Cineworld Cinema = Uncreative Customer Service

Quick blog on a topic I often have the urge to rant about, customer service.  According to the experts if you want to benefit from positive word of mouth your business has to provide Wow! customer service. Average doesn't cut it, and bad service actually generates negative word of mouth.  

I recently bought tickets online to go see Iron Man.  I was foaming at the mouth to see this film and was really looking forward to it.  I showed up at the Cineworld in High Wycombe and, oops, there was a fire in the theatre (nobody hurt) and I was prevented from even getting within 100 yards.  Things happen, I was glad everyone was safe, and so went elsewhere to see the film same day.  Iron Man was a gas, really good fun.

Three days later I drop by the cinema to get a refund.  I present my email confirmation and the cashier informs me that, well, they can refund the ticket price, but not the transaction fee.  I would have to call the corporate help line for that.  I didn't make a fuss, I took the partial refund. 

Later, while eating sushi, I realize that I now hate Cineworld for not giving me a full refund.  It would take too much time and energy to chase down the transaction fee, so, not really an option for me.  However, dropping the equivalent of about 3 US dollars into a sewer pipe never makes me happy, in fact, it makes me mad.  As a former movie theater manager I came up with a few ways I could have been made truly happy, and on the spot: a couple free tickets/passes, a coupon for free concessions, an invite to a sneak preview, maybe put on a compensation show late some night for everybody who was inconvenienced by the fire, etc.  But no, they tell me to call corporate.  My transaction fee?  My tough luck to have booked on a day they had a fire.

Creativity in business doesn't always have to be rocket science does it?  It can be really easy and incremental.  It can be as simple as a free bag of  popcorn.  A small bit of creativity on the part of Cineworld would have made me a happy customer returning again and again to their theatre. Instead it becomes a last resort, and, I take time to let the world know how I feel about Cineworld.

Future Trend, Rejection of Anti-Psychotic Drugs

News reports of the vast numbers of children, particularly in the USA, who are receiving anti-psychotic drugs is alarming.  The number of kids taking these drugs has doubled in the last five years.  

I'm not a medical expert but clearly something is wrong here.  I believe the reason for the increase in these prescriptions is a combination of not enough parental attention, the need to control naturally energetic children, and a drug industry that is only too ready to provide a solution.  I'm sure these drugs have there place, but the numbers are so starkly wacky that this screams inappropriate prescribing.  

Kids have lots of energy, but what they need is exercise, attention, and avenues for self-expression.  Their excess energy that could be "controlled" in much healthier, more creative ways. 

I find it ironic and sad that the arts are being erased from many public school curricula and you even hear reports of schools eliminating outside activity in the playground because of crime and liability issues.  So, we silence the music, silence the recess bells of play, and provide a pill that fogs the mind... it's beyond sad, this really makes me angry.

I am not a futurist, but I am a social observer so I'm going to make a prediction based on my observations.  The chickens will someday come home to roost.  These drugged children will grow up and will become anti-doctor, and anti-prescription drugs, and in a very angry and active way.  

Jack Huber, Character in Jack's Notebook, Comes ALIVE in Twitter!

It's weird and otherworldly.  It's kinda now, kinda wow, and definitely ground-breaking in the industry.  What's happening is the main character in my business parable has decided to have a real-time existence in Twitter.  Call it Flash Fiction, call it a miracle, call it a reason to live, but those who accept his invitation -- his name is Jack Huber -- will be getting 140 character or less messages from a fictional character who is concerned with creativity, problem solving, photography, and his girl friend Molly Dunne.  

Just thought everyone should know, it took me by surprise.  Don the Idea Guy gave me this idea because, well, that's what he does.

If you want to get Jack's Messages, let me know and I'll ask him.  Can't guarantee anything, he has a mind of his own...

The Time Has Come for a National Innovation Foundation

As another recession is getting started and the USA watches more manufacturing go overseas one wonders when we'll do something to get off our bums and be more competitive and retain jobs.  

Well, somebody is at least thinking about it.  A think tank issued a press release today recommending that a National Innovation Foundation should be created, and funded, in order to help the USA compete and drive growth.  See the release here:

www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_9023834

I'm glad that the ITIF (see www.itif.org) came out with this suggestion, although it strikes me as a bit obvious.  One wonders why this wasn't done 15 years ago.  The Bush administration, in it's infinite wisdom on support of small business, is trying to eliminate the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a government entity trying to assist companies in modernizing their operations.  Congress has kicked around a couple of ideas, such as the America Competes Act, but without funding where could that go and what could it achieve?

Susan Collins, Republican senator from Maine, is working now to create an innovation foundation.  

I would hope that whoever is elected would support this important initiative.

Are you listening Barack, John, and Hillary? 

