Peace of Mind Organizing

Southwest Airlines: A great model for customer service

10 December 2012

I’m flying home now from my trip to visit my parents in Washington state. I’m flying Southwest, which is always my first-choice airline. Getting to Walla Walla can be a bit challenging and this time I flew Southwest to Spokane, rented a car and drove the three hours to Walla Walla. This morning, I was set to drive back for my return flight, which was to be at 2:40 p.m., flying via Las Vegas.

At 5:45 a.m. I was awakened by a text-message notification. To my consternation, it was Southwest, telling me that flight was delayed by an hour. I knew that meant I’d more than likely miss my connecting flight to St. Louis, since my layover was just an hour.

So I planned to try to get to the airport extra early, in case that was helpful, and I braced myself for long, tense hours in the airport today and the likelihood that I’d end up spending the night in Vegas.

Instead, just as I was getting ready to leave for Spokane, I received a phone call from an actual human with Southwest Airlines. She told me about the delayed flight (turns out it was because of fog in Philadelphia this morning) and the likelihood I’d miss my connecting flight. Then she offered to put me on the 1:40 flight to Denver, which would get me home by 9:20 p.m. (The original itinerary had me arriving home at 10:55 p.m.) When I book this itinerary, I chose not to fly through Denver because of the unpredictability of the weather there. But the weather there today is fine and I jumped at the opportunity.

That meant i had to make a beeline for Spokane, but luckily the call had come in time. I drove through heavy fog, which is no fun, but I got to the Spokane airport at 12:45 p.m. My boarding passes were waiting and I only had to wait at the gate for a few minutes. The flight left on time and I have an hour layover in Denver. The flight isn’t crowded and it has wifi. Life is good.

Thanks to Southwest’s amazing customer service and extra effort they made to ensure their customers wouldn’t be stranded, what was looking like a very stressful day is turning into a relatively stress-free one.

This is why I choose Southwest whenever possible. The customer experience is superior to that of any other domestic airline.

This is how they differentiate themselves:

• They make the customer experience fun (or as fun as possible given the circumstances).
• They go the extra mile for the customer.
• Their seat selection and boarding process is simpler and more straightforward than other airlines. (I love the general boarding on Southwest.)
• They don’t nickel and dime the customers. (Other airlines charge extra for checked bags and for what they consider premium seats.)
• They aren’t super serious. They actually tell jokes.

All of these customer service attributes are things that I like to think I do for my clients. Next time I’m faced with a customer-service quandary, I’m going to ask myself, WWSWAD? (What would Southwest Airlines do?)

The joy of an organized yarn stash

5 December 2012

I’m a knitter, and like most knitters, I have quite a bit of yarn. I don’t go out and buy yarn for the sake of buying it. Typically, I purchase yarn for specific projects. But sometimes those projects don’t pan out and I unravel them. And lots of times, I have yarn left over after finishing a project. Multi-color projects, in particular, can lend themselves to a lot of leftover yarn.

But the good news (for me) is that my yarn stash is well organized. As I have mentioned here, back in 2008 I purchased a bank of Elfa drawers to organize my yarn and knitting supplies. Four years later, I’m still thrilled with the system.

Case in point: A friend had a baby recently and I decided to knit the baby a teddy bear. I’ve knitted several teddy bears, out of a plush yarn called Oh My! My friend Lisa knit a different bear recently and I wanted to try out that free pattern. Alas, the yarn called for in the pattern is now discontinued and I wasn’t willing to go to a lot of work to try to track it down.

So yesterday, I wondered whether I had any Oh My! yarn left over from past bears. That teddy bear has a little sweater, so I thought maybe there would be some leftover pink yarn out of which I could knit a tiny scarf for the new bear.

I knew exactly where to look: the drawer marked “novelty yarn.” To my delight, I found 1.5 skeins of teddy-bear brown Oh My! And I also found some colored yarn for the scarf. No trip to the yarn store necessary for me. No money needed to spent. I can start on this pattern as soon as I get home.

My organized yarn stash saved me time and money yesterday. It allowed me easy access to my yarn without any frantic searching. It also helps my stash stay neat and tidy. I love my Elfa drawers!

Worth repeating: Organized travel documents

3 December 2012

I’m leaving tomorrow for another trip to see my parents in Walla Walla. On July 25, 2011, just after I’d returned from a trip to Walla Walla, I blogged about the swell travel organizer I use to keep track of my paperwork while I travel. I’ve used it for every trip I’ve taken since (which must be at least a dozen) and the durable organizer continues to work well. I so I figured it was worth re-running my review.

