Customer Service

While this blog is about the house, sometimes it leads to tangential educational opportunities.

I was doing various projects to prepare for the party. Some were directly related to the house and yard, while others were really just for the party.

For an example of the latter, I needed a dozen long stakes or poles that I could use to string some decorations around the edge of the yard. After some searching online, we found 6-foot wooden garden stakes which would fit the bill.

My plan was to cut a small slot in the end of the stake into which I could slide the end of the string from which the decorations were hung. I'm not really giving anything away by showing the end product - some appropriate colored pennants which I cut from foam sheets from a local craft store and the paper football lanterns. Obviously this used only three stakes, so there were three other arrangements like this placed strategically around the yard.

I say the plan "was". Actually, the plan became reality. The story, however is in the acquisition of the stakes.

As I said, I found them online and in stock in a local store. At least according to their website and mobile app.

They have a store that is conveniently on my way home from work, so one evening I made a stop.

I'd noticed in the mobile app that they generally have the item's store location listed. For example in "Aisle 52, Bay 5". In this case, no location was listed. I assumed that was because these would likely be in the garden center because these are seasonal items.

When I arrived at the store, I went to the garden center and started looking around. It didn't take long for me to find the end-cap that contained the garden stakes.

But only fiberglass and metal stakes were present. The wooden ones I was looking for were nowhere to be found.  As I looked around across the garden center, I saw a young man in an orange apron watering plants and a cluster of people nearby that looked deep in conversation about the store. I assumed they were management.

A walked over and as I got close, the older man in the group faced me and asked, "Do you need some assistance?"

"Yes," I replied.

Without saying a word he waved his hand dismissively at the young man watering the plants, who then dropped his watering wand. The young man asked, "How can I help?"

"I'm looking for these 6-foot wooden garden stakes that your app says are in stock in the store. I don't see them in this display with the other stakes," I replied. I showed him the app on the page for the stakes.

He pulled out his mobile device and looked up the SKU. He stared at the screen wordlessly for a bit before saying, "Let me give someone a call."

He dialed a number and stood there wordlessly for a few minutes before hanging up.

He turned back to me and said, "There's no location because they just got delivered today and they are still in the trailer out back. We don't unload the trailer until after 8pm so you'll have to come back then."

I said thanks and walked away.

So here's the customer service lesson:

WHEN YOU HAVE A CUSTOMER IN THE STORE WANTING TO BUY SOMETHING AND IT'S IN THE BACK, GO GET IT FOR THEM. DO NOT TELL THEM TO COME BACK LATER. BECAUSE THEY WON'T.

I got in my car and drove 10 minutes to Gertens, who had them in stock and I bought them on the spot.

Plants

I mentioned in an earlier post that we'd done a bunch of planting.

This is by far the biggest of the annual beds. It contains about 175 annuals this year. It's in deep shade almost the entire day, so contains the usual suspects: Impatiens and Coleus. There's a third plant type in there, but I don't recall what it is. Because it's an annual I'm not going to waste a brain cell remembering it.

We have 6 other annual beds scattered around the yard that have various plants appropriate for the the amount of sun in that area.

As usual we lost a few shrubs over the winter, so they had to be replaced.

These two are "Orchid Lights" Azalea. They have a light pink bloom in the spring and maintain a compact form. As they mature they will visually soften the edge of the cellar doors. They replace some arborvitae that suffered windburn in the winter wind tunnel that is our driveway. We've tried several aborvitae varieties here, but none have made it more than a couple years.

These three are "Java Red" Weigelia. It has dark red buds which open into deep pink blooms in late spring/early summer, a compact mounded form, and bronze foliage which complements the brick while contrasting with other plants in the vicinity. Like the Azalea, they replace some arborvitae that just weren't thriving in the driveway wind tunnel.

Switching to the north side of the house, we have several new Yews that finish the foundation plantings: "Emerald Spreader" and "Nova".  There were already 5 spreading yews that follow the curved wall on the left edge of the photo. "Emerald Spreader" is a low spreading yew that continues the line of similar yews to its left. "Nova" is the upright yew to the right that provides a visual anchor at the corner. Both should thrive in the deep shade that is the north side of the house. There are a matching pair at the left end of this bed to provide the necessary symmetry. It is a Georgian Colonial after all...

Next we move to the wall at the northern border of the kingdom. These five Dwarf Burning Bush replace the previous five that were in the same location. Even though we're south of the wall, the wildlings took their toll over the long winter. It wasn't so much the winter as the rabbits that girdled the previous plants.  Perhaps the new Guardian of the Garden (aka The King of Mulch Mountain) will do a better job of keeping the wildlings at bay...

Further west along the wall we have six "Iroquois Beauty" Black Chokeberry. They have white flowers in the spring, long-lasting berries in the summer, and a dark wine-red fall color. They help camouflage the wall and will provide a good understory for the new apple trees as they mature. The other three are positioned similarly at the other end of this bed. (Note the stump from the old apple tree which is already well into the process of decomposing.)

This isn't a new plant but is one that looks fantastic at the moment, especially from across the yard. In the left foreground is a bleeding heart which is still in bloom and on the right is an Azalea in full bloom; it's one of the "Northern Lights" series, but I don't remember which one. From the patio the two blend together and there is a striking mass of color. There is a similar pairing to the right of the peach tree.

Lastly, the "Susan" Magnolia in the northwest corner. It has a compact form, reaching perhaps 8-10 feet at maturity, and thick dark leaves that contrast with other adjacent foliage. It has reddish-purple flowers in late spring and tends to avoid frost damage, which is what did in its predecessor. "Susan" is the last chance for a Magnolia in this spot...