Lego builds satisfaction with great customer service

(a personal story of a boy, a toy and some missing parts)

My son is a huge lego fan... HUGE. He turned 7 in December and for a couple of years has been building complicated lego projects. So he knows his way around a set of directions and gets very excited when he gets a new lego set.

With a birthday near Christmas and a known love of Lego, he received a whole bunch of new lego joy. Then it happened. Something that had never happened before in the 20+ previous lego sets - parts were missing. He's at the stage now where there are over 1000 pieces in a set -- so it takes a lot of time and energy to be sure something is missing. After we checked and double checked we determined a couple of pieces were gone.

So we called the hotline and they happily agreed to send out the missing pieces. Ok...can deal with that.

We waited. And waited. And called again. Finally the pieces arrived.

So my son - who was about 20% through the project before he found parts were missing - started building again using the newly sent pieces. Two minuted later ... more pieces were discovered missing.

AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

So another call to the hotline and this time they say they thing an entire bag of parts might have been left out of the box (there are often 5 or more different bags of parts). So they place an order for the entire bag of parts.

Move forward another 3 weeks . After checking the mail box every day for Lego delivery we call the hotline again to check on the order. At this point we are told some of the pieces are on backorder. And here's what has to happen BEFORE we get it.

Parts have to ship from Europe - to the United States - then here to Canada. My wife expressed her displeasure with the situation and explained to the always pleasant help person what we have been through.

Ten minutes after that call -- Lego calls US and says that they are going to send us a FREE lego set for our troubles. My son then had the fun of picking out any lego under $30! Wow, that was unexpected and very impressive.

Thanks Lego.

The icing on the lego cake was that the missing parts came quickly after that as did the free lego. Fantastic customer service is alive and well and made out of little plastic bricks.

Can we really trust Facebook now?

Earlier this month Facebook introduced new Terms of Service that has the potential to seriously affect your personal Facebook page - and everything on it.

Basically Facebook claimed rights to all your stuff on Facebook even after you remove it, and even after you delete your Facebook account. If I understand it correctly, that's rights forever for all your pictures, status update, videos, ... every thing.

Very, very, scary.

Well, after a lot of pressure, and as of this morning, Facebook has changed its policy back to the way it was. But can we really trust Facebook now? What will it try in the future? Obviously many people will be watching them very closely but when that many people (more than 175 million people use Facebook) put that much very personal informaiton online -- the tempatation to do "the wrong thing" is great for companies looking to make a buck.

Beware.

5 Ways Stephen Harper could be more like Barack Obama

(and lessons for all of us)



There has been a lot of buzz about here in Canada about Obama paying us a visit. It's tradition that Canada is the first foreign country a new US President visits. (Bush went to Mexico - but he doesn't really count) . So tomorrow, on Feb. 19 Barack Obama will meet with our own Stephen Harper for a few hours. No fancy state dinner, no address to Parliament, likely just casual chat over a couple of Tims. (maybe they'll try their new green tea and trail mix cookie)



I do not believe the two Men have met in person before, so it should be interesting to see how Canada / US relations evolve. It also got me thinking about ways our own Stephen Harper could be more like Obama. And really, things we could all learn as well. So here's my top 5 list.

5 Ways Stephen Harper could be more like Barack Obama:

1. Be more real.
When you see Obama you get the sense he's being himself. In speeches, interviews, and with his family, Obama is himself. That "realness" comes across. With Harper you get a feeling he is playing a role. Acting like what he thinks a PM should act like. Obama is folksy, even tempered and says things like "at home his wife is in charge". Harper comes across as plastic, forced and robotic like. Stop it Stephen. Be yourself in out out of Parliament and people will like you more.

2. Be a leader.
A leader is someone people want to follow. Harper is certainly not that for most Canadians. A leader makes decisions after taking in the best information from all sources and sides. Then they make a decision based on what they believe is best for the country. Not the party. If you look after Canada - Canadians will look after you. Obama understand leadership and seems to naturally have that quality. People are buying what Obama is selling. Part of being a good leader is admitting when you are wrong. Obama acknowledged recently that he had "made a mistake" in trying to exempt some candidates for positions in his administration from strict ethics standards and accepted the withdrawal of two top nominees. Can you imagine that in Canada.

3. Have a vision.
Obama is all about Hope and Change. Exactly what people want right now. Harper is about keeping his job and staying in power. Not much of a vision. It's hard to get behind a person who doesn't have a big picture of a better world they are going to bring. It's not hard --- pick something. Going to the moon, renewable energy, a bigger-brighter future type of stuff.

4. Connect with people
Barack Obama and his team were masters of connecting with Americans during the campaign -- and since he has come to office, that communication has continued - especially through social media. I even got an email last night after he signed the big economic bill inviting me to a web site to track where the money is going. Harper? Well he has a twitter account during the campaign that was poor at best and has since been just as weak in my opinion. Get out there Mr. Harper and start communicating relevant messages in the ways people want to be communicated with. The model is there, use it.

5. Embrace rivals and different opinions
Obama understands that having a room full of "yes-men" is not going to make decisions any easier. He embraces rivals like Clinton (naming Clinton to be his secretary of state)McCain and others to help forge a new way in Washington. We had our ill-fated coalition -- but the motivation there was totally different. Broaden your horizons Harper and get more non-like-minded people on your team. We'd all be better off.

So welcome President Obama to Canada and here's hoping a little of what you have to offer rubs off on Prime Minister Stephen Harper --- and a bit on the rest of us as well.

The Best SuperBowl Ad wasn't made by an agency

Joe and Dave Herbert, of Batesville, Indiana didn't play in the SuperBowl this Sunday... but they were the day's big winners. The pair, along with three other brothers, run a video production site and together they entered and won the Doritos Crash The Super Bowl contest.

The contest invited consumers to submit their own commercial for Doritos. The best one (as voted by visitors on the promotional site) would be aired during the SuperBowl. Their commercial, "Free Doritos," features a guy who shatters a vending machine with his crystal ball after predicting free Doritos for everyone in the office. Not only was their spot the best Doritos commercial - it was also the best commercial to air during the entire game -- according to many (including myself) and more importantly USA TODAY's Ad meter contest.

You see if the Doritos ad was deemed the best according to USA TODAY's Ad meter contest -- Joe and Dave would also win $1 million.

How did a bunch of brothers beat some of the best creative minds in the business with multi-million dollar budgets?

Simple. They did their homework and came up with a great idea.

They studied all the previous winners of USA TODAY's Ad meter contest to see what resonated with those judges. They knew, for example, they wanted people to laugh twice. They also took their time to develop a really wonderful idea.

After they had their concept, the went to their local YMCA with a bunch of friends and family, a vending machine they bought off of ebay and shot their commercial. Besides the vending machine ($400 plus 5 sheets of glass), their biggest cost was buying food for everyone.

The "SuperBowl" of advertising is being on SuperBowl with the best ad ... and it just goes to show you the power of a great idea trumps mega budgets every time.

Read more here. Or watch this piece from CNN.