How to get the Best Customer Service
We’re proud of our customer service here at the Fool. Even though we’re not a huge company, we have a dedicated Customer Care Fool who is charged with keeping customers happy throughout the entire purchase process. We’re also in the process of building out our SUPPORT page as we implement new technologies to keep up with your queries.
(cc) Flickr user Somewhat Frank
Our central challenge to providing the best customer service is our seasonal rhythm. Because we sell a lot of textbooks, 90% of our sales happen in 3 months every year. We get slammed with orders (and customer service requests) in January and June/August and then are relatively less busy for the rest of the year.
This is part of why we have expanded our definition of customer service. Our Customer Care Fool goes way beyond just answering phones and replying to emails. She is responsible for ensuring customers are served throughout the entire shipping process: Picking, packing, labeling, shipping, and more!
With all of that in mind, here are some tricks to getting the most out of our Customer Service:
- Email us. Don’t call. Though we do list our phone number on the site, email is much, much faster when we’re slammed with requests. Sounds crazy, but it’s true.
- Details, details, details. Give us all the info you can in your email: Order numbers, dates, purchase venue, ISBNs, titles. It’s ALL helpful in finding your order and getting you a quick response.
- Be cool. I know you’ve been given the runaround by other companies, but we WILL get back with you soon and will do what we can. If you start off with threats and recriminations, it may actually delay our response as we take a walk around the block to clear our head before responding.
- Returns are Quick and Painless if you read the Return Instructions. Before sending anything back, let’s discuss it by email. We may know a quicker, cheaper solution to solving your problem than the standard return procedure. Drop us an email to keep us in the loop.
Customer Service exists because nobody’s perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. The BookFool difference is that we want to make it right. Drop us an email today!
Casey: Tech Fool
Just when you thought we couldn’t grow any more, we’re adding our fifth full-time Fool! Casey developed and maintains BookFool.com and will be leading our tech dept. into the 21st Century. In his own words:
I’m thrilled to be the latest Fool! It’s really exciting for me to be able to join a team like this knowing that I’ll be able to have an impact from day one. I don’t think I could ever say that at any of my other jobs.
So, who am I? Well, I’d like to think of myself as an undercover nerd. At first glance, I might not look like a hardcore code jockey, but when caught off guard, one can often find me with my headphones on, listening to some of my favorite tunes, and coding up a storm in Notepad++ or Visual Studio. I consider myself multi-lingual when it comes to software development; whether it’s coding with open-source languages such as PHP or even (dare I say it?) Microsoft’s ASP.NET, I just like to use the right tool for the job.
More important than all of that is the fact that I’m a husband to my beautiful wife, Mary Beth, and a father to my two sweet boys, Caleb and Josiah. I take my roles as their husband/father very seriously, as I believe they are the most important jobs I will ever undertake.
I’m also passionate about adoption. My wife and I recently returned from Ethiopia, where we adopted our youngest son. Faith is a huge part of my life, and I believe there is no better physical metaphor for the gospel of Jesus Christ than adoption. When I look at my youngest son and think of how much I love him, I am overwhelmed to know that my Father loves me even more and has brought me into His family as His own son through the sacrifice of Jesus. You can read more about our adoption journey on our family’s blog.
Finally, following in the footsteps of a recent BookFool blog post, I’d also like to share my top 5 movies of all time:
- Bottle Rocket – The Wilson brothers before they were popular.
- The Lord of the Rings Trilogy – I told you I’m a nerd.
- Braveheart – FREEDOM!
- Amazing Grace – William Wilberforce was an amazing man.
- O Brother, Where Art Thou? – The most quotable movie of all time. “We thought . . . you was . . . a toad.”
Want to know more about me? If so, follow me on Twitter!
Welcome, Pickers, to the BookFool.com family!
Advice on Surviving the October Crunch
[Ed. note: In this post David shares some advice on surviving college.]
