ktoddstorch @ business thoughts

Exceeding Expectations: Fender Footwear

Received my new shoes ("Amp")  from Fender Footwear and I was very impressed after opening the shipping box.

First of all, the shoebox is very cool with photos of Fender artists.  The box screams "attitude".  Also, there is a small, metal Strat clipped onto the shoe (see between shoes at pic on left). 

Necessary?  No, but a nice detail to reinforce the Fender brand.  Another cool brand extension is the Fender name on the back of the shoe.  It is highlighted in a orange leather guitar pick shape.

The shoes are extremely comfortable and I must of had 5 people ask me where I got them.

Matt, hope you get a bunch of business!

Details matter and Fender Footwear understands that it is more than just the product, it is about branding, the customer's lifestyle and experience.

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tags:  fender footwear | branding | exceeding expectations

Thinking Back (July 29th)

Week in Review

Google Buys Business Thoughts
Daylight Savings Time to Extend?
Subscribe to Business Thoughts
Read This!
Free Calls to Toll Free Numbers via Skype
Quit with the Excuses
Attention Firefox Users:  Time to Update
San Antonio Vacation Pictures
What if...?  #29

Not Reported

Even after multiple calls with Cingular and a new phone, I continue to have SMS issues
Geeking out with my new briefcase
Paid $10 for annual subscription to Business 2.0
Getting close to finalizing my surprise to Tara for our 12 year anniversary
A lot more spam in my Gmail and blog Trackbacks
Left my Pocket PC at home one day this week and felt lost without my calendar and address book

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tag:  week in review

Podcasting Bling Bling

My brothers' podcasting set up is sweet!

[link]

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tag:  podcasting

Google Buys Business Thoughts!

No, not really.  I just love the thought of it and like the logo.

Get one for yourself!

[BusinessThoughtsGooglized]

Thx MAKE for the heads up

Daylight Savings Time to Extend?

Lots of opinions on the upcoming vote on extending Daylight Savings Time by a month starting in 2007.

From what I see, Congress is attaching this amendment on to another bill that would extend DST a full month into November.  Why?  Supposedly to conserve energy.

The reasoning goes something like this:

With daylight savings time, we can go an hour later into the evening before we turn on the lights and that saves energy for everyone

Industries against it?
Airlines - messes up their International flight schedule
Farmers - messes with livestock (not sure why though...)
National PTA - don't want kids leaving for school in the dark
AM Radio Stations - those that have to be at lower power in the dark.  Messes up morning drive.

Apparently, there will be a study that will show the energy savings from this change and based on the results of that study, Congress will choose to keep or delete the amended change.

The cynical side of me wants to know what industry is pushing this bill.  Travel and entertainment industries to keep us spending money while it is light outside?  Take some more trips while it still "feels" like Summer?

I love having the sun up later during the evening.  It does just "feel" better.  I surely don't like the days of heading into work while it is dark and driving home from work in the dark.

How about you?

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tags:  daylight savings time

Subscribe to Business Thoughts

There are many of you that are coming back to Business Thoughts that aren't "subscribed" to the blog.

Don't know why, but I'm glad you are visiting!  If you want to get updates brought to you automatically, use a weblog aggregator.  I've been using Bloglines and have been very happy with the free service (read here).

Just copy this URL into your blog aggregator to subscribe: 

http://feeds.feedburner.com/KtoddstorchBusinessThoughts

There are still 18 of you subscribed to an old feed and I would appreciate if you could take the time to switch to the above Feedburner feed.  It will help me get more accurate stats of popular blog articles, etc. that I look at every month or so.

Thanks for reading Business Thoughts!

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tags:  feedburner | bloglines

Read This!

If you taking the time to read my blog post, then you have to read the latest Wired magazine lead article.

Understand the past and learn; or not...

[link]

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tags:  wired magazine

Free Calls to Toll Free Numbers via Skype

Skype has just announced free outbound calls to Toll Free numbers without paying the SkypeOut fees.

All 800, 866, 877 and 888 numbers in the US can now be called from a regular Skype account.

Don't know what Skype is?  Go read this!

I'm using Skype to call some friends directly and use the IM function daily.  Are you using Skype in a business function or just personal?

Now I just need a cell phone with WiFi so I can use Skype without my computer!  Dang, I can't move to Europe, so I guess I'll just have to wait...

[link]

Thx TDavid for the heads up!

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tags:  skype

Quit with the Excuses

On our vacation, we had 2 bad experiences with restaurants.  Both restaurants couldn't get the orders right and the service was extremely slow (nearly an hour to get food...).

What amazed me was how the situations were handled, not only by our wait staff, but the management on duty. 

Here's a few examples of what we were told:

• 'I'm sorry, but the chef has a really small grill and it takes him a long time to make the food'
• 'Our salads usually don't have wilted lettuce.  Do you want another one?'
• 'You are the first people that have ever had bad service with us.'
• 'Do you know if your waitress turned in your order?'

Please, stop with the excuses and ridiculous comments.  If the service is bad, just try to make the situation better with a simple explanation and find out what can be done to make the experience better.  Both times we spoke to the manager on duty and there was no ownership of the issue, just excuses as to why things were bad.  No solutions offered until we had to tell them that either 1) we weren't going to pay full price or 2) asked them if they realized 'how bad' the service was (basically a "hey, wake up").

There are just too many choices of places to eat and word of mouth travels very fast to not have a well trained staff on how to handle problems.

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tags:  customer service | restaurants

Attention Firefox Users: Time to Update

Go update your browsers to version 1.0.6 today.

[link]
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tags:  firefox