I went on a week-long trip to visit my parents in mid-July. It involved air travel, car rental, and hotel stay (my parents live in a small condo, so I don’t stay with them).

I’m not a nervous traveler, but I definitely like to have my ducks in a row. So I was delighted when Smead sent me a two-pack of their Travel Organizer to try out and consider blogging about. This is a three-sectioned document holder, and each section has an index tab. There’s a pocket in the front with velcro closure for receipts (or it could be used for boarding passes). A tab that comes from the back over the front keeps papers from falling out.

I customized my Travel Organizer for this trip with my handy Brother P-Touch label maker. To make it prettier and easier to spot in my bag, I used berry pink labels with white writing. I labeled the whole folder for the trip, then put labels on each tab for plane, car, and hotel.

Here’s a photo of my customized travel organizer:

I customized the organizer for my trip.

Talk about having my ducks in a row! I was able to find just what I needed quickly and easily. I had a safe place to stash my receipts so my wallet didn’t get clogged. I haven’t yet entered my receipts in to Quickbooks (this week, I promise!) so they’re all in a safe place awaiting entry.

I foresee changing the trip label and using the Travel Organizer for each trip I take. Being able to create three separate sections and access them easily is a step above the colored poly slash folder I’ve been using for years when I travel.

The value of interim goals

28 November 2012

I’ve been working out at a fitness center lately and am starting to establish a routine there. One of the things I was thinking about today as I used the elliptical machine is how important it is for me to have small goals on my way to larger ones.

My workout regimen probably isn’t very impressive, but it’s a fairly big deal for me. It’s shaken out that I end up going three times a week. Twice a week I do 15 minutes of cardio (usually on a stationary bike and elliptical trainer), followed by about 25 minutes of strength training. One day a week is cardio only. On those days, I work out for 25 to 30 minutes on a combination of bike, elliptical, rowing machine and, occasionally, treadmill.

Today was a cardio day. I did ten minutes on the bike then moved over to the elliptical, which I used for another 18 minutes. I have to say, 18 minutes feels like a long time. So I use interim goals to make it easier on myself.

I tell myself that I’ll work out for a certain number of minutes with my hands on the moving handlebars that provide an arm workout (I don’t know what those are called) and then a different interval clutching the short stationary handles that measure my heart rate. Then I go back to the arm workout for another interval, then back to measuring my heart rate for awhile. I make each interval shorter than the last one. So if I’m doing 15 minutes on the elliptical, I’ll start out with 5 minutes on the arm workout, then 4 minutes holding the heart rate monitor bars, then 3 minutes moving the arms, then 2 minutes with the heart-rate monitor, then 1 minute with the arm workout. Before I know it, 15 minutes is up.

Using interim goals is a great way from feeling overwhelmed by a larger project. You just focus on the current goal, and move to the next one when you’ve completed it. It’s also a nice anti-procrastination technique: Rather than working on a deadline for a whole project, you can establish a closer deadline for an interim goal.

I used interim goals to help me make it easy to send my holiday cards this year. I also used it when I wrote the two novels I’ve written for National Novel Writing Month. In 2004 and 2009 I succeeded in writing a novel in a month by dividing 50,000 words (the goal) by 30 (the number of days in the month) and writing at least that number of words every day.

I know I’m not going to meet my fitness goals overnight. I know it will take dedicated, regular effort. I take it one workout at a time. But I really appreciate that my workouts are broken into small intervals so that I get to accomplish a goal every few minutes. That’s what keeps me going and will ultimately allow me to reach my overall goal.

Holiday card update

26 November 2012

As I posted on Halloween, I’m working really hard to make the sending of holiday cards easy this year. I’m happy to report that I’m succeeding!!

I used minted.com to order some lovely, personalized cards. The cards I’m sending my business contacts have my name and business name printed on them. I selected flat cards with a printed back. That leaves me just a little space to hand write a message, which has reduced the time I’m spending on each card.

I ordered stamps from the postal service’s website, usps.com and they were delivered to my house. After spending a little time working on my card list and printing out labels, I put the labels on the envelopes. My minted order included special wrap-around return address labels that come 13 to a sheet, so I set a goal of completing 13 cards per day.

I started working on this a week or 10 days ago and I just put aside my completed cards. (I didn’t want to be the freak who sends out holiday cards before Thanksgiving.)

