Today, the scenario isn’t all that different.  Today I have a TV, DirecTV receiver, DirecTV DVR, Stereo Receiver, Mac Mini, Wii, and Blu-Ray Player that all need to be controlled.  Just to watch TV two remotes are required for the TV and stereo.  The situation gets more complicated with each component you want to interact with.

For several years now, I’ve heard glowing reviews for the Logitech line of universal remote controls.  I’ve never really given much thought to them because of the price points.  Many can go for a few hundred dollars or more.  Recently, I began pricing the remotes, as I could no longer resist their melody of home theatre component harmony.

This Christmas my wonderful wife bought me one.  A Logitech Harmony One.  Of all my fantastic presents she got me, the universal remote was the one I was enamored by. (Yes, I’m that guy).  That morning I took it out of the box.  The unboxing experience was similar to that of Apple.  It was packaged well and laid out to highlight the product.  Made you want to savor the experience of starting it up and seeing what it can do.  There was no huge paper of codes.  It had a CD with software for your computer and a USB cord to attach the remote to your computer.  After about 15 minutes of set up, it was done.  Everything was programmed and seemed to be working wonderfully!  Then I tried to switch to my Mac Mini.  The input on the receiver did not go to the correct input that.  It seemed that something was not programmed correctly.

To make a long story short, after some troubleshooting, I found that the software from Logitech had an issue.  My 12 year old, obscure Pioneer receiver, had 7 inputs, but the Logitech software listed 8, which resulted in the remote flipping through the inputs too far and over shooting by 1 every time.  I thought for sure this was going to result in my having to return the remote.  What company, especially one the size of Logitech was going to listen to my call to correct their software?  I even expected it.  If I was the only one complaining, why wouldn’t they assume I was doing something wrong and that their software was correct.

I sent an email through their website and less than 48 hours later I had a response.  Much to my surprise, not only did they recognize my concern as valid, but also they had gone into the software and changed the inputs to what I had said they were. They’re response to me was “plug in your remote and let it update with the new settings. Let us know if this corrects the issue.”  It did!

Wow!  Not only did they respond and meet my expectations, but they went far beyond.  They took my concern as real, investigated, corrected, and communicated.  I can now say that I’m a loyal customer of Logitech and another raving fan of their products.

Not only did they sell me what is truly a universal remote, but they sold me simplicity.  They sold me a product that allows not only me to enjoy my home theatre, but allows my wife to simply hit a single button and be able to watch a movie, listen to iTunes, watch a DVD, or record a TV show.  No need for multiple remotes, or even to know what input to set devices to.  She quite literally hits the button that says, “Listen to iTunes” or “Watch a DVD” and the remote takes it from there.  What else can I ask for?  What price will consumers pay for this product… this experience?  It’s not a remote; it’s the experience of simplicity, harmony, and organization. I can tell you that I know that feel that I got more than my money’s worth and then some.  Thank you Logitech!

**I received no compensation for this post from any parties mentioned.  I purchased and use this product personally and received no benefit in return.

So, where is the line between what is yours, and what is owned by an employer?  We’ve all heard of the situations where an employer implements policies to regulate what activities an employee engages in outside of their direct employment.  Understandably, many of these regulations and policies prevent conflicts of interest regarding the employee’s time and efforts.  Some of the policies go further and state that an employee can’t take any additional work outside of the organization without prior approval, or even discourage attending evening college courses due to the fear that it will distract from the employee’s regular work responsibilities.  These policies have been employed for a number of years by a variety of organizations and can be debated regarding necessity, effectiveness, and legality, but that debate has been had many times over and will continue to be debated.  That’s not the question here.

But what about your cell phone?  Here’s a scenario to consider:

Business X provides cell phones to a limited number of employees.  Traditionally, some employees utilize these phones, but some choose to keep their own cell phone service.  There is no requirement from the business to have a “business cell phone”. Those who utilize the provided cell phones have to take a business provided phone with a standard phone model and service provider, and in turn, the business pays for that phone.  Those who chose to not take the provided phone, simply use their personal phone for the limited phone calls they take from inside the business and take no subsidy or compensation for their phone.

This policy is in place for a period of time, until a decision is made at some level that cell phones should be listed on business cards.  At this time, the business takes the prerogative to publish the cell phones of employees on the reprint of business cards, but makes no discrimination between those who utilized business cell phones and those who had personal cell phones.  Those business cards are then printed and distributed to customers.

There was no communication to the employees with personal cell phones.  Nor was there a choice given to take a business cell phone prior to the publishing of personal cell phones to customers.

The employee was using the personal cell phone for business purposes. But the business was not compensating the employee for that business use.