It’s now October, which for us collegiates means midterms, an influx of papers, and a dramatic rise in the ever increasing workload. For those of you in this position, I feel your pain. In light of the stressful season, I’d like to impart a bit of wisdom that was passed on to me during my freshman year.
(cc) Flickr user John Althouse Cohen
For my first year of college, I lived in a place called Maddox hall, quite likely the worst dorm on campus. The rooms were cramped and—prior to the furniture upgrade of 2007—there was no way to remedy this. So October rolled around and I began my late-night caffeine sessions, sitting in my tiny room cramming statistics or biology or some other off-major subject that I had no real interest in.
One such night I fumbled down the hall to a friend’s room at 1 a.m. to brew another pot of coffee. On my way down the hall, I ran into my RA, Jason. He asked how school was treating me and I gave him the stress-induced rundown:
“Well I have two papers due tomorrow and a test on Wednesday and I’m supposed to have read some book that I haven’t even bought yet and I slept through my nine o’clock class yesterday which made me miss a quiz and so I don’t even know. Know what I mean?”
Jason chuckled in a knowing way.
“Oh yeah man, we’ve all been there. But listen, there are more important things than school. One of my professors once told me never to let school get in the way of learning. So don’t sweat it man. You’ll be fine.”
That one bit of advice completely changed the rest of my college experience. So if I can offer any bit of comfort to those of you whose hearts are near explosion from caffeine overdose, whose brains are turning to oatmeal, and who have had a total of three hours of sleep in the past four days, it is this:
Don’t let school get in the way of learning.
Project Management: Cynical Optimism
BookFool is in the process of planning for our upcoming textbook buybacks, which means lots and lots of cooperation and coordination among the Fools. This semester, we appointed a Buyback Traffic Cop (yours truly) whose job is to manage the calendar, make assignments, and update Basecamp and our internal wiki with our progress. It’s project management on steroids.
I was a project/account manager in a past life, so this process brings back memories. Because BookFool is a tight team, I’m not worried about us hitting deadlines. My #1 focus this semester is efficiency and not duplicating effort. An efficient process means we can buy more of your books, which is good for everybody!
(cc) Flickr user Geodog
To me, Project Management is an expression of Cynical Optimism. In theory, project management is inherently optimistic because it assumes you can organize your team to achieve more. But it’s also inherently cynical because you have to be ultra-realistic about setting deadlines, realizing that something always comes up.
For example, if you need to have 150,000 bookmarks printed in time for your manager training, you have to get them to the printer a week before, which means getting 50 PDFs back from the designer a few days before that, which means getting the design brief TO the designer at least a week or two before that, which means compiling the brief before sending to the designer, which means nailing down all details before… (and so on).
When you’ve got a chain of events that complex, the optimist knows it’s possible, but the cynic gets antsy when it’s time to set all those deadlines. The incurable optimist says, “My team is on point. If I need it on Friday, I’ll set the deadline for Friday and all will be well.” The optimist is often disappointed because, as the cynic understands, Something always comes up.
The true cynic says, “Something always comes up. If I need it on Friday, I’ll make it due Wednesday so there’s time for tweaks.” Now, this gradual deadline creep creates problems if you try to do it in secret. People know when something is really due, and if they think you’re padding the deadlines without telling them, they’ll simply readjust the deadlines in their head to accommodate reality.
I prefer the path of Cynical Optimism that gathers the team together and says, “We can do this, guys! However, we know things come up and deadlines need a little room to move, so let’s all decide to set deadlines a few days before we really need things done. But let’s also decide to hit those earlier deadlines because something always comes up.”
Project Management in a big team is one of the hardest things you’ll ever do. However, with a good team and a touch of Cynical Optimism, you’ll have everything running smoothly in no time.
Top 5 Favorite Movies
I asked the Fools to share their Top 5 favorite movies. I can’t believe we didn’t have any overlap, but heeeeeeere they are.
