downed power lineOriginally uploaded by elphmorgan.

No fried squirrel to be found but the power line across the street from the Deli was down on the ground sparking and smoking. Power was browned out in the ATS and the Next Door and out in the Deli. We ran around and gracefully shutdown all servers then shut down everything else.

Pictures of the scorch marks left in the cement sidewalk…

then close-up…

The latest release of NeoOffice 2.0, alpha 4, has been revised to run on both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs. Beta release is still schedule for August 29, 2006.

Download the lastest version of NeoOffice here

The IT geeks in the IT department take to heart a special recipe for customer service, based on the ZCoB recipe for handling customer complaints.

IT Steps to Great Customer Service
1.    RESPOND
•    Respond within 24 hours
•    Ask questions (helps solve and communicates engagement)
•    Provide a fix or a time assessment for a fix
2.    RESOLVE
•    Resolve within time period estimated or renegotiate before deadline
•    Accurately resolve bigger issue
•    Be polite
•    Be enthusiastic
•    Communicate (make sure they know the progress and when the issue is resolved)
3.    DOCUMENT
•    Send an email to the client and IT saying what you did or enter in tracking system
4.    FOLLOW UP
•    After resolving the issue, check back with the client
•    Go the extra mile
•    This may restart the process!

This recipe has worked very well for us. Recently, we’ve found a way to set the bar even higher for customer service!

Apart from our online helpdesk ticketing system, we often hear about problems through calls to our cellphones, personal visits to the office, and face to face requests when we go out to the different businesses. Most of the time, we try to solve them right on the spot. These issues had been going down without a trace.

We’ve implemented a new guideline for handling support issues: LOG EVERYTHING. Even the tiny “it’ll take me two minutes” ones. So far, the effects on our productivity and service have been great!

What are the results?

Our number of trouble tickets increased! That’s a good thing. We are now getting a more accurate picture of the technical health of the ZCoB.

Patterns emerge! When we started logging all the problems we encountered, we saw trends in the tickets and were able to address the larger encompassing issues.

Better communication = faster service! By logging all the issues as they come in, all members of the IT staff can contribute their solutions to issues that otherwise would not have been on their radar. Also, any IT geek regardless of expertise in an area can refer to old tickets to find the appropriate solutions. This helps us resolve problems faster and get our customers happier in no time!

This allows us to make better use of our human resources. Every ticket gets evaluated against the other tickets in the system. The most urgent ones are prioritized and get immediate attention. This way, the last IT geek in the office won’t run off to fix a squeaky printer when there is a critical issue in the system.

Hey,

So my Macbook has been randomly shutting down for the last couple of days and Wednesday it happened 6 times while I was using it. Called 1800-SOS-APPLE and after giving the Apple Tech my email address he says “That wouldn’t be Zingerman’s Deli would it?” He proceeds to tell me how much he loves our food and that they eat here whenever they come to visit his in-laws in Dearborn. He also admits to having had a mail order a sandwich kit sent to where he lives in Texas. It was easy to tell that he really meant all of the nice things he had said (this is level 2 tech support mind you) and seemed to carry a lot of enthusiasm for our products. The tech ended up giving me the choice of sending it in for repair or having it replaced with a new one(tough decision right?) It’s cool because they really didn’t need to send me a new machine and it’s totally outside of their warranty obligations to completely replace it. Anyway, it’s nice to have a good customer service experience outside of the COB once in a while, especially with a computer manufacturer.

-Brian

Had a wonderful time camping this weekend with Brian, Billie, and Phoebe and learned lots.

I learned that comfort is an important part of camping and that great food is not the end of radical thinking - sleeping is a territory of camping ready for new thought and I think I’m ready to move away from my tiny camp pillow to a bigger, fluffier pillow. i.e., Go for long term pleasure over short term pain.

I learned that even if you don’t know the details of how to start a fire by hand with nothing but sticks there is no harm, and much to gain, in trying, asking questions, and trying again. i.e., Enjoy the learning experience.

I learned that the art of building sand castles is alive and well and done in much more detail than I had ever tried myself. i.e., when working on any project commit oneself fully to the fullest aesthetic outcome.

And more, I’m sure.

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The 11g 54 Mbps Outdoor Bridge delivers 10 to 20 times the bandwidth of T1/E1 links and supports up to 1,000 clients. It will operate in a either point-to-point or point-to-multipoint (within the 19°-beam angle) configuration to meet growth and application demands.

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3Com® 11g 54Mbps Wireless LAN Outdoor Building-to-Building Bridge