So…

• Does the business have the authority to publish the personal cell phone without notice?

• Is that cell phone the sole property of the employee, and thus fall under the right of privacy to the individual?

• Does the employee’s waiver of a business provided phone and subsequent use of the personal phone for business purposes cause the personal phone to fall under the purview of the business?

Share your thoughts below.  I’d love to hear what you think!

Unfortunately I learned more about that story last night, in a way that no one ever wants to.  First I heard it on Twitter, and the mainstream news reports followed not long after, that the warehouse behind the iconic Gallery Furniture was the site of a 4-alarm fire.  The flames could be seen for miles, and the smoke and heat was detectable from the local news Doppler radar.  The reports from the firefighters were that they could only take a defensive stance and protect the showroom from being engulfed and allow the warehouse with millions of dollars of inventory to burn out.  In the end, they were blessed with no injuries and that everyone who was in the building at the time of the fire was accounted for.

The founder and owner of Gallery Furniture, fondly known as Mattress Mack, wasted no time in getting a proactive message out to his customers.  It’s a masters course in crisis communication unfolding right before us.  Updates were posted on the web, via twitter, mainstream media interviews, and I even saw a camera crew heading into the Post Oak location right behind Mattress Mack, which I would speculate is their ad firm wasting no time in getting a commercial out addressing the events and the companies plan to rebuild.

The communication from Gallery Furniture has been great, but the truly moving story is unfolding from their customers.  It’s a prime example of the loyalty your customers will show you when you treat them with respect and dignity.  When you build a customer base by “doing the right thing” and taking care of people and your community at large, they respond in a big way.  Rising from the ashes of this fire, customers of Gallery Furniture and Houstonians at large, are outpouring their support for Gallery Furniture.  They express their deep concern for the company and its employees, their gratitude for all the the company and its founder does for the city, and their unwavering support of the company.  Many even going as far as saying they’ll find a reason to buy some furniture and go to Gallery Furniture to support them in this tough time.  For example, one anonymous poster said this “…I will make my way out to your newly opened location to pick up some stuff– don’t know what yet, but I’m sure I will find something. May God bless you and help you get through this tough time.”

I’ve never purchased anything from, or even been to a Gallery Furniture, but I assure you, next time I’m in the market for some furniture, it’s the first place I’ll go.  Now that I’ve seen how much Gallery Furniture is loved by its customers.  Now that I’ve seen all the amazing stories of how Gallery Furniture supports its community and our US soldiers.  Now that I’ve seen that Gallery Furniture is an honest company with a genuine heart.  I now consider myself a loyal Gallery Furniture supporter.

Mattress Mack and Gallery Furniture, I hope you can find some comfort in the outpouring of support from your loyal community, and you have a new loyal customer in me.

A few weeks back Tony Hsieh provided opening remarks at SXSW 2009. Below is a short video with some of his comments. Tony’s thoughts on customer service at the Zappos.com call center and how they train their service representatives should serve as a model for organizations out there that want to build customer loyalty and promote word of mouth.

Give the video a listen and share your thoughts and comments below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63WFjoFiXns]

I admit that I did panic a bit at first.  I’ve not been in this position before, so I didn’t know what to do, or what to expect.  I was worried about how I was going to support my wife and myself and provide the second income that at this point in our lives we unfortunately cannot do without.  It didn’t take long to see that things are going to be just fine.  God does not put us in positions that we cannot handle.

As the panic subsided and reason started to come to the surface, I began to think through my options and started to make connections with my network of wonderful friends and colleagues that I’ve had the opportunity to work with during my career. These are people I’ve worked with and respect.  They’ve been a wonderful support structure and I hope that I’ve been able to return the favor.  It’s been wonderful seeing a side of them now that I didn’t see from them as colleagues.  I’ve learned how they’ve been affected by the sudden layoffs, how they handle the adversity, and how they react to the way those who they respected and followed as leaders in their organization have treated them, and how some of them feel betrayed.

The thought that keeps coming back to me, is what’s the tipping point that a group of people, all with the best of intentions and good nature, becomes an organization or company that looses touch with those they serve.  Like a mild mannered person who gets behind the wheel of their vehicle and takes on an aggressive, road-rage laden persona, organizational leadership can set aside personal feelings and human instinct to ‘do the right thing’ to instead make desicions in the name of cost saving, personnel policy, and streamlining for short-term gain.  Like the car that acts as a barrier to the outside world and cuts off the human connection that allows the mild mannered person to become the enraged driver, far too often we see CEOs and organizational leaders hide behind policy and “business decisions” to allow them to make the easy choice instead of boldly leading, making the decisions that are best for their employees, and in turn best for their company in the long term.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX6f40EdCYc]