In my opinion I believe poor service is the downfall of a company.  That very service is the face of the company.  Do you think a company that is not able to keep up with the needs of their customers/clients will be able to last long?  I’m of the opinion that is nearly impossible to do.  If a company is either unwilling or not capable with keeping up with the very people who support their business how long will people continue to use that service?

The past few months I have been paying attention to a few companies and how they handle things, and I’m not all together impressed.  Why is this you wonder.  Well without giving specifics about the companies or the situations themselves, I will tell you that it seems not all who work in a support type function are able to remain professional or provide what the client is looking for, in most cases that’s just answers.

Have you filled out a how are we doing card recently?  I know I haven’t but maybe that’s something everyone should get into the practice of doing again.  But even if we do fill out those cards are the customers actually heard?

If a company is going to provide something as part of their services should they not make everything a priority, if it’s dealing with their customer base? Or is it ok for a company to not focus on some areas of the service they offer?

I want your thoughts on this.  The more companies I see that provide terrible service the more I question 1) work habits/ethics  2) are companies hiring people that are able to provide proper service 3) do customers feel they are heard when they have a complaint and/or suggestion? 4) are those running the company capable of doing so?

One thing that definitely doesn’t sit well with me is poor service.  That goes for anywhere.  A restaurant, the movie ticket counter, retail store, online ordering, anything where customers are involved.

As a consumer when I’m calling, emailing, etc. for support, I expect someone to be able to provide me an answer, a solution if one is required, a way to solve the issue at hand if there is a problem.  What I don’t want is someone who says I’m not sure, I’m not able to help you and I’m not sure who you need to talk to, etc.  We’ve all heard these excuses after being transferred around.

How do you feel when you are not satisfied with your customer service?  Do you stay with the service if it’s not something you are happy with?  If your cable provider was constantly overcharging you or if it was never working properly would you switch providers you were using?

Bottom line is.  Happy customers = return customers = more business/word of mouth promo.

Unhappy customers = losing business = less business/no promo = company fail.

I’m by no means saying that all companies have poor or even terrible service, but it doesn’t seem all businesses are putting focus into making their clients happy.

Readers Included:
Dayle Dermatis
Alyson Mead
Sam Saturday
Donna George Storey – Phone Sex

Dayle’s reading had me wanting to read more of the story, Alyson’s story kept everyone on edge with what was going to happen (espeically to/with the bear), Sam Saturday’s readings were hilarious and Donna George’s phone sex started off with a corset and wet hello kitty panties.  Not a bad way to spend a night I’d say.

My favorite part of the evening was when a male volunteer read from Sam Saturday’s book of Tongue In Cheek poetry (to purchase click here).  Attack is one of my favorite poems from Tongue In Cheek: Book 1: Ladies.  To read the whole poem you’ll need to purchase the book (well worth it) but here’s a sample from Attack by Sam Saturday.

You gotta smack it
Attack it
Hit it from the back
You gotta be on track
To get inside the crack

To see more of Sam Saturday’s work visit his Load World Comics website: http://www.loadworldcomics.com/

The next In The Flesh reading at Hustler Hollywood is Wednesday, August 12th.  Dayle will be reading again.  I can’t wait to hear what she reads in August.

For more information on the In The Flesh LA readings click here.

Some Romance Writers of America (RWA) member’s are calling for change for e-pubbed authors.  This debate has been going on for some time now and as of yet a solution has not been agreed on.  Many e-pubbed authors are upset for good reason.  RWA has some guidelines that don’t allow for e-publishers to be recognized. 

These members are not asking for anything other then for the guidelines to be looked at and updated to be current with the industry and the direction publishing is taking.  We’ve seen over and over the news on layoffs and freezes and lets face it New York publishers are not at the top of their game.  Is this to say that they are in danger?  Well maybe some as we’ve seen lines close but NY publishing will continue to be around for some time.  But along with NY publishing are electronic/digital publishers.  E-pubbing is gaining more and more recognition with new authors, authors already published with NY and with readers.  We’ve come into the age where some people don’t want to wait a year for their favorite author to release their next book, or don’t want to buy a book because they’d rather download onto a mobile reading device or onto their computer (which also saves trees).  For various reasons we are seeing more and more people buying e-books.  The demand for e-pubbed authors is higher right now then NY publishing houses.  For one NY publishers don’t take risk with many unknown and unpublished authors.  Some multi published NY authors are finding it harder to get their stories published and in some cases having to wait longer in between book releases.  This does not pay the bills for these authors and we’ve seen more NY published authors submit and have their stories published electronically then ever before. 

