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News Media Lose It Over Lipstick

This whole Obama/Palin/lipstick smear is infuriating. John McCain in running on the strength of his character, but what kind of character is it to approve campaign messages that lie and distort the facts about your opponent? Worse still, though, is the media's playing along. It's one thing to report events as they occur; that's called news. But the endless bloviating is shameful, and yet another sign of the drop in quality of the work done by the mainstream media. Thankfully, Time's Mark Halperin has broken ranks with some clear-thinking. Here's how he chastised his peers on CNN last night:

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, listen, you can say all you want, John McCain said this about Hillary's health care proposal. But it was still foolish for Barack Obama to say because every night is precious for him, Anderson, in terms of getting his message out.

This is one night lost on your program where his message got muffled by this silliness over lipstick on a pig.

COOPER:Mark, you're shaking your head.

MARK HALPERIN, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Stop the madness. I think, with all due respect to the program's focus on, listen to David just said. I think this is the press just absolutely playing into the McCain campaign's crocodile tears.

COOPER: Crocodile tears.

HALPERIN: Yes.

COOPER: They knew exactly what it is.

HALPERIN: They knew exactly what he was saying. It's an expression. And this is a victory for the McCain campaign in the sense that every day they can make this a pig fight in the mud. It's good for them because it's reducing Barack Obama's message even more.

But I think this is a low point in the day and one of the low days of our collective coverage of this campaign. To spend even a minute on this expression, I think, is amazing and outrageous.

COOPER: Let's move on.

Yes, please, let's!

Person Mark halperin

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How One Small Error Leads to a Big Problem

A NYC man is suing American Airlines for mislocating his dead wife's body. Apparently the cause of the problem was a simple typo:

Funeral director Kathleen DeRiso said the shipping error was caused by someone at American who punched in the wrong airport code. She said they wrote GUA for Guatemala instead of GYE for Guayaquil.

"It was not our error," DeRiso said, adding that the body was properly embalmed and "there was no decomposition." She said it was the first time in her 18 years of dealing with American that such a mistake had happened.

We know humans are not infallible, and that's why systems need to have redundancies built in. There should have been some technology, practice, or other means of double-checking the destination of such important cargo as a casket with a body in it. This blunder is just another reason people should not ship their live pets via passenger aircraft.

On Commencement Addresses

If I'm ever invited to speak at a graduation, I must remember:

1) The graduates are finished with school. They don't want to hear a content-filled lecture. This is especially true if the content holds little intrinsic interest to anyone except the speaker.

2) The graduates expect to be praised for their achievments and encouraged as they move on to the next phase of their lives. Do so, with sincerity and a specific reference or two that shows you have some actual understanding of what they have accomplished.

3) The audience wants a few laughs. Give them some.

4) Tell a story, preferable one unique to your experience from which you can distill some key insight. Make it a funny story if possible; see #3 above.

5) Try to be spontaneous, rather than canned. Improvise. If a baby is crying, don't pretend as if no one can hear her. Make a joke that pokes fun at yourself (rather than criticizes the baby). Again, see #3 above.

6) Be brief. Really. It's hot in those caps and gowns. And everyone is getting hungry.

Pastry Problem

Last week we had dinner at "Jill's," the restaurant at Boulder's swankiest hotel, the St. Julien.  All was fine - the waitstaff were unobtrusive, the manager and/or maitre d' were solicitous, and the food was tasty. Then comes the dessert menu. I select the Disoranno Peach Cobbler, whose description emphasizes the use of peaches from Colorado's western slope and mentions a topping of some sort.

The plate arrives, and I see in the center of the dish a cylindrical dessert no larger than 2" in circumference covered entirely with a huge scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. OK, I think; so the menu didn't say anything about ice cream, and I didn't expect the cobbler to have been baked in a small ramekin. No big deal. So I dig in, first moving the ice cream scoop aside to get a look at the topping - which seems to be non-existent. I slice into the dessert to find it appears to be a firm custard baked with a few small pieces of peach sprinkled on top.

In front of me was actually a clafouti, a cakey/puddingy [I know - probably a neologism!] dessert traditionally made with cherries. And, as I know from my pastry training , a cobbler is topped with biscuits or dumplings; a baked fruit dessert with a crumb topping is called...a crumble! Then there are grunts, buckles, pandowdies - all American regional variations of baked fruit desserts. For a primer, I recommend Martha Stewart's web site. But I digress....

I get the maitre d's attention and explain that while the meal until now had been lovely, this dessert is by no one's definition a peach (what, with it barely having any peaches) cobbler (no biscuit) and certainly isn't what the menu describes. He listens, apologizes, and takes the plate back to the kitchen to speak with the chef. Moments later he returns to explain that the cobbler was a recent addition to the menu and to thank me (he seemed sincere) for bringing the matter to his attention. Of course, he is still calling it a cobbler, but let's move on.

