Here and there, random thoughts on food, photos, marketing, & customer service

Update 2/1/11: Many Bloggers are looking for swift Internet Blog justice when they write a Blog article on something that happened to them. I’m sure you’ve seen them. The Barista at Starbucks has a bad day, looks at the customer the wrong way, forgets to put whipped cream on his carmel flavored hot drinky drink coffee and BAM! Later that morning, the Blogger pens a snarky Blog post (quite possibly while working for someone else at his crappy dead end job) about how upset he is that some other bastard in another dead end job wronged him and skunked up his normally quite tasty $5 morning coffee. The world’s a horrible place, we know (stop drinking corporate coffee and things might be a tad better BTW).

When I wrote this I cited two visits that happened at two different locations, with two different unhappy workers. In the case of the place I went first, I had been there many time before and out of the dozen or so times I was there, I only once talked to someone who I thought was nice to me. I’m not the kindest or friendliest looking guy when I am on my way to get my arm punched full of holes (again). I come in my work clothes, and well yes I do look an INS/ICE agent with my black boots, and work jacket, I am actually a nice guy. I know dealing with unhappy, low-income people all day is most likely a thankless job, so I am ALWAYS super polite when I come in. Don’t forget these folks can make me pay by way of the needle, so I am ALWAYS on my best behavior when I come in. My point here is that while I detailed these two incidents, there were plenty of other times I visited this same center, where I was subjected to less than kind medical services. And while this post is about me, I heard plenty from the loud mouths behind the counter. I’m sorry I have excellent hearing and they are not exactly discreet. I heard the same lady I had issues with tell a nice hispanic couple who were trying to figure out how to have a seaman analysis performed. She told them something along the lines that it could not be done at this office, but a sample could be dropped off at another office. When the poor man asked how a sample should be tendered at the office and if there was a “place” that could be done, She said no there was no place, but if he stopped at the McDonald’s near the other office, he could “produce” a sample there in the bathroom and rush it over so it was fresh to the nearby office. That’s just one thing I heard while waiting, and waiting for my turn to be stabbed. Someone would approach the counter, and she’d stick out her hand and say “PAPERWORK!”. Not cool at all.

I’m telling you, this was not a case of me being a baby, but a real issue with our healthcare system and the people working for Quest. Did the regional manager for Quest reach out to me? Yes he did. Was he extremely nice? He sure was. Did he do something about it, I think he did. From what I understand from the “community” of people that are forced to endure repeated blood draws, the person who gave me so much trouble is no longer with Quest. How does someone that is so upset stay on in a what they must feel is a terrible job without management not knowing about the issue? No clue.

Companies should be on top of this, they should be following up with clients. When a real complaint comes down the line, it should be handled swiftly by people who are able to do something about it. The first response from Quest hould have not been a “canned” form letter, and in my mind should have warranted a phone call to me right away.

In any case, I’m grateful that Quest did take action to ensure this person did not have the chance to do any more damage. If you read the update below, I am now going to a different Quest office with much better results.

What’s should be done with a Blog post now that problem has been solved, the offending company has apologized, and I’ve moved on? Do you delete the post? I don’t know.

Update 1/7/11: I still go visit Quest Diagnostics once a month, however I now go to a different location that is south of Glen Burnie. There I have discovered the polar opposite of the staff that I had so much issue with in the two Glen Burnie centers. I now see a phlebotomist named Theresa who takes wonderful care of me. I’ve been to see her three times already and she always asks how I’m doing and she always wishes me well when I leave. She might be the most wonderful medical service provider I have ever run across. Also the Quest office that I now go to is totally clean, up to date, and looks great.

Because I’m waiting for a kidney transplant, I have to get a blood sample to Johns Hopkins once a month. I also have to be regularly tested so my nephrologist can monitor my kidney function. As a result, I’ve become quite familiar with Quest Diagnostics, as that’s where I go to get my blood drawn.

These centers The centers I have visited recently are staffed by unhappy people, who appear to hate their jobs and seem to relish making my life as difficult as possible. I admit I have some strange issues and because I bring my own blood sample vial for Johns Hopkins, I’ll admit it’s not normal. However, I show up with the the sample vial and it’s shipping box and every time they pretend like they have never seen me before and bitch up a storm about how this is a pain for them.

Since these people stick sharp objects into me, I’ve resisted the urge to complain or post something that is not exactly a compliment here on my Blog.

Here’s the letter that I recently sent Quest to let them know how I feel.

