Shameless Self-Promotion

They say that viral marketing over the internet is now the number one way to drive traffic to your website. Well, since this is the case, I need to take a moment and plug the newest Friend of the Abstract.

Today's new friend is going to be familiar to all of my readers out there. The reason all of you will know this friend, is because the friend is me. Thats right, I am now the newest friend of my own blog.

I know this may sound to many of you like I have finally lost my marbles (what few remaining I had anyway). Give me a second more of your time, and you will understand what i am talking about.

As many of you out there are aware, last October I lost my job. No, I didn't misplace it, I "had my position eliminated". Anyhow, not to dwell, but also, as many of you know, since then, I have been looking for new work.

Over the last few months I have been on many interviews. I have even received a few offers here and there, but unfortunately, none have been to my liking. This created a dilemma of sorts, as my income suddenly stopped, but my expenses did not. Unlike many I know however, I was prepared for my rainy day. I had finally learned to be smart, and I listened to some advice that my grandfather gave me when I was little. "Live on 10% less than what you make, so you will always have some money put away just in case," he used to tell me. Thanks to that advice, and my learning more about budgeting than any human ever wanted to know during my MBA program, I had some money set aside, just in case.

Because I had listened, I was in no hurry to take the first offer that came along, and instead I decided I could wait for the right offer to come about. At the same time however, being the person who I am, I had no desire to dwindle my little nest egg down to nothing while I waited for a year for "the right offer".

In the mean time, I learned that I said some very savvy friends out there. You see, once they found out I was unemployed, and looking for a new job, they approached me to see if I could help them find new jobs too (hey, as long as I was out there looking, right?). So as I reworked my resume, polished my interview and negotiation skills, and began networking in earnest, some of my good buddies figured, why not go along for the ride. To make a boring story short, over the last four months, I have rewritten 5 resumes (plus mine), prepared 4 people for interviews (plus mine), assisted in 2 salary negotiations, and helped 2 pals land new gigs (none for me thank you very much).

Then came a fortuitous dinner with a couple who I am friends with. My better half and I took them out to dinner to celebrate the holidays with them. The lady half of this couple was telling me about her problems at work. She made mention of all of the troubles she was having and how her boss (who also happened to to be the business owner) was trying to help her fix the issues to no avail. I told her my thoughts on the problem, and I suggested that she and her boss contact a business consultant to come in and help them out. She seemed to think this was a great idea, and she asked me if I new of anyone who could do the job.

Here is where another lesson my grandfather (and quite possibly every other adult in my life from age 4 and up) taught me came in. "Kaddish," he used to say, "you need to learn to think before you speak" (I have a habit of saying some of the most profoundly dumb comments sometimes). So just as I was about to tell my friend about this consultant that her husband and I both train with, who could do a great job for her, I took pause and remembered to think first.

I realized that everything she needed, not only could my friend do, but so could I. And since I was not generating any income at all, and had some free time on my hands from being unemployed and all, I could do the job myself. So rather than become Yenta the matchmaker, I insted chose the route of Donald Trump the entrepreneur. I sold her on using me for the consulting work, and thus the birth of Steinbach Consulting.

Since then, I have completed that first job (and according to the client, did a first rate job), and have also landed a few more gigs. In addition, based on my earlier successes with helping my pals with their employment situations, I have added an entire "Employee Services" division to my repertoires.

So now that I have left the land of the unemployed, and entered the world of the self-employed, I must start pushing my wares on anyone who I know in the hopes they can send some business my way. I have my company website up, and therefore, since I know in advance that I am going to provide the type of service to my clients that I love to rave about here on the Abstract, I am preemptively adding Steinbach Consulting to Friends of the Abstract. If any of you, my loyal readers, have a need for my services, or you know anyone who has a need for my services, please let me know. I will pay a referral fee out to anyone who sends me new business of any kind, so it will pay for you to look at my website, www.steinbachconsultinggroup.com, and see what types of services I am offering to businesses, new college graduates, and employees looking for their next step in their careers.

As usual, feedback would be appreciated, so check out the new website, www.steinbachconsultinggroup.com, and let me know your Abstract.

A Nice Change of Pace

Just a quick shout out to a company who has learned to provide excellent customer service. This evening, I went to dinner at the Olive Garden and I ordered my food. When the food came out, I found that the chicken I had ordered had not been cooked correctly. The edge of the chicken breast had been over cooked, and was kind of tough. I complained to the waiter, and he of course went to get the manager. When the manager came to the table, he asked what was wrong. I told him, and he immediately offered to have the cook fix the meal, even though I had already eaten over half of the meal.

Then, when the meal came back out, and it was perfect, the manager did something totally unexpected. he came to the table to check on the recooked food, and then he paid for the meal. Now some of you out there may think that the manager should have done that, however, I am not one of those people.

Yes I am a stickler for customer service, but in no way does that mean I expect a business to go out of business to service the customer. They are in business to make a profit, and I respect that. That is why I would have expected the manager to either have paid for the meal, or made a new one. Instead, the manager did both, and in going above and beyond, he made me a fond customer who will definitely return. Go Olive Garden !!!!

If anyone out there has an awesome customer service experience, let me know. I love to hear great customer service stories.