Today, I mailed over 70 business-related cards and the first 20 of our personal cards. Since I did them just a few at a time, it felt effortless.

For our personal cards, we ordered different flat cards, with our first names printed on the front. We left the back blank so I can easily jot a greeting. Also super easy. For the personal cards, I’ve decided to hand write the addresses. And I’m doing ten at a time. It’s still November and the cards have a new year’s greeting on them, so I know I’ll have no trouble getting them out in time.

For me the key to making this easy was that I chose cards with limited room to write and with my name pre-printed. I started early. And I set incremental goals. Ten or 13 cards in a session are very easy to do, especially when you’re playing old TV shows on Netflix at the same time.

It’s not too late for you to let holiday cards be easy!

The CPO-CD® program

21 November 2012

I am very proud to have gone through the Level III certification program from the Institute for Challenging Disorganization (back then it was called the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization). I earned the credential Certified Professional Organizer in Chronic Disorganization® in October 2009. At that time, I wrote a blog post about the significance of the achievement, called Why training and credentials matter.

The CPO-CD® program is an 18- to 20-month mentored coaching program that culminates in a peer review. It’s a very well thought-out course of study that involves written and oral assignments, reading, practical experience, and in-depth discussions with your mentor coach. I’ve now been on both sides of the table at a peer review and I know how very seriously the program is taken.

I’m glad I got my CPO-CD® for a couple of very important reasons. First and foremost, I learned a great deal that has helped me help my clients. Secondly, it differentiates me from my competition. I happen to be the only CPO-CD® in the St. Louis area. I think that’s quite a distinction.

Why am I bringing this up now? Because enrollment is open for the next CPO-CD® class. The application deadline is November 30 for a January start date. That class will graduate in the fall of 2014.

In order to participate in the program, you must:

To participate in this program you must:

• Have been working as a professional organizer for at least two years
• Be currently working professionally with at least two clients.
• Have experience with five (5) CD clients.
• Be a current ICD subscriber
• Have received CD Specialist Certificate within the last 2 years. (A waiver is available.)
• Apply by the deadline
• Be willing to earn a total of 50 ICD service points

For more information and to download the application, visit the Level III CPO-CD page® on the ICD website.

Using my iPhone during international travel

19 November 2012

As I’ve mentioned, I went to Barbados the week of November 5. As I’ve also mentioned, I’m in love with my iPhone 4S and I would have had a hard time doing without it. Plus, since I ditched my landline a few months ago, my cell phone is my business line, so I knew I couldn’t just turn it off or leave it at home.

So here’s what I did (along with the lesson I learned):

My cell provider for my iPhone is AT&T. I simply gave them a call and told them my situation. I learned that there were three categories of communication I needed to concern myself with:

• Voice
• Text
• Data

I learned that for voice, I would pay $2.29 a minute, unless I signed up for the World Traveler program, which costs $5.99 a month. With that program, phone calls would be $1.69 a minute.

I learned that all my incoming text messages are counted against my domestic texting plan. I have unlimited texting, so that meant I could receive an unlimited number of text messages without incurring extra charge. Outgoing text messages, however, would cost 50 cents each, unless I chose an international texting plan. I chose the $30 a month plan for 200 outgoing text messages (with an overage charge of 35 cents per text).

When it came to data, I would pay 19.5 cents per kilobyte of data, unless I bought a package. I could have paid a $30 monthly fee for 120 megabytes of data or $60 for 300 megabytes. I knew that the villa where we were staying had free wifi, so I chose to forgo a data package.

That turned out to be a mistake. Of my friends with whom I was vacationing, mine was the only smart phone that actually worked in Barbados. When we were going out to dinner one night on the north end of the island, we realized we needed some mapping help. So I turned on data and got us to the restaurant (we’d ended up taking a wrong turn). I’m so glad I was able to do that!

I got my bill today and there was good news and bad news in it. The good news was that the monthly charges are prorated, so I paid only an extra $7.20 for the extra voice and text monthly fees. I did use the phone a little, and there was an additional charge of $10 for that usage.

The bad news was that the one little foray into data usage ended up costing $25.78. I used 1.2 megabytes using the maps app on my phone. If I had signed up for the global data plan, it would have cost me just $6 and I would have 118 more megabytes of data to play with. Oh well, lesson learned.

My takeaway from the experience is that the international charges from AT&T, when planned for properly ahead of time, are really fair. They’re well worth the expense for the convenience of being able to use my phone.

That’s reason number 2,220,897 why I love my iPhone!