Dear Quest Diagnostics,

I went to the Quest Diagnostics Oakwood Road center in Glen Burnie, MD on Monday (8/2/10) near the end of the day, and the person who was staffing that office was there alone and not happy about it. She was busy. I tried to make an appointment on-line, but the Quest website was down, so I did not know this office closed at 3:00 PM. She slammed things around, made lots of bad body language cues, and was just generally not helpful or friendly. Because I had a priority draw, she would not do it because it was so late and that office does not do those anyways. There is no way I could have known that. When I noticed her body language and was made aware that the office was closing soon by her stomping across the office and locking the door, I offered to leave. She did offer to take care of me, “because I was there”, but I soon found out she could not. She then was like “I can do this one, but not this one,” (I had two orders) I told her I would rather just do the blood draw thing one time and left. This was not the first time I’ve run into this person, and every time I come to visit (once a month), I get the same attitude.

I then went the next day (Tuesday 8/3/10) to the Hospital Drive office, also in Glen Burnie, MD where it was not much better. I made an appointment on-line for 12:00 Noon. I arrived 15 minutes early to a clogged waiting room, and a huge line of people. I signed in and then waited for about 5 minutes, when nothing happened, I left to use the bathroom and made a quick phone call, but was back by 11:55. I went up to the counter and the lady was like “I called you three times, and you did not answer”. “See this”, pointing to the clipboard “I wrote no answer because you were NOT here!” I told her that I was sorry and that I was indeed there for the 12:00 Noon appointment. I waited over 30 minutes until I was put in a room, where I then waited another 5 minutes or so. I’m sure she was punishing me for not being there when she called my name, but I was indeed there in time for my appointment. She had the same bad attitude and body language as the other center. While I waited around the corner, out of sight of the window, I could hear her doing her work. She would pick up a rubber stamp, and stamp something so hard the entire room could hear the crash it made as she slammed it down. Same thing held true for her stapler. She’d bang down on that so hard it sounded as if she was causing harm to herself. She talked loudly, had no respect for anyone, not even for clients who addressed her with respect.

I’m sick and waiting for a kidney transplant. I’m sure many of the other people waiting here in your offices are also sick or not feeling well. These paying “customers” often have no choice but come to your lab to have a blood sample drawn. All of them deserve your employee’s respect as they try to comply with all of the rules and regulations that they must endure in order to meet the requirements. Many have never been to your office before, and they have no idea what’s going on, but that’s no reason not to treat these folks with respect.

If your workers are unhappy, then they should seek employment elsewhere, and your management should take steps to ensure your paying customers are not berated by your employees.

Update 8/9/10: Here is their response. I have not included the personal contact info that was included with the letter:

Thank you for your inquiry regarding the service you received during
your recent visit to the Patient Service Centers (PSC)located in Glen
Burnie, Md. We strive for excellence in our PSCs and feedback from our
patients is crucial in providing us with direction for improvement. I
personally get involved with the investigation and the implementation of
any training that we may need to do for areas that are in need of
improvement.

When visiting one of our PSCs our patients should always be treated with
a high degree of quality service. I apologize that you did not
experience this with us on your visit. I will promptly work with the
staff at this location(s).

Thank you again for taking the time to send to me the comments. I hope
that we will have the opportunity to service you in the future. Please
feel free to contact me directly, in the future, if you should have any
further questions or concerns.

Update 8/9/10: I continue to have to have my blood drawn, so I decided to try a different Quest office in Crofton, Maryland. I’m happy to report it was nothing like my prior issues with the two Glen Burnie offices that I had been going to. The person who was in the office was cheerful, happy to see me, figured out my weird paperwork in about 2 minutes, and performed my blood draw quickly with no pain or discomfort. Also, if you read the comments, someone else from Quest is looking into the situation. I will let you know what happens regarding that.

My son, Weber has set up an online gadget drive through Gazelle.com to raise money for the Teen Leaders 4-H Exchange Program, and would love your support.

A gadget drive is a new way to fundraise that turns your used or broken electronics (laptops, cell phones, MP3 players, digital cameras & more) into cash to support a cause. Contributing to the Teen Leaders 4-H gadget drive is simple. Just visit the drive webpage at http://teenleaders.gazelle.com, find the value of the gadgets you would like to donate, and send them to Gazelle (shipping is free). The total value of your broken or cast-off gadget’s value will go to support the 4-H Exchange Program.

If you have an old or broken electronic gadget that you would like to donate, please go to Teen Leaders 4-H Club (http://teenleaders.gazelle.com) to learn more about the drive and track its progress. You will receive a confirmation of your donation by email.

