I love to network at business events.  I'm sure you have been to a few of these; Chamber of commerce after hours events, breakfast meetings, association meetings...the list goes on and on.  They are a great way to make contact  with potential clients, peers, and those who can refer you into some business or organization.

What I can't stand are the people who act like they are interested in meeting with you, but only until they think they have found someone better to meet. I recently attended a breakfast meeting at an organization, and while having a conversation with someone, another person who was obviously new to the group came up and introduced himself.  That's great!  Then he proceeded to me all about himself, and after a few minutes of his self-congratulatory resume', he asked me a question about myself.  As I began to respond he saw someone else, turned on his fake smile, and immediately turned to talk with that person.  I was left to talk with myself.  (I wonder, if someone answers a question and there is no one there to hear it, does it really happen?)

He finally finished his conversation with the other person, turned to me, again smiled (big teeth smile, by the way) and told me it was great to meet me and walked off.  I immediately checked my breath.

What a great first impression!  I hope I never run into this guy again.  What kind of first impression do you make when you attend a networking event, or any other meeting for that matter?  If you ask someone a question about themselves, their business, or their family, have the courtesy to listen.  You might learn something.

Does anyone have any Tic Tacs?

It's their delivery department where Sears made the experience a big pain in the neck...(and other parts of my anatomy as well.)  About a week before the scheduled delivery date I called Sears to learn what time of day to expect them.  We didn't care what part of the day, just a general estimate so that we could arrange to have someone at home when they came.

That was when the fun began.  I was told that they would call the evening before with a time for delivery.  I explained that calling that late would not help me as I had to schedule my business day and needed to know several days in advance.  Again,. I was told "We will call you the evening before."  I kept explaining about my particular predicament and no matter what I said I was told "We will call you the evening before."  I asked to speak to someone who could make it happen to my satisfaction.  I was told there was no one else.

I was not about to give up.  After extensive digging on the internet I found a phone number for Sears corporate...(they sure do make it hard for you to find the home office phone numbers.)  I called corporate, asked for customer service, and eventually was connected to someone who had some authority in the home delivery department.  After explaining my situation, he at least let me put in a request for a particular time of day.  He said he couldn't guarantee it but they would make their best effort.  That was good enough for me. 

I don't understand why businesses who make their money serving the public can't make a small effort to help a customer.  Customer service in so many large companies is more of an "act" than reality.  If it wasn't for the great job the original salesperson had done for us, I would have given serious consideration to canceling the order.  There is nothing worse than working hard to make a sale, and then have someone else in the company disappoint the customer. That's not a great way to build a business.