Then...the recovery: an offer of another dessert, on the house. I am feeling full anyway, and had ordered the cobbler because it sounded so good. Nothing else appealed, so I thank him and decline the offer, though the gesture is exactly the right response to the situation. But then, the fumble: two minutes later he returns with a panna cotta topped with some kind of fruit sauce and says that the chef insisted it be brought out since he had already made it for me. So, what - I'm supposed to eat a dessert I don't enjoy, didn't order, and don't want, or else feel guilty because the chef made it just for me?  The whole thing leaves the proverbial bad taste in my mouth.

If I were to offer some advice to the folks at Jill's, it would be to improve their training and/or hiring practices. "Assurance" is an important dimension of service quality; it refers to the extent that customers feel confident about the knowledge of the service provider. Waitstaff as well as chefs at a restaurant worthy of the hotel of which it is a part should know something about the food they're serving. Someone should have caught the mischaracterization on the dessert menu, if not before the menus were printed then when the first "peach cobbler" plate left the kitchen. Oh, and when a customer declines an offer, it's more courteous to follow his wishes rather than override them to make yourself feel better.

How to Win Customer Loyalty

The guys at b.good, purveyers of Boston's best burgers and fries, have figured out that a freebie for customers every once in a while wins a lot of goodwill and loyalty. I've been on their e-mail list since they first opened five years ago next month. In b.good lingo that makes me "part of the family." From time to time I'll receive an e-mail offering a free burger or drink that day or the next. Sometimes the offer is to celebrate the introduction of a new product, or the opening of a new location (they're up to four now!), and sometimes it's for no good reason at all ("It's Tuesday!").

I just received a birthday card (I must have provided the date when I joined the e-mail list - I trust they adhere to a privacy policy!) inviting me to celebrate with a burger, as a gift from them.

Now, gifts like these by themselves won't buy loyalty; there are many choices when it comes to a quick, inexpensive meal in Boston. It's when a company consistently delivers quality products and solid service - the best ways to show that you value your customers - that extras such as these freebies nurture loyalty. The gifts reinforce customers' positive perception while turning it into a sense of obligation. Think about it: when I go to claim my burger, I'm going to want fries and probably a drink. Moreover, I'm going to feel that I should spend some money since they've been so nice to offer me this reward for being a customer.  And so the cycle continues: I have a satisfying meal at a discount and feel good that I've reciprocated by making a purchase. Chances are I'm going to return again soon - and not only when I receive the next e-mail from Anthony & Jon.

When Good Cakes Go Bad

I just found this blog that chronicles cakes designed and decorated in ways that are unintentionally hilarious. Some might be defects or other errors in quality, but most appear to be the result of bad judgment or poor taste. There is no indication, however, that the cakes are anything other than what the customer ordered. Of course, there might have been some misunderstanding, and even the most experienced cake decorator must have thought twice when she saw the order form for this one.

Sign of the times?

Same product, same price - different net weights (9 oz. on the left, 10 oz. on the right)!

I've seen this on Tropicana OJ (the 96 oz. bottle is now 84 oz) and on some cereal boxes as well. By selling less for the same price, companies can deal with higher production costs (especially raw materials, energy) without passing them on to consumers. Most people probably don't even notice, which is why so companies have been doing this for years. I think it started in the pre-Starbucks '70s when coffee brands like Maxwell House began reducing the contents of their canisters. Those who shop by unit pricing (like me) aren't fooled, though; I bet even the least-observant Columbo yogurt buyers have surely notices that along with the new graphics is a smaller container with  just 6 oz instead of the 8 oz. that had long differentiated that brand from others. Oh, and of course it is sold at the old price.

Quality and Control Problems at the Red Cross

Today's New York Times has a front -page story on serious operations problems with how the Red Cross manages the collection, storage, and transport of blood. Failure to follow procedures and ineffective monitoring processes are two sources of concern, but information management appears to be a significant problem as well. Despite more than 15 years of efforts at an estimated $1 billion cost, the organization still lacks an single, centralized database to accurately capture and share vital information such as the names of ineligible donors and the whereabouts of tainted blood components. 

The issues at the Red Cross go beyond quality control and effective process management. There appears to be serious deficiencies in its compliance with FDA reporting requirements, and a whistleblower who had led an audit team charges that she was fired for pushing for disclosure of problems the team had identified. The Times based its reporting in part on publicly available documents and asserts (without further discussion) that some point to the existence of falsified records. I hope these disclosures will lead to effective and lasting process improvement. As they say, sunshine is the best disinfectant.