Thank you for your support

Update 4/15/11 I am happy to report that a kidney donor came forward for me and I am scheduled for a transplant early this summer. I want to thank all the people who were tested, those who supported me, the friends, family, doctors, transplant coordinators, MacMedics employees, 4H folks, and people I don’t even know who sent well wishes and good vibes my way and helped spread the word about the need for a donor (A special shout out to Mario Armstrong who did all he could to help get the word out). Most importantly, I’d like to thank my donor, who found me on the Internets and wanted to help. I’m very grateful to her and her willingness to donate one of her kidneys so that I can get my life back.

I plan to leave this page up, as it still attracts a good deal of traffic from my Vegan and Macintosh related posts. Perhaps, it will help someone else get the lifesaving donation that they have been waiting for. After I have my surgery, I’ll try to find a way to make this domain and it’s SEO score work for others who are waiting.

I know for a fact that you can step forward as an altruistic kidney and contact Johns Hopkins (you can call my donor coordinator listed below) and they will test you for free and if you pass the tests, they will match you to someone who needs a new lease on life. My donor and many others have come to donate via Johns Hopkins, as they are known world-wide for their amazing kidney program.

There are over 80,000 people waiting for a kidney transplant, so if this is something you’ve thought about, don’t delay.

Hi,

If you’ve found this page on my Blog, it might be because you’ve been invited to join the “A Kidney For Dana” Facebook page. I have been spreading the word about my kidney search via Facebook, Twitter, and my Blog since September ’09. At the suggestion of a friend I went ahead and created a Facebook “Group” to support my search.

Even if you’re NOT thinking about being a donor, please consider joining my groupanyways and posting something on your Facebook page about it. Someone you know might want to be a donor. Lots of organ donations occur because a friend of a friend passed on the word. There might be someone in your “network” that would like to be tested. If they turn out to be a match for me, imagine how good that would feel if you were able to make that connection?

For all the people (friends, family, AND people I don’t even know) who have posted something on their Facebook Wall about my situation – THANKS!

To all of my friends, family, employees, MacMedics clients, and colleagues, thank you so much for your support so far.

There are thousands of people waiting for a life saving kidney transplant, so if you’re willing to become a fan of “Can this poodle wearing a tinfoil hat get more fans than Glenn Beck?” (261,337 Fans) or the fan page for “Can the Baltimore Ravens get 1000000 fans before the Pittsburgh Steelers” (39,384 Fans), maybe you’d be willing to help spread the word about a life saving kidney donation by joining my page here.

BTW: The Facebook group for the National Kidney Foundation of Maryland only has 177 Fans, so if you’re supporting me or someone else with kidney issues here in the great state of Maryland, then please consider becoming a “Fan” of their page as well.

Since my kidney doctors have now charted my kidney decline based on the data from the last 2 years of blood tests, they are encouraging me to ramp up my donor search. Based on that recent “push” from them, I’m trying to let everyone in my network know. Maybe you would consider being tested? If so, that’s way more than I could ever ask. But really my goal here is just to get the message to as many people as possible to even up my odds as much as I can.

Update 12/24/10 My creatinine levels (what they use to judge kidney function) have pretty much doubled since last year. Also my phosphorus levels are also now out of whack as well. I’m now taking 800 MG phosphorus binder with every meal in order to push the phosphorus out of my system since my kidneys can’t fully regulate it any longer.

I’m extremely lucky to have the luxury of trying to find a “perfect match” since I’m not so sick, that they will just cram in any old kidney in order to save my life. They want me get a transplant now, while I’m healthy and try to avoid having to take a “deceased donor” kidney. I’ve been feeling pretty good, but I do get a little tired from time to time, but better take care of this issue before I have to go on dialysis. 

For those of you who know me well, you know asking for help is not easy for me. but, this is a case where I could really use some. By becoming a member of my Facebook group, you won’t get a knock on your door for a kidney in the middle of the night, but you can help spread the word about my story. The more folks that hear about it, the better my chances of someone taking action on it.

All of the recent kidney transplant “chains” have been started by one altruistic donor who read about a person in need of a kidney transplant in a newsletter or a church bulletin or something. One altruistic donor can save as many as 16 lives at once! Short of putting an ad in the paper (I’ve thought about it!), the more people who hear about my issue the better. A new variation in kidney paired donation (KPD) — pioneered and developed at Johns Hopkins — could theoretically generate an endless number of transplants.

There’s more info on this topic on my main page (which can be found here), but I often get asked what blood type are you? I’m extremely lucky to be able to accept a kidney from any blood type as I’m a “universal recipient” and I have the blood type AB-. So if you’ve been wondering if YOU can donate a kidney to me based on blood type, the answer is yes. Also, the testing is quick and FREE, but the paperwork and screening takes awhile. If you’ve thought about getting tested for me or someone else, please don’t put it off. The more time and data Johns hopkins has to work with, the better. It’s quick, and it’s free. Johns Hopkins will pay for all testing.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Dana 

You can join my Facebook group here.

