The 14th Top 10 List from #651-700 in the Project
Hello 700 Club. Move over Pat Roberts, you’ve got company.
Not a clinker in this crop of 50, but here are the ones that were left standing:
Drum roll please . . .
10. Westin St. Francis #672. “As a favor to guests, one hotel washes every coin it receives, just like it’s done since 1938. The practice at the St. Francis hotel in San Francisco is said to have started when hotelier Dan London observed that some coins sullied a woman’s white gloves. At the time, coins were used for everything from tips to payphones to taxicabs. Back then washing the coins were a full-time job. Now it’s only 10 hours a week, but the practice continues, passed down from one generation to the next.
9. Stripsteak at Mandalay Bay #660. “If you’re even slightly tuned-in, you’re no doubt aware that Michael Mina is widely regarded for his skills as a chef, most notably with fish and seafood. But you may not know that he absolutely rocks french fries and onion rings.
No lie, french fries and onion rings, two of the standouts of our recent dinner at Stripsteak at Mandalay Bay. The skillful preparation of them proved why these two simple things — often deservedly scorned — have solid footholds in the culinary landscape.
The french fries were a lagniappe, served shortly after we ordered our wine. Fried in duck fat, they had an extreme crispness that sharpened the contrast to their fluffy interiors. They were served as a trio (a favorite Mina conceit) with one portion dusted with smoked paprika and served with barbecue sauce, one served with aioli, the other with homemade ketchup. Servers at Stripsteak point out that entrees are served a la carte, but with a lagniappe as generous as this, that point is easy to argue.”
Good Hands? Roadside Assistance is the first free-to-join, pay-per-use, roadside assistance service that is available to all drivers, not just Allstate customers.
Allstate created Good Hands Roadside to offer protection to the 35 million American households that don’t have roadside assistance services. The company also wants to provide an alternative for the 52 million households with roadside assistance that pay annual fees. Studies show the average driver uses their service only once every three years.
“With the launch of Good Hands Roadside, Allstate continues to broaden the definition of protection with new products and services consumers want in the ways they want them,” said Chuck Paul, group vice president, Emerging Businesses, for Allstate. “This is just another option individuals can use to protect what matters most.”
Allstate suggests taking two minutes to pre-register before road “Mayhem”strikes at www.goodhandsroadside.com to improve response time.
7. Sparks Steak House #651. Tweeted by Steve Curtin The professional waiters at Sparks Steak House in New York City are adept at changing the table linens between entrée and dessert courses without removing your wine glasses or exposing the tabletop.
6. Nails Plus #686. Submitted in an e-mail by Keith Green. “Donna just got back from NailsPlus in Little Silver (it’s a chain apparently) where they give customers a free pair of these socks with a purchase of a toenail painting. They are specially-made socks that go over flip flops, perfect for women getting their nails done in cold weather climates. There’s a Rex Ryan joke in here somewhere….
5. Maison de Macarty #683. From a tweet by @cowboychef:
“Hand tempering some more chocolate today and making some pralines for the staff at The Joint..Lagniappe works both ways, fellas!!! xo”
4. Spanair #681. Taken from a tweet by @Michelle_i2i
“Talk about WOW! Love the thoughtfulness behind the initiative.http://bit.ly/eNFdju Great job @Spanair #custserv”
From the YouTube video:
“On December 24th our flight from Barcelona to Las Palmas arrived close to midnight. 190 people were flying while everyone else celebrated Christmas Eve. Christmas is a very special moment so we decided to do something special for them, too.”
3. Disney #653. Taken from a blogpost by George Bradt
“Disney is committed to guests enterring parks that look as good as they did on the day they were opened for the first time. As soon as the last guest leaves at the end of every day, crews start repairing anything that needs it, touching up the rest, and making things look practically perfect in every way. They refuse to leave any guest’s initial impressions to chance and implement that with an obsession to detail that is a source of pride. The last thing they do before opening the doors in the morning is paint any brown spots on the grass green. That’s what they mean by obsession to detail.”