Kris
- Shawshank Redemption
- Tombstone
- The Princess Bride
- Death at a Funeral
- Silence of the Lambs
Lou
- Stripes — Classic lines and he goes from zero to hero in a hilarious fashion!
- A Fish Called Wanda — Cleese, Kline, and Lee Curtis (before the Activia days). Enough said!
- Raiders of the Lost Ark — A history lesson with guns, knives, swords, and snakes.
- Star Wars — As a 13-year-old walking out of the theater, all I wanted to be was Luke Skywalker.
- Zombie Movies — Dawn of the Dead, Return of the Living Dead, Day of the Dead. Classic scary movies. Great to see with your girl.
Nicole
- Strangers on a Train — Hitchcock’s brilliant thriller with an amazing and death-defying ending!
- A Clockwork Orange — With their own language and a love for lashings – these boys are insane!
- Uncle Buck — My father & I’s ultimate family comedy with the amazing John Candy.
- The Shining — Kubrick’s beautiful thriller that I watch repeatedly. HERE’S JOHNNY!
- The Squid & The Whale — Excellent acting & a first-rate story about the despondent realities of divorce.
Luke
- Die Hard — Perfect action movie, the right mix of ridiculous and plausible with a great villain (Snape!).
- Dumb & Dumber — More laughs per minute than any other movie. And max quotable.
- The Dark Knight — Finally the Joker is menacing again.
- Pee-wee’s Big Adventure — Probably darker than you remember. And funnier too!
- Apocalypse Now — A unique adaptation of the source material that becomes its own crazy thing.
Do we have good taste? What did you learn about the Fool crew from our favorite selections? And what are your favorite movies?
Snape as Hans Gruber in Die Hard
Foolish TO DO List, Vol. 1
[Ed. note: Thanks to David for inspiring us with this list of Foolish TO DO items.]
(cc) Flickr user koalazymonkey
1. Make a note to celebrate this day in exactly thirty years.
2. Race housecats.
3. Teeter on the brink of insanity.
4. Brandish a staple gun.
5. Start a to-do list on the bathroom wall.
6. Eat breakfast backwards.
7. Climb the stairway to heaven and bring back a physics book.
8. Believe in miracles. (You sexy thing.)
9. Find a new widget.
10. Invigorate the bored.
11. Subvert the bathroom.
12. Unlearn something.
13. Pat the wombat.
14. Politely disagree with nature.
15. Pray for a son like that 3-year-old in Missouri.
16. Use kitsch as art supplies.
17. Make friends with variety acts.
18. Create an ad selling ad space on CraigsList.
19. Trade pencils with someone.
20. Appreciate Turbo Heather.
21. Break in the new carpet.
22. Fight the laser dolphin.
23. Or leave it to Teddy Roosevelt.
24. Find the right people and make them aware of their rightness.
25. Start a band and tell no one.
26. Stop waiting around and just go.
27. Yearn for the present.
28. Change the spelling.
29. Imagine working for Google.
30. Believe in the Stud.
#34 (cc) Flickr user It'sGreg
31. Bathe grandma.
32. Enter the contest and aim for second place.
33. Dwell on the idea of cowboy costumes.
34. Get that next puppy.
35. Politely offer someone a bailout.
36. Feed the book dragon.
37. Handwrite all tweets.
38. Mail it to Africa.
39. Bring back the icebox.
40. Create déjà vu.
41. Create déjà vu.
42. Try out the beta version.
43. Be inspired by the children.
44. Make them capable of having ideas.
45. Tweak the message.
46. Understate the mission.
47. Awaken the nappers.
48. Find the most expensive version and gawk at it.
49. Be the distraction.
50. Be alarmed.
#25 (cc) Flickr user Per Ola Wiberg (Powi)
Nicole: Customer Care Fool
Please join me in welcoming our newest Fool. Nicole is our first full-time Customer Care Fool, which means her #1 job is making customers happy. We’re thrilled she’s joining us on our mission. And now, in her own words:
I come to Nashville from Alexandria, VA, but for brevity sake I’ll say DC. Before DC there was college at Purdue where I received my Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. (It is too a science!)