You can read my whole story and get more information at http://www.AKidneyForDana.org

I recently was a guest on Mario Armstrong’s Digital Cafe segment that airs on WYPR 88.1 FM in Baltimore. Mario was nice enough to interview me about my quest for a new kidney and my use of social media to aid in my search. This is a deeply personal topic, and I thank Mario for inviting me on his show to talk about my story. You can visit Mario’s Blog to hear the full show via a MP3 you can download here.

To read more about my story please see my kidney webpage at http://www.akidneyfordana.org.

I heard that a list of Vegan-Owned businesses in Baltimore, Maryland is coming via Twitter friend @BmoreVegan.

To help get the ball rolling until that happens, I’ve started a small list based on a recent Twitter “tweet” from @BmoreVegan on the topic.

Of course there’s MacMedics.

MacMedics (Apple Authorized Service Provider & Reseller)
http://www.macmedics.com
@MacMedics
A Macintosh Service and Consulting firm which I have owned and operated since 1989

Emilys Desserts (Vegan Bakery)
http://www.emilysdesserts.com
@EmilysDesserts
A 100% Wind Powered Vegan and Gluten Free Dessert company in Baltimore, MD.

Mineral Love (Vegan Cosmetics)
http://minerallove.weebly.com
@mineral_love
Handmade Vegan Mineral Makeup Creator. I love crafts, photography, anything handmade, and of course, makeup!

sevi (Vegan Bodycare)
http://www.ecosevi.com
@ecosevi
vegetarian mama + animal lover, founder of eco sevi: vegan bodycare, skin and hair care + canine grooming products.

Brunies Bakery (Vegan Bakery)
http://www.bruniesbakery.com
@bruniesbakery
2008 City Paper’s Best of Baltimore Vegan Bakery.

The Land Of Kush
http://www.thelandofkush.com
@thelandofkush
The “Ultimate” Vegetarian/Vegan Soul Food Cuisine

Worst domestic sales e-mail from a known local business that I’ve never dealt with before and never asked to be added to their e-mail list.

Yes, the title of this Blog post is a mouthful but it’s true. We’re at a loss to how we ended up on this business’s ill fated e-mail list. Since they are local, I can only assume they copied my wife’s e-mail address out of the PTA directory. Using the data from a school directory to sell something is one of the lowest things anyone could do, and it’s an e-mail marketing cardinal sin. Most directories of this type, including ours have a note right up front that say using the data in the PTA directory for commercial endeavors is strictly forbidden.

It’s one thing to SPAM an e-mail list that come from an unknown source and goes to millions of people. But here in the small community of Severna Park/Millersville/Arnold this kind of nonsense will earn you a one way ticket to a terrible reputation.

What’s worse is the misspelling of two separate significant and important holidays that this guy is obviously not familiar with. In fact, this may be the worst misspelling of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa ever. Ok, I get it, it’s a holiday themed e-mail that that is meant to be multi-cultural and gives shout outs to several religious holidays. If that is the case, why on earth would you just randomly sprinkle holiday greetings in the body of your e-mail. That has to be breaking some kind of e-mail or marketing rule

Let’s hope that atheists are not offended by the blessing at the end of the e-mail.

Here’s the e-mail with names redacted. Also, the formatting of this e-mail is exactly how it appeared in the original e-mail:

Christmas is tough for so many of us this year.  It is just the reality than we live in.
At XXXXXXXXXXXXX I am getting about 2 calls a day asking these questions.  What computer brand should I buy?  Are mini computers worth the money?  Are refurbished computer reliable.  It sounds like we just do not have as much money to spend on Christmas this year.
Let me ask you a question.  If I could get your computer back to the same condition it was in when you purchased it for less than half the price of a new mini computer, would you be interested.  I will also save all the music, pictures, and records you want to save.  (MERRY CHRISTMAS)  You do not have to pay a lot of money to get your computer back to peak performance. 
We are all in this thing together.  Therefore, I will give a $25 discount for any computer repair related to virus, spyware, or malware infections.
(HAPPY HANIKAH)  We will get your computer back to the functionality you need. 
Also if you get the computer to XXXXXXXXXXXXX by Sunday 12-20-09, I guarantee you will get your computer back by Christmas (barring ordering parts).  If you bring your computer in by 12-28-09, I guarantee your computer back by 1-3-10.  So if your child is having trouble with their computer in college, bring it in and we will clean it up before they return.  (HAPPY QUANZA)
Lastly, we always give a free diagnostic test for any computer repair.  You do not have to pay me a lot of money to look at your computer.  We will find out what is wrong, call you with the price, if you approve you get a fast computer again for less.  If you don’t’ approve, come pickup the computer and we part friends.  (HAPPY HOLIDAYS)
Remember all guarantees on repair completion are a case by case basis and are subject to approval. 
All of us at XXXXXXXXXXXXX hope we can help your family in this time of need.  Be safe, have fun, and love that family this Holiday Season.  Take care and may God bless.
 