Last Night at the Lobster

If you want to read a wonderfully tasty, short, and elegant piece of creative fiction, go immediately to Amazon and order Stewart O'Nan's "Last Night at the Lobster."  About every five years or so I read something so well done, so heart felt, that I can't put it down.  This is it, I only wish it had gone on another 100 pages, it totals about 145.  Sometimes the best things are fundamental, and this book proves it.  A simple premise -- a restaurant manager walks through his last day at the Red Lobster, a place he manages with passion and grace.  Corporate is closing him down and the book is infused with melancholy, and yet, it's hopeful as well.  The co-workers and customers aren't characters, they are people you know. Creative writing can be inspirational when it's this good and therefore good for your entire creative self.  Do yourself a favor and read this succulent novella and nourish yourself.

AC Clarke, Sci Fi Writer, Creative Visionary

A brief post to honor and celebrate the life of the late, great, and highly creative, Sir Arthur C. Clarke.  Clarke died yesterday, March 19, 2008 at the age of 90.  

He is best known for his science fiction writing, specifically the short story, The Sentinel, that led to the seminal film "2001:A Space Odyssey." It is not widely known that Clarke was something of an inventor/technologist having articulated the idea that geostationary satellites would be ideal telecommunications relays -- in 1945. To say that this was a good idea -- as it lead to them actually being used in that fashion and also set up the conduit used by cable television services like HBO to distribute content all over the world. Another prediction he made is the building of a space elevator, which he believed will make space shuttles obsolete. Clarke wrote about 34 novels, over 12 short story collections numerous non-fiction articles, and worked on several notable television programs.

"The only way to find the limits of the possible is by going beyond them to the impossible."

Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Gordon Ramsay, Creative Hero

Just watched another episode of Gordon Ramsay's television show, Kitchen Nightmares. It's a show where celebrity chef Gordon visits a restaurant in trouble and puts things in order. I get a huge kick out of this show! It's entertaining, and, a real example of creative problem solving.

For those who are unfamiliar with Gordon, he's quite a character. A huge success as a restaurateur in the UK, he was once a promising soccer (football) player whose career ended early due to injuries. After years of kitchen dues paying he became a great chef. It's quite a story. He's quite blunt at times, and uses bad language frequently. I suspect he's accentuating these traits at times to make the show more entertaining, and I also suspect that it's not so far afield from who he really is. Gordon Ramsay is incredibly creative, not just as a chef, for which he is well known, but also as a business person and a creative problem solver. If you are not a "foodie" and don't watch shows related to cooking and such, I would ask you to defer judgement and watch Kitchen Nightmares, it is a wonderful and entertaining example of practical creativity at work.

Each show is really a case study in using creativity to turn a failing business around. The show I just saw is the episode focused around a restaurant in Tuckahoe, New York State, the Olde Stone Mill. The owner, Dean Marrazzo had renovated and converted -- with his own hands -- an actual mill and made it into his dream restaurant. Of course, he sunk every last dime he had into it, and bet his families future on it. Real life drama! Due to a number of challenges within the restaurant he was on the brink of disaster when Gordon showed up on his motorcycle to help turn things around.

Gordon first meets the people at the restaurant and then goes into assessment mode, in creative process parlance, he does a lot of fact finding. He tastes the food, looks around the restaurant, asks questions, even researches the local area to get a sense of market conditions. Well, the food was crap for one, but the bigger problem was that the Olde Stone Mill, essentially, was burdened by the owners ego and fear. Reality shows often bore me but even though you have to suspect staging in Kitchen Nightmares, the tension, anxiety, fear, and desperation was well communicated -- it would have been hard to fake! My hat's off to Mr. Marrazzo for having the guts to bring in Gordon Ramsay. Clearly, it wasn't easy for him!

So Gordon springs into action. He finds a local supplier of meat that is really excellent and having surveyed the area -- overloaded with Italian food -- decides that Olde Stone Mill should reopen as a steak house. It's a bold move, but an informed and creative one (it would be nice to know what else he considered, I'd love to have more detail on how this guy thinks). He works with the chef and gets the kitchen in order. Then he turns his attention to the real problem which is the owners inability to get out of his own way. He confronts him in a very direct way, which in my view is another very creative act. The two men had a brutally honest interaction and it showed both of them to be vulnerable, as Gordon confessed that he'd lost a restaurant himself and knew what failure was like as well as success. The confrontation led to the breakthrough the restaurant needed to change, survive, and thrive.

Many people think creativity is all about being nice, and forget that creativity is problem solving. And problems sometimes need to be confronted. Without making this owner face his fears and over-controlling ego the Olde Stone Mill was doomed. Sometimes, often really, creativity and innovation happen in a cauldron of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Gordon Ramsay is one of those people, apparently, who are not afraid to break a few plates in the process of making their creative point. What we can learn from my new creative hero is when you have a creative answer, don't be afraid to confront a problem head on, stick to your guns (or your egg beater), make your point, and push for the change you seek.

The happy ending of the show has Dean the owner saved from himself and the restaurant back on track as a steak house. Gordon and Dean hug before he rides off on his bike into the sunset. Nothing like success to mend the fences of confrontation!

For more on Gordon and Kitchen Nightmares, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_Nightmares. If you are anywhere near Tuckahoe, stop into the Olde Stone Mill for a steak -- they are still in business a year later, and apparently doing well http://www.theoldestonemill.com/ -- if you can believe the New York Times.