Why I am now a fan of Fedex

Yesterday I got a piece of furniture delivered by Fedex. They notified me of a failed delivery attempt by email (you can setup triggers on their site) and when I called them to schedule delivery for Saturday they were very helpful.
The best part follows: a few minutes later I got a call from their driver asking me what time that afternoon he could come and deliver the package. He was very friendly and promptly setup a time. He showed up at the agreed time, schlepped it up to my apartment and left.
That's what i call great customer service - courteous, friendly and fast. I tried to become a fan of Fedex on Facebook - alas! no page yet. So Fedex get a Facebook page, i'll be your first fan!

The Orbitz user experience sucks

My prior experiences with Orbitz have mostly been frustrating because they can't seem to get their availability right - it has happened to me dozens of times that they show a fare, I click on it and it's gone...to be replaced by a fare three-times higher.

Last night I tried to book a flight to Germany for Christmas. I started on my favorite travel site Kayak and was referred to Orbitz for a good fare on a LH code share. I tried booking it three times and got the great error message "there was an error, please hit the back button" three times after submitting my payment information. Great start. So I picked up the phone to speak to a friendly service representative. Long story short, after several promises he'd get me the flight and after 30 minutes (!) on the phone - nothing! No flight, no booking, nothing. Tip for Orbitz: fix your engine; tip for travellers - use Kayak and then go directly to the airline.

In-store search has a lot of potential

Yesterday I went to my local Bed, Bath and Beyond (stock: BBBY) - unfortunately there was no time left for Home Depot...
I was looking for a CD-Rack (yes, some people still use CDs) and asked about 5 sales associates. The common answer was something along the lines of "yes, somewhere downstairs or maybe not at all" - which led me to abandon the store pretty quickly...
Everybody is in love with Online Search - but how easily could BBBY increase its in-store conversion rate by equipping sales associates with a little PDA that contained an overview of the entire store and would let them search for the item, answer the question and ideally print out a little map? I'm sure some stores are doing just this - but it seems like a logical extension of search into the offline world for me.

How Lufthansa can learn something from its American rivals

After my recent flight with Emirates I took a connecting flight with Lufthansa to Munich. Lufthansa overall is a very reliable yet unexciting Airline with modern planes and decent on-board service. My flight from JFK arrived early in Hamburg so I asked the check-in personnel at Lufthansa whether I could catch an earlier flight (there were 2 departures prior to mine - both with availability). She referred me to her colleague at the booking desk who then told me it would cost me EUR 250 to change to an earlier flight - not really worth a 2 hour wait.
Lufthansa could have done me a favor (I would even have paid a EUR 25 fee for this) at absolutely no cost to them - instead they chose to enforce their silly booking rules and alienate a regular customer.

Crossing the Atlantic the way it should be with Emirates

Yesterday I travelled from JFK to Hamburg for Christmas and for the first time had the pleasure of flying Emirates. The main reason for me choosing Emirates was the right date and the right place but the experience was well worth it. The friendly check-in, the fairly comfortable Economy class seats and the good food are all above standard but hardly remarkable. What really stands out are all the little details on this flight: the amazing in-flight entertainment system with 100 on-demand movies, games, internet access and a phone, the fact that all passengers get a little kit with socks, a toothbrush and sleeping goggles and the water fountains next to the restroom. The mood-lighting, the star-studded plane ceiling and the cameras below and in front of the plane also contribute to the overall positive experience. I'd take Emirates again in a heartbeat. Also see my post on the successive Lufthansa experience for the darker side of air travel.

Why the future for e-commerce growth is still bright

Today I went over to Circuit City after work because the PSP game I was looking for was sold out on Amazon (I shop a lot more from them since I got Amazon Prime - it certainly works for me, but I doubt they make a dime on any of my single-item purchases).

The trouble started with the actual game - they had it, but it was locked in a case that could only be opened by a Sales Associate. After a few minutes I got someone's attention who promptly disappeared for 5mins. When she returned she didn't actually give me the game but walked it to the Cashier's with me - I suppose PSP games are on top of the in-store theft list these days...

Then I had to wait in line for another 10 minutes to finally pay for the game - at least they game me an unadvertised 15% discount...

Time in store - at least 2o minutes. Time online - 1-click checkout....