P.S.  Remember, gift certificates to the gaming center make great last minute Christmas gifts for kids of all ages.
 

So while browsing the headlines at cnn.com I saw a side bar banner ad for Dockers pants pop up to the right of the news story I was reading.

Now, I’m not a banner-clicking guy generally speaking, but sometimes they really hit their mark, and something pops up that looks like it was a match for me. Good job banner marketing person! Okay, so the Dockers brand is not exactly exciting anymore, and to me it’s dead in terms of work pants. For more then ten years I bought only Dockers khakis and nothing else (w/ pleats no less). About 5 years ago I stopped and made a switch to LL Bean. More recently I’ve mixed in a few pairs of 5.11’s. (Both hold up great BTW)

I switched away from Dockers because their sizes and quality were all over the map. When I started with them they had good fit and good quality material. They seemed to hold up well, and when I bought them I would write the date I bought them on the label and note when they wore out. As time wore on, and the purchase date and the retirement date got closer and closer together it was easy to see that that quality was inconsistent, and I eventually gave up.

I also hate trying on pants in the store, I would take size measurements at home and had carefully noted the size of my other pairs of Dockers, and I’d buy the same size. I ended up with at least half a dozen pairs that I bought that did not fit, or ones I got for Christmas when someone had inquired about my pants size. No matter, the sizes were often wrong.

So why all this talk of pants? Well to be honest I really burn though them at work. I’m under desks running Ethernet, unloading trucks, making deliveries, trying to jam servers into racks, and most pants don’t hold up well. Trust me, I’ve tried all the brands. Dockers, for a long time was in my findings the best bang for the buck, in terms of an all around work clothing item.

So when I saw the Dockers banner ad stating that “Some Pants Go With Rolling Up Your Sleeves”, I was like cool, maybe they have a new type of pants or they improved their quality, or something. From the look of the photo, it looked like they might be a tad tougher, I don’t know. That’s why I clicked. Well, guess where the ad dumped me? http://www.dockers.com. No new news about new pants, no info that was related to the ad I clicked on, just you wanted Dockers, you got Dockers, all of it in fact, mens, ladies, pants, shirts, shorts, all of it. What’s up with that? I clicked on an ad for men’s pants, and you’re gonna’ dump me just at the front door? Take me inside, show me what you have that’s new and make it something that has something to do with the ad I clicked on.

I don’t have any more Dockers, and I guess there aren’t any in my near future. Nothing on the site is calling out to me. I will give them Brownie point for the 360-degree video clips for their four styles of pants. That’s cool, but still over priced (IMHO. To be honest I have not shopped for Dockers recently, but the last time I looked they were $40 to $50 a pair. LL Bean is at least $20 less If I recall and I can get a solid 2 years of wear of out of them when rotating thru my pants “inventory”), and no mention of an improvement in any department. Oh, and I had to click though to “Mens Pants” to find what the ad might have been talking about.

In terms of on-line marketing, when I click on something I’m looking for info, and I’m looking for something clever. At this point I almost expect it when I click. The stuff that’s cool. I talk about and often buy (or at least remember for later). When you’re marketing to potential clients, make sure you make an impact when they come visit, and especially if you’re paying per click.

Also, Dockers is running a sweepstakes. If you sign up for their newsletter you might win 5 pairs of Dockers pants. Wow, that’s really going to grab me, Not! Why not run an ad that’s like sign up for our newsletter and 1 in 100 will win a pair of pants of their choice. Or, everyone who signs up and remains a subscriber will be entered in our weekly/monthly drawing for cool Dockers apparel. I have to say this just stuns me. Maybe they know something about e-mail newsletter sign ups that I don’t. If I’m missing the point, please let me know.

Update: 8/19/09: Once I write about something on my Blog, I think about what I wrote for a few days after, and I usually come up with a few other things. This post was not really to bust on the Dockers brand, but more to talk about how they missed the mark on grabbing me again as part of their target market. I also failed to mention that in the case of Dockers and a number of other brands I tried, I would cut the nameplate designer label off the outside of the pants. To me, I thought the “brand” on my backside was kind of weird, and I’ve been cutting the labels off (at least the big ugly ones) off my jeans for years. Don’t get excited Levi’s folks, I have not bought a pair of jeans in quite a while, and I only wear them to the farm these days. My last three pairs are pretty much on their last “legs”, so I might be buying a new pair or two real soon.

