Trade a cake for dental work

I’m skeptical when I hear about a business doing some good work for the community. More often than not, the company is looking for some free publicity and good PR.

But after talking with Dr. Harry Rayburn at Main Street Family Dentistry, my faith in the good corporate community has been restored. On Friday, he is letting patients trade cakes, pies, bikes, chickens, etc. for dental work (primarily fillings, extractions and cleanings). Read the full story.

Dennis and I have fielded a few calls this morning from people looking to schedule appointments. We directed them over to the dentist’s office, but it was interesting to hear their stories. People on fixed incomes. No dental insurance. A mom looking to get her daughter’s cavity fixed. Yup, makes me pause and think before I complain about some stupid thing.

Anyway, kudos to Dr. Rayburn. I hope the event goes well tomorrow.

And here’s the scoop if you want to take part:

Main Street Family Dentistry will have a “Trade Day” Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Patients will be able to trade items such as baked goods, livestock and bikes for fillings, extractions and cleanings.

The event will be first-come, first-serve, so the dentist recommends patients arrive around 8:30 a.m. The office is located at 627 W Main St. in Tupelo. For more information, call 840-0066.

Atlanta Bread starts hiring

Atlanta Bread Co. starts taking applications today for its new location on South Gloster Street near Crosstown.

Kip Tigrett, co-owner of the Tupelo franchise, said people interested in a job with the restaurant should apply in person today from noon to 6 p.m. Tigrett wants to hire 50 people in positions including cashiers, cooks, prep work, servers and shift leaders. He also is hiring bakers.

After today, applications will be taken weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The restaurant is expected to open June 16, but Tigrett said it may get pushed back to June 17 or 18. Tentative hours are 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Trashed by a customer online?

BusinessWeek has an advice column about damage control for businesses that have been dissed online by consumers. It was a good read, but the consumer side of me gets worried about the advice that tells businesses to concentrate on creating positive content “so you can suppress the negative comments in the search engine results ranking.”

The top tips:

First, implement a program to deal with customer complaints and change your products and services based on customer feedback. Next, launch a strong offense by making sure your company has more positive messages on the Internet than negative ones.

The advice for business owners who find nasty comments on say Biz Buzz?

Once the negative reviews of your company have been posted to a consumer site or blog, you have a choice: Rebut them publicly and/or try to contact the reviewers privately to resolve the problem, or ignore the dings and work harder in the future on customer satisfaction.

IMO, I would like to see the company respond to the story and hash out the issue publicly.

Read the rest of the advice here.

Toyota pushes certified vehicle program

Toyota Motor Sales announced today that it was launching its first APR (Annual Percentage Rate) program for select Toyota Certified Used Vehicles.

The national APR program offers eligible customers (read those with good credit) a 2.9 percent interest rate for up to 66 months on certified used Tundra and Sequoia vehicles.

From Toyota Motor Sales:

“We’re excited to offer this special program for our customers and dealers alike,” said Norm Olson, sales operations manager of Toyota Certified Used Vehicles. “With this program, consumers, on average, will see a $50 to $60 improvement on their monthly payments for a used Tundra or Sequoia – a significant savings in today’s economic climate.”

Effective from May 23 through July 31, 2008, the program was developed in order to bolster sales of full-size pickup trucks and SUVs. The TCUV program combines the confidence of purchasing a new vehicle with the value of a used vehicle to provide a “like new” ownership experience.

Certified used vehicles offer consumers a smart alternative to traditional used car options and give them the peace of mind they seek in a used vehicle. TCUV posted sales of 95,260 vehicles this year through April, an increase of 7.3 percent over the same period last year. Calendar year through April 2008, Sequoia posted certified used sales of 2,464 units while Tundra recorded certified used sales of 6,728 units.

Signs of the apocalypse at Sears

Sears, famous for its Craftsman tools, Kenmore appliances and, uh, other normally staid department store stuff, announced today that it’s signed an agreement with hip-hop artist LL Cool J to introduce a line of streetwear for children and teens this fall.

From the Chicago Tribune:

The collection of jeans, graphic T-shirts and sweatshirts will debut the second week of September at 450 Sears stores nationwide and expand to about 600 stores in time for the holiday season, the Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based company said. Sears operates about 926 full-line stores in the U.S.
The brand, exclusive to Sears, will eventually include accessories as well.
Sears is building in-store shops to showcase the line. Prices range from $22 for a T-shirt to $50 for jeans.

