetent are not helpful either - and of course, refrain from striking employees. 

Some of the less obvious pieces of advice include 'not telling the employee how to do their job', and trying to have the money ready before you reach the checkout counter. 

Lest you think that all customer service is going to the dogs, click on this article that is entitled, 'Could It Be? Customer Service is Supposedly Getting Better'.  The article comes from the December 11th, 2012 issue of time Magazine and is an interesting read. Hopefully you won't have to use any of the tactics discussed in the other two article in order to get stellar customer service during this upcoming holiday season.

Regards, and here's to a customer friendly, return-free, holiday season.
Stu