Using Twitter to keep clients and prospects informed and in touch is a fantastic business tool. If your followers are following you to obtain useful information about your field of expertise or your company, then don’t alienate them by posting too frequently or posting useless info.

I follow 55 people, companies, and organizations that help me keep a finger on the pulse of my clients, friends, and what’s happening in Annapolis and Baltimore. I know there’s lots of folks that follow far more than that. I also know that many users also automatically “follow” anyone that follows them. That’s a nice gesture, but are you kidding me? How are you going to keep up with updates from 500 people? That makes Twitter and the valuable information it contains totally useless. Talk about info overload!

Several months ago I was following a buddy who is a very involved Twitter user in area who is very well connected in the Twitter community, but he updated to Twitter just too much. I could not stand it. I kept hoping that the frequent Tweets would pay off and help me stay informed and connect with more business and information in the region. I know this guy personally, but after six months I stopped following him. I hung in there until I just could not stand it anymore. He also Tweets for his company as well and I also follow them (until today). Same problem. He just could not stop tweeting about stuff that just had no meaning to me. I don’t think it’s only me (at least I hope not).

I use Tweetie to stay in touch with Twitter, and this morning he had 10 posts in a row about what a nice day it was, how great it was to be alive, and hello to this person, and thanks to that person, and follow this person or that person, or how certain people were cool or whatever was too much to handle. I stopped following the company behind that Twitter account. I feel bad about it, as I know I’ll be missing out on some info gems that are scattered in between the other useless info. As time went on the useful info declined while incessant useless static was posted.

I dropped another guy today too. He posted 10 or more posts in a row with #followfriday info. Okay that’s cool, but do you really expect people to put up with that? I don’t have time to click on over 100 Twitter users to see if I want to also follow them. This is not some random dude either, he’s a regional marketing player with good connections. I stated following him based on a recommendation from someone else (via Twitter), and because of where he works and who he is, it looked to be a great person to follow. Nope. He just posted useless info and “social” stuff.

I don’t mean to be a sour puss, but If you post useless info ten times in a row, people are going to drop you. I see Twitter users post complaints about losing followers all the time, I know some of it is Twitter SPAM, but I think much of it is folks dropping off because of the white Twitter noise.

There are people on Twitter with massive amounts of followers, and some of them have figured out how to build an army of followers. They don’t do it by following everyone in the universe, they do it by posting useful, interesting, relevant, and sometimes funny posts. A good example is Scott Bourne (http://twitter.com/ScottBourne) he’s a pro photographer (it’s a hobby of of mine). Some of his posts are annoying, but not too many of them. He also posts ALOT, but they all mostly contain info that I want to know about. Lots of his posts are self promoting, but there’s lots of other good info liberally mixed in. You know it’s the real deal when you’re following 188 people and you have 23,430 people following you!

Ok, what am I looking for? I want cool info on cool, in-touch people who are experts in their field and have interesting things to say. Not everything has to be up my alley, but as long as the ratio of interesting and compelling info is greater then the in between tweets of looking for a couch to crash on in the UK (which is somehow funny anyways) then we’re cool. Look up Dave Troy (http://twitter.com/davetroy) if you’re looking for an example of another person using Twitter the right way. You might get a few tweets in a row but they mostly have meaning. He does stuff, but he posts about the stuff that is “interesting” and “compelling”. He might tell you that he’s thinking about picking out some wine for dinner, but you won’t hear about that topic again, and the wine he talks about sounds pretty good too! (Ok, Dave’s a pal, but the other guy I dropped is a friend too).

If you want to throw out a tweet about what’s for lunch, that’s cool (Let’s hope it’s vegan) but make it interesting, and don’t do it everyday. If you do, that’s going to get real old real fast. If you’re trying to use Twitter for business, then your clients (and potential clients are watching) don’t piss them off.

I’m assuming that the folks following MacMedics (http://twitter.com/macmedics) are people who want to hear about stuff about Macs. I’ve never posted my wine choices or where I’m heading for lunch to them. They are important as they help pay the rent, and to me it’s a “professional” relationship. Ever hear the saying don’t mix business with pleasure? I have a personal Twitter account (http://twitter.com/danastibolt) where I post announcements about my personal Blog, funny pictures, what I’m having for lunch every now and again. everyone who follows there there is a friend, I’m assuming that’s what they want to hear about.

I’ve picked up some vegan followers based on my posts about vegan issues, so I have a few “followers” too, but I don’t abuse them.

Keep your posts revenant and your followers will thank you by continuing to follow you. If they do, then it’s a win-win situation for everyone.