Blogaholics Anonymous

We’re starting a support group at the Journal. Not really, but after Gregg Ellis’ column on Sunday, I’m realizing the addiction is more widespread than I thought.

I, too, check The Blog (in my case, Biz Buzz) before I get to work, at least two or three times an hour when I’m in the office and before I go to bed. But at least blogging is good for your health, at least according to Poynter.

P.S. Biz Buzz is rapidly approaching its one-year anniversary. Yeah baby!

BancorpSouth ranks high with customers

The J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Retail Banking Satisfaction Study is out. BancorpSouth ranked the highest in the southeast region, while Regions/AmSouth came in at the bottom of the pack.

An excerpt from the J.D. Power press release (full text with graphs):

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.: 28 May 2008 — Poor problem resolution, long wait times and additional fees all contribute to an overall decline in customer satisfaction with retail banks, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Retail Banking Satisfaction Study released today.

The study, now in its third year, finds that overall satisfaction with the retail banking experience has decreased considerably since 2007—down 26 index points on a 1,000-point scale to 737 in 2008. In particular, dissatisfaction with fees is the most commonly reported problem by customers, as well as the second-most common reason for switching financial institutions. In addition, a rise in the number of problems experienced and problems that go unresolved, increases in wait times to see tellers or speak to phone representatives, and declines in the ease of accessing branches all contribute to the drop in satisfaction.

“Many retail banks are experiencing a decline in their brand image, especially in the current economic climate, where many consumers hold banks responsible for the current housing and mortgage crisis,” said Rockwell Clancy, executive director of financial services at J.D. Power and Associates. “With customers experiencing more problems, longer wait times and more fees, that negative view is intensified.”

Mississippi deadly for drivers

Finally, numbers to back up the Biz Buzz team’s claims that we have really bad drivers in the state.

From Borrowed Suits, a blog written by a guy from Maine (Disclaimer - by linking to him we don’t endorse his blog, which we found via a Google alert about Mississippi. But since he was the one who did all the legwork, we thought it would be unfair to link directly to the govt report):

According to the U.S. Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics Reports, issued in August of 2007 (using 2004 data), here is the verdict:

The Five Deadliest States (including DC) to drive in are, from deadliest to safest [deaths per 100,000 residents]:

1. Mississippi [31.5]
2. Arkansas [28.3]
3. Alabama [27.8]
4. Montana [26.0]
5. New Mexico [25.2]

The Five Safest States (including DC) to drive in are, from safest to deadliest [deaths per 100,000 residents]:

1. New Yawk [8.2]
2. Massachusetts [8.3]
3. D.C. [8.3]
4. New Jersey [8.9]
5. Rhode Island [9.2]

Read the full post.

Tourism blogger gives MS props

Our state got some kudos from Travel 2.0, a blog about the convergence of interactive technology and travel (read: tourism).

An excerpt (full post):

I’ve been to many marketing conferences and workshops but nothing comes remotely close to the education, inspiration and genuine camaraderie I experienced at “smackdown”. The following are my opinions on some highlights (in no particular order) from “smackdown”:

• Cool Use of Guerilla Tactics: South Dakota’s “Street Team” for a promotion inviting Minnesotans to visit the state (six Cowboy re-enactors were brought in to ride the trains and roam the streets of the Twin Cities for a week)

• Best Brand Story: Mississippi’s embrace of the idea that the state is the “Birthplace of America’s Music” (more info); this idea is manifested and embraced across all mediums…including a 24/7 live streaming Mississippi radio station.

$4 gas in NeMiss

It’s coming. The question is when. As of Friday, the state average was $3.77 for regular. The pumps have passed $4/gallon in many other parts of the country.

So, what do you think? When will we start paying $4/gallon in NeMiss? And if you are feeling adventurous, care to take a guess at which town will hit it first?

If you asked me last week, I would have said we’ll have $4 gas here within two weeks. But, crude is down today, so I’m going to say we are going to hit $4/gallon of regular around June 23. Who is going to hit the unmentionable price tag first? IMO, it will be West Point.

And, if you’ll think back to a story we wrote in January citing a senior market analyst at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration - you’ll recall that he only expected gasoline prices to hit $4 this summer in parts of California.