Making Ripples: post-corporate adventures in Floyd County Virginia

Stellar One goes the extra distance

This is a drive-thru window at the Stellar One Bank in Floyd, Virginia. It has all of the characteristics you would expect in an up and coming bank that is trying to create an outstanding customer experience.

Take this window as an example: a friendly welcoming smile on the face of the young lady, clear signage that can be easily read under all lighting conditions, and a bowl of lollipops for the children who accompany their parents to the bank.

This is a standard action by businesses that treat customers as people rather than as anonymous sources of income.

The extra touch that makes this Stellar One branch stand out in my opinion is shown in this next image.

While you are banking, your dog gets a treat!

I have it on good authority that the dogs perk up immediately when their owner drives up to this window. With this thoughtful gesture the Stellar One branch in Floyd has turned a routine bank visit into a special event for the entire family.

This bank provides good service in all the ways that matter to us so providing treats for children and the family dog is is not the only reason to bank here. It is another example of choosing to provide extraordinary customer experiences.

Any business that recognizes the importance of children and pets in their customers lives is treating customers as whole individuals. Granting importance to all aspects of a customer's life practically guarantees good referrals and customer loyalty.

I don't know if all branches of Stellar One are this customer oriented, but if not it is something they should consider.

Starting the day with a good country breakfast

The Blue Ridge Restaurant in Floyd, Virginia, is the right place to begin a long day of hard work. This veggie omelet with home fries was just what I needed to bring peace and harmony into my day.

Tom King, who was sitting across the table, started his day with the Oatmeal breakfast.

Breakfasts like these and good conversation are what living in Floyd is all about. If you ever spend a night in Floyd and wake up ready for a country breakfast, check out the Blue Ridge Restaurant.

They offer friendly service and good food. What's not to like?

Lilia Momotova - Impressions of Pskov - at WVTF Roanoke

The works of Russian pastellist Lilia Momotova will be on exhibit at WVTF in Roanoke from Nov 2 -Nov 30. Her pastels enable the viewer to experience the bleak beauty of life in a society beset with continuing hardships and economic difficulties.

Her impressionistic paintings convey feelings of wistful sadness but offset this underlying mood with bright splashes of color. Her drawings seem to hold out a hope for a brighter future and leave one with a lingering sense that things may work out for the better.

Lilia lives and works in the ancient city of Pskov, Russia near St Petersburg. She has been teaching in the College of Arts for many years and has a local following, but this is the first exhibition of her work outside of Russia.

This collection captures the familiar scenes of Lilia's neighborhood in Pskov through views from her third floor apartment and while walking through the streets of this twelve hundred year old city.

A single mother who speaks no English, has no phone and lives with her son in a one room apartment, she creates art with passion in spite of the fact that she works with limited resources. With the current state of the Russian economy, Lilia is struggling to make ends meet because few people in Russia can afford to purchase art.

Lilia's work inspired Rima Forrest Sulzen of Floyd, VA, to sponsor exhibits for Lilia in the United States with the goal of generating income for Lilia so she can afford the time and supplies to create more work.

Rima Forrest Sulzen lived in Pskov for four months on an academic exchange and decided that she would make it her mission to spread the word about Lilia's remarkable talent and help her through exhibits and sales of originals and prints. All proceeds after expenses go directly to the artist.

UPDATE: I learned that "Evening Shadows" has already been purchased. (That is the painting shown at the top of the page.)

A full gallery of images will be posted shortly. Yes, I know it's been over a week, but I will get to it.

For additional information about Lilia and her art contact: Rima Forrest Sulzen, Box 783, Floyd, Virginia 24091, 540-250-8559, rimaforrest@gmail.com

For prints, framed and unframed, contact: Floyd Custom Framing, 293 Silverleaf Lane, Floyd, VA 24091, 540-808-2030, david.stlawrence@gmail.com

Life has been interfering with blogging again

In a down economy where income can drop drastically overnight, small business owners like myself have to go from production mode to full-on promotional activity.. All non-income generating activity gets put on hold. Blogging is an incredibly satisfying and rewarding experience, but it does not produce income in the short term so it gets relegated to non prime time activity or never.

Promotion is the only way that new business relationships are created and it can take many forms. There is only so much advertising that one can do with limited funds, but there is almost no limit to the amount of personal contact that can be accomplished if one is sufficiently motivated.

About two months ago I figured out that customers still wanted custom picture framing, but most of them needed to feel that they were getting an amazing deal as well as an extraordinary buying experience in order to part with their dwindling disposable income.

After all, that was what I was doing and is what my friends are doing for almost every purchase. We still want the good things in life and are willing to do with a more economical version, but it takes a really special deal from a business we like dealing with to justify spending money.

So, I have been making friends with potential customers and have been promoting ways for them to save money on picture framing for several months and this activity has finally begun to produce results.

As I've mentioned before, promoting a business follows the well known Law of Ketchup. You promote and promote and it seems like nothing is happening until finally people show up in bunches and you are suddenly racing around like a madman trying to stay ahead of the rush.

I am enjoying the flood of work, but it has temporarily put a halt to my blogging. Lots of interesting things are happening in Floyd and I will do my best to catch up on those that are most interesting.

I hope to be back blogging next week. Stay tuned.

A simple and elegant solution to our kitchen faucet problem

After spending another two hours working on our sophisticated single handle kitchen faucet, I threw in the towel and bought this simpler and far more reliable alternative solution.

It took me only an hour and five minutes to install this faucet and that included rounding up tools and a caulking gun.

I had spent more then 10 hours trying to repair the old faucet including time on the phone with two suppliers. During that time, I tied up other people for another hour at least. The product complexity cost us all more than we expected. Furthermore, there were at least three different variations on the old product and each required different parts to repair them. I don't think I had the right parts I needed.

This was a clear case where product complexity produced a great looking product (Moen 7430) that was costly and difficult to repair.

The new two handled faucet(Peerless P999575-SS)has a side spray and has smooth acting ceramic valves and cost less than half what the single handled faucet did. It has nine parts compared to the 26 parts of the single handle faucet.

Most importantly, each of the operating parts performs a single function: Each faucet operates independently and controls the flow of water. The spout directs water and has no interaction with any of the other parts of the faucet. The side sprayer sprays water with no fancy diverter logic. Any one piece can fail without requiring the replacement of other pieces and this is typical of high reliability design.

Any design in which mechanisms perform multiple functions is promoting novelty over reliability. This is fine for products with a short life, but a real pain when applied to products that have to be repaired many times over their useful life. Simplify your life with appliances and household products designed for reliability

Thanks to Zack and to Glenn for suggesting a switch to a simpler model.