I saw some of my fellow Twitter peeps use a new service called twitpic for posting pictures to Twitter. Sounds like a fun and efficient way to put a picture on the Internet and share it via Twitter. I posted 4 or 5 pictures over the last few months, and thought very little of it.
This week when a Macintosh iBook G4 came in with a it’s keyboard ripped off (like a monkey got a hold of it), I thought it would be fun to post it and share with my Twitter followers, so I did.

So when I went to review the picture after twitpic failed to post my picture to the Twitter feed, I was greeted with the ad of a competitor right next to my post. The example above shows an ad for Progressive Auto Insurance, not the ad I was talking about! You might not have a competitor showing picture or video based Google Adword ads, but in the process of trying to get a good example to pop back up, there were all kinds of ads, including one for a national restaurant chain displaying a video ad of their latest cheeseburger. While I can handle that, I am a vegan, so perhaps I don’t want pictures/videos of burgers displayed next to funny pictures of broken Macs, iPods, and iPhones displayed for other friends/clients that might be more sensitive to that sort of thing. Matter of fact, I don’t think I want any advertising next to any of my pictures.

Lesson learned. From now on I will just post my pictures to my images folder on my website and leave sites that are supported by Google Adwords “out of the picture”.

So after waiting for the buzz to settle down, me and the family finally took a field trip to P.F. Chang’s in Annapolis. It’s located on the Route 2 side of the complex right up the street from Chevys. For those of you that don’t know the Parole shopping center that was once home to Sears and was promptly killed by the building of the Annapolis Mall. You can revel in the wonder that is now Annapolis Towne Centre at Parole. The extra “E” in Towne signals that this is an expensive place to hang out. One place that’s sure to attract the folks with extra dollars is the new Whole Foods Market. I’ll talk more about that later.

You can get all of the details on this troubled development at http://www.visitatc.com (Not a great domain name if you ask me.). It’s got a bunch of swanky places to shop like Brooks Brothers, Talbots, Origins, and Coldwater Creek.

I had taken a peek at the P.F. Chang’s menu on-line and and I already know that they had lots of vegan options. Nice! I also have VeganExpress on my iPhone which I highly recommend. It tells you who has vegan food choices and what they are. So unlike most places where there’s one or two things we might be able to eat, we have a large selection of stuff we could eat at P.F. Chang’s

I called at 4:45 PM to make reservations, and they said they could seat us at 7:30. I told them I would call right back to confirm. I waited too long, because when I called back they only had reservations available for 8:00. No biggie, I took it. I don’t know if it was true or not, but I suspect that that they “told” me that this was the “last” table for four they had. Right away they are creating buzz with an air of exclusivity. I’ll likely tell the rest of my party or friends that “I got the last table”. Wow! they must be packed all the time, so they must be really good. We’re programed to relish the hot spots with lots of buzz, so if they did this on purpose, then wow, what a great Jedi mind trick to create buzz about your brand! The other two things that I tuned into, was they had intelligent people on the phone, and when I called the first time, they answered on the first ring, and the nice lady that picked up was ready to help and there was no need to lead her in to the questions I had. She was smart, friendly, and ready to do her job. Refreshing. I was looking forward to calling her back, but when I rang back I spoke to a guy who was just about as nice. I made my reservation (he was the one that said this was the last one for 8:00 PM) and he asked if I had any special requests or needed anything special. I wish I had a request, but sadly no. I did tell him I was coming to get some vegan food. I don’t think he had an answer, but no matter.

I got there early and waited in the car for the rest of the family to walk over from Whole Foods. They ended going in before me as I was parked out back. When you walk in the “walk-in” hostess it front and center. When my wife said she had reservations she told our group to step around the corner where the “reservation” hostess whom she named by name would help us. They were going to seat us as a small table, and we asked for a booth instead. There was no fuss, and the nice person who seated us, had to run back to the hostess to check, and she said that we could sit where ever we wanted.

This is where we started to have some issues. It took awhile for our waitress to find us. It was obvious right away that she had too many tables. A little of the special feeling started to go away. The restaurant is very nicely decorated and it’s pain to see that they paid attention to how to build a free standing eatery. When she did show up, the first thing she wanted to know, if there was a special occasion, or if we were celebrating anything. We said no, and she replied that with Navy commissioning week there was alot going on. Too true. Maybe this was not the best time to come try them out??