In a case like this where the market isn’t at it’s best and more people are having to pinch pennies because money is just tighter because everything else is so expensive or because maybe they are not working.  An e-book is an inexpensive way to be able to get a book.  Sales in e-books has done fairly well, while most NY publishers may not be seeing the same kind of sales.  What once was the only way to read a book it was very profitable but now with improvments in technology and people needing to spend less the electronic publishing is becoming more popular.

These members of RWA fighting for change within the organization who are either e-published already to members who are not published but are looking at publishing are looking for fair and equal membership benefits – the ability to submit to contests and to have RWA recognize some of the e-publishers that have proven they are in it for the long haul.

I am a member of RWA and I’m a member that wants to see change.  I’m a member who’d like to see others not just complain about something that they’d like to see changed but to band together and make the change.  I believe we are at the beginning stages of this debate and that it may go on for a period of time.  This past week a lot of authors with like opinions on this very topic have come together and created profiles and groups for people to voice their opinions and to get involved.  If you want to see change you have to be willing to step up to the plate and fight for it.  This doesn’t mean voicing a complaint but actually getting involved to do what needs to be done to insure change happens.

I believe that these pages/groups/searches will be what’s needed to happen.  If you’d like to see change within the industry check out these pages.

Twitter:  search link https://twitter.com/search?q=%23rwachange#search?q=%23rwachange

Facebook:  RWA Change

Yahoo Group: http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/RWAchange/

Maddie James did a fantastic article summing up what’s going on right now. 
http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=93075523476&h=ANQPa&u=abz5Y

Get involved, speak up and fight for change!!!

If you’d like to email me feel free to contact me at tammi@tammiflora.com

My first full length romance novel – oh boy this is going to be hard but so far it’s going pretty good.  I have 1/2 the first chapter and part of chapter 2.  What is now chapter 2 was chapter 1 until I realized it was lacking in information – so adding a chapter before it and will be good to go once it’s finished.  Only about 2500 words left for first chapter and then moving on to finish the second chapter.  Last week was 1st week for this 20 week goal.  Which means 18 1/2 weeks to go since we are already mid week.

Nina Pierce
Alanna Coca
Gem Sivad
Serena Shay
Trina Lee
Stephanie Adkins
Paige Tyler
Savanna Kougar
Shaunta Grimes
Darragha Foster
Rosemary Gunn
Shara Lanel
Tina Holland

You should check out their blogs on earth day.  Great eye candy for one and another excellent reason as always is tips and such on how to be more conscience about helping our planet.

Here’s some tips I found:

* Save some water – take shorter showers.

* Conserve energy:  TVs and VCRs that are turned “off” cost us nearly a billion dollars a year in electricity. Unplugging them is the only way to ensure that they are not using any energy.

* Recycle:   cans, newspapers, glass, plastic bags, etc.  Recycle what you can.

* Donate: doante old cell phones, computers, cars – thing is most of these things can be recycled to be reused in some fashion or another.

Thank you to the above authors who have decided to put an interesting twist on earth day tips.

I’m still in the process of moving blogs over and such and will eventually have them moved and put where I want.  Yay!  For now can be viewed under pages header – old blog and will have a list of ones that have been moved.  Eventually I’ll have them moved to the blog posts section with the original post date – but for now I’m just trying to get it moved – it will be easier to play around with later.

 So I’ve had enough reading gibberish tonight and going to put something on the tv.  Or I could watch Twilight again.   Or I can catch up on shows on DVR too.  Oh the choices.

Hope everyone had a great Monday!

Today I managed to figure out some major plot points, now understand my characters and have figured out (with help from someone who talked out story with me tonight) some conflict.

I’m super excited with how this story started and I’m even more excited to see where it goes.

Of course stories and characters and even plot points change.  I can’t wait to see where this story takes me.

I’m super excited by this idea.  It’s my first paranormal romance.  I don’t usually read paranormals but there is just something about this idea that I more then love.  Problem now is I need to plot some.  This idea has come out of nowhere and I just started writing.  I’m enjoying it so far but need to get to know my characters and the plot a little better before too long.

Word count goal on this story – I’m shooting for 65k but we’ll see how it goes.  It could end up longer or a little shorter – either way I’m wanting to see where the story and characters go. 

Now my writing goals have been set for the year so it’s time to work toward them.

For now I’m going to keep my other blog active until I figure out if I do want to switch or if I just want to use it in addition to.  To see old blog posts I have you can view them on my website’s blog at blog.tammiflora.com