Long before college I spawned from two children (my parents were 18 & 20) growing up in a small town named Elkhart, Indiana in the 1980s. I was raised on good, NO, GREAT, music: The first cassette I ever owned was Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Following that with a deep love of The Muppets and The Grateful Dead. The first real MOVIE I ever saw was George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead; my parents are HUGE horror nerds.
In high school I aspired to be an astronaut, a Senator, a fighter pilot, and a video game tester; a school trip to DC led me to study Politics in college.
While in College, I partook of an internship (everyone needs at least one on their resume) where I worked for the Indiana State House of Representatives and had an amazing time but also learned that a life of politics takes a stronger backbone than I have. I realized in my latter days of college that I had a knack for making people laugh and feel great about themselves, especially because their happiness led to an extremely happy me. I decided to find a job where I could help people all day, and I’ve been working in Human Resources for Marriott since graduation. Although HR was something I “fell into,” it has been good to me; I’ve learned a lot and have had some amazing experiences.
After graduation and my move to DC, I fell in love with the raddest guy…which led me to Nashville (where a Country Music Roadie must reside), and I’ve been here ever since. In my spare time, you’ll find me playing video games, watching movies, reading, and attending concerts. I’m an avid gamer on all platforms though my favorite is Xbox360. Said Roadie and I have a kitten named Hitchcock who will talk your head off, and the two of us are an awesome duo at Halo3. My favorite book of all time is A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.
All in all, I just want to be happy, have fun, and make sure my happiness rubs off on all those around me. I am thrilled to have been chosen as the first Customer Care Fool and I am SO ready to start a new career (still helping people!) with the ever impressive, awesomely fun BookFool.com!!!
Great Bad Feedback, Vol. 1
Aaaand we’re back! We’ve been away on vacation but are returning in full force this Monday. Some of us went beach-ward. Some of us went home. Some of us even stayed home. But we’re all refreshed and ready to kick out another killer buyback. Stay tuned on the blog for details.
And now, apropos of nothing, a great piece of bad feedback I ran across last night:
Classic. On Amazon, it says “0 of 21 people found the following review helpful.”
One Year at BookFool.com
Hold on to your hats … It’s another self-indulgent post about how great we are! But seriously, today is my 1-year anniversary with BookFool.com and I’m feeling introspective.
When I joined, we quickly went from 4 buyback locations to 10; then Lou came on board and we served 20 schools. This semester, who knows? It’s a great-looking growth curve when you plot it on a graph, but we’re more interested in being Great than Big.
Culturally, this is a unique place to work, which is why we’re working hard to ensure the culture remains Foolish as we grow. One way to reinforce a company’s culture is through smart hiring. HR experts speak of the importance of hiring those who fit your organization’s culture. I think this is especially important for us.
We’re a relatively flat company without much bureaucracy. We have the kind of culture that rewards individualism and initiative, which makes BookFool.com the kind of place where you can write your own story. It also means we want creative innovators in every position. An innovative culture that includes every employee is rare in business — despite the incessant droning about Innovation in the business blogosphere — but we’re committed to finding ways to use each employee’s hidden talents to make us great.
Mission
We do a lot of fun stuff like taking off work to hike, writing on the bathroom walls, and buying gigantic trucks and painting them bright blue, but my favorite thing about working at BookFool.com — the reason I wake up and check my work email even before I eat breakfast — is our sense of mission.
We were all students once and got ripped off during buyback. We want to change this dynamic, shifting the balance of power from the big corporations to the individual students, and the buybacks are just one way we’re doing so. This mission is what drives us to innovate and work really, really hard.
I guess that’s enough bloviating for one post. Bottom line: This has been a fantastic first year for me, but I’m really looking forward to year two. We’re continuing to build out the team and perfect the systems, all while keeping it Foolish. Thanks for a great year!