It was after all 8:00 PM so we were all starving! We gave our drink orders and put in an order for the Crispy Green Beans, a favorite of ours from other places we’ve been. It took awhile for our drinks to arrive. Nothing hard, just a lemonade, two ginger ales, and a few waters. we’re pretty sure we saw our order of Crispy Green Beans delivered to another table, so we were worried about that. It took a while for our server to notice that we did not have our order. Here’s were she made a good move. I think she must have noticed on the way back to the kitchen, and when she game back she did not come empty handed. She showed up at the table with a free order of P.F. Chang’s Lettuce Wraps. Sadly, they are made with chicken, so the kids ate them, but our string beans arrived soon after. We also put in an order for spring rolls as we were still starving and we wanted to try them. they came out pretty quickly. Both the lettuce wraps and the sting beans were taken off of our check without us having to say anything. (The lettuce wraps were not on the check to begin with.)

Our dinner took longer to arrive than I would have expected, but everyone was happy with it. I’m guessing part of the P.F. Chang’s formula is to go with smaller portions. My son and daughter both ordered meat dishes as they on get non-vegan when we’re out. Both of them were smaller then I expected for the price. If you had not had appetizers, you would want to order desert. The vegan dishes were noticeably cheaper that the meat based ones. Nice! I got the Budda’s Feast “stir fried”. It’s a mix of veggies with tofu. I was looking forward to some good tofu, but my dish was noticeably light on it. I was a little sad about that. It was good, and it was a bit greasy and had a pretty strong peanut overtone. I did eat it all, so there were no problems. My wife got the Chow Fun, with tofu, and it too was a little greasy. Both of the vegan dishes were noticeably large portions than the meat based dishes.

The server was on her game, our waters and my lemonade where never empty. She did want to keep touching my wife on the shoulder, so that could be a small complaint. She also kept using terms of endearment like “sweetie” and “honey” on my kids. They are both teenagers, so that kind of talk might be better reserved for the kiddies.

She knew the service was not up to snuff, and she did the best should could under the circumstances. If you recall that I mentioned that we got the “last table” for 8:00 PM. I was looking around and either they want to keep tables open for walk-ins or the story about the last table was not entirely true. Shortly after 8:00 I did notice there were a number of empty tables. Also, I wondered how they could keep up with their reservations if the service was so slow. There is NO doubt, we cut into the next round of diners. I guess things might start to taper off after 8:00 PM?

You can read more about their business model here: http://consumerist.com/5262103/

It appears that when the economy started to slow down, they looked at everything they could do, and whatever they’re doing appears to be working.

Everyone I’ve spoken to, loves P.F. Chang’s, so I feel that they’ve figured something out. I think they’ve made the dining experience feel special, and found a way to trade on that. The article on Consumerist which quotes Newsweek in their coverage, says P.F. Chang’s is sort of the Applebee’s of Chinese food. I’m not sure if I agree with that. There’s nothing special about Applebee’s and with only Salad with fruits and veggies AND “oil” being the only two vegan food options on the menu, there’s certainly nothing there for me. I think P.F. Chang’s has captured what was the Outback Steakhouse sort of feeling from ten years ago, and NOT made it about price, but kept that special feeling. Outback is now trying to lure folks back on price with some meals as low as $10. My friends that have eaten at Outback recently say the food and the service was bad. Outback is now trying to recapture diners on price, and now they have diners that don’t suit their target audience, and pissed off servers because nobody is tipping.

P.F. Chang’s seems to have avoided all of this by being smart on price and totally with it on the atmosphere, menu, and overall dining experience. They are to be commended for having a number of vegan and gluten free menu items. In fact I’d have to say it’s more then any other main-stream restaurant. P.F. Chang’s is currently a hot ticket and P.T. Barnum would be proud.

Here’s what we had and how much it cost:

Spring Rolls (4) $5.95
Crispy String Beans $5.95 (Taken off bill for being late)
Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps $7.95 (Free)

Buddha’s Feat $7.50 (I give it a 3 out of 5 light on tofu)
Veggie Chow Fun $7.95 (Wife gave it 4 out 5 said it was bit greasy)
Lemon Chicken $12.95 (Son gave it 4 out of 5)
Crispy Honey Shrimp $$14.95 (Daughter gave it 3 out of 5, sad it was “okay”)

All came with choice of white or brown rice.

Total bill with $11 tip $72

We agreed that we prefer Lemongrass in Crofton to P.F. Chang’s, but our bill there would have been over $100. I really like that the fact that the meat free dishes at P.F. Chang’s are reflected in their price. That is usually not the case at most places. Also, I think that if you’re ordering s menu item WITHOUT meat or cheese, they should give you a break on the price. At most places, they don’t. Ledo’s Pizza is vegan without the cheese, the most expensive ingredient, but if you order it without the cheese, they charge the same price. That’s alot of extra profit. How about a free extra topping if you hold the cheese or $1 off??

P.F. Chang’s can be found here: http://www.pfchangs.com.