2. Nordstrom #667. From a post by Ron Kaufman at ‘Up Your Service’
“A sales clerk at Nordstrom in the United States sold my friend a new pair of shoes. Measuring his feet, the clerk discovered my friend’s right foot was size 9.5 and the left foot was a smaller 9.0. The clerk gave my friend the shoes he needed to achieve a perfect fit: one 9.5 and the other 9.0. I have no idea what the clerk did with the remaining mismatched shoes, but my friend’s loyalty to Nordstrom has been secured. Talk about going above and beyond to improve customer satisfaction!”
. . . and the #1 on the fourteenth ‘Top 10? List:
1. Southwest Airlines #691. Submitted via e-mail from Marylynne Colacchio. Marylynne forwarded a post by Fran Golden from AOL Travel.
Here is a summary from Fran’s article:
“An Arizona family is praising a Southwest Airlines pilot who held a Tucson-bound plane to wait for a passenger trying to get to a hospital to say his goodbyes to his 2½ -year-old grandson, who was about to be taken off life support.
The Southwest pilot’s efforts to help Caden’s grandfather, Mark Dickinson to get to the child’s bedside on Jan. 5 first came to light when his wife, Nancy Dickinson, wrote of the incident to travel blogger Christopher Elliot.
“He got to say his goodbyes thanks to Southwest. I am so grateful for the airline for doing what they did.”
She says her stepdaughter, Ashley Rodgers, 26, needed her dad. And if Dickinson had missed the plane it would have been a tragedy on top of a tragedy.
“It was heartbreaking,” Dickinson says.
Mark, an engineer with Northrop Grumman, had been on a business trip in Los Angeles when he got word his grandson was to be removed from life support that night. He already had a flight booked back to Tuscon and booked a connecting flight to Denver.
He arrived at LAX two hours early, but had to check in his suitcase, which took an hour, and then encountered a security line that was “out the door and down the sidewalk,” Nancy says.
Mark, on the verge of tears, ended up just grabbing his computer, belt and shoes as they came through security screening and running shoeless to the plane, knowing the minutes were ticking by.
At the gate, the pilot of the Southwest plane and ticketing agent were both waiting for him.
“Are you Mark? We held the plane for you and we’re so sorry about the loss of your grandson,” they said.
“It was the pilot’s call to make. We are grateful that he felt comfortable in making that call,” Nancy says.
Mark was able to get to Denver to say goodbye to his grandson and be with his daughter.
Caden was buried yesterday. The toddler’s organs have been donated to several people in need of tranplants.
Nancy explained that Mark thanked the captain as they walked down the jetway to board the plane. Here was the exchange:
“I can’t thank you enough for this.”
The pilot responded with, “They can’t go anywhere without me and I wasn’t going anywhere without you. Now relax. We’ll get you there. And again, I’m so sorry.”
Marketing Lagniappe Takeaway – Empower your employees and let them in the words of Spike Lee, ‘Do the Right Thing’.
Click here for the first Top 10 list from the first 50 examples of marketing lagniappe.
Click here for the second Top 10 list from #51 to #100 in the Purple Goldfish Project.
Click here for the third Top 10 list from #101 to #150 in the Purple Goldfish Project.
Click here for the fourth Top 10 list from #151 to #200 in the Purple Goldfish Project.
Click here for the fifth Top 10 list from #201 to #250 in the Purple Goldfish Project.
Click here for the sixth Top 10 list from #251 to #300 in the Purple Goldfish Project.
Click here for the seventh Top 10 list from #301 to #350 in the Purple Goldfish Project.
Click here for the eighth Top 10 list from #351 to #400 in the Purple Goldfish Project.
Click here for the ninth Top 10 list from #401 to #450 in the Purple Goldfish Project.
Click here for the tenth Top 10 list from #451 to #500 in the Purple Goldfish Project.
Click here for the eleventh Top 10 list from #501 to #550 in the Purple Goldfish Project.
Click here for the twelfth Top 10 list from #551 to #600 in the Purple Goldfish Project.
Click here for the thirteenth Top 10 list from #601 to #650 in the Purple Goldfish Project.
