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Raised in Boston, remade in Sweden

Archive for the ‘Swedish products’ Category

Driving home Swedish. The prodigal saab returns.

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

My SAAB 9-5 just became Swedish and something inside me stirred. In case you missed the news today, Koenigsegg Group is set to buy SAAB from GM. What stirred? I don’t know exactly, but I’d liken it to patriotism or national pride.

True that I’m an American born and bred, but after more than 15 years in Sweden I’ve found a fondness for my host country and I have been quietly rooting for SAAB through the doom and gloom of the fall of GM.

Me and SAABs go way back to my childhood home and neighbors. The guy living in the house behind us and my friend’s parents up the street both had SAABs which looked probably a lot like this. I thought they were the most horrifically ugly cars out there. Probably second only to the Volvo 240 the neighbor across the street had. Yet, somehow in the early 90s the convertible won my heart. I guess living in Sweden has helped me get over and remaining prejudices. I could even own a Volvo today, though that’s not Swedish yet.

I am not sure that Koenigsegg will be able to ever make SAAB profitable. Why would he when no one else has succeeded in most of the car’s modern history? But I am pleased that it is now in Swedish hands again. And if anyone could pull it out of the crusher it’s probably some eccentric, high performance car designer with big ambitions.

And a sense of Swedish pride.

I got me some Swedish pride.

And a Swedish car.

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Tags: koenignsegg, saab, sweden
Posted in Swedish culture, Swedish products | 2 comments »

Consumer Evangelicalism: Praising good customer service and great sausages.

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

Customer service is slowing getting better in Sweden. I know many of you will scoff at that, but in the past 16 years customer service has indeed improved. At the very least, there’s now a will to pursue better service. But the burden to make things better isn’t exclusively in the hands of the service provider. It’s also in our hands, the customer.

I started saying years ago that I can just as well stop complaining about bad service if I am not prepared to do something about it. If I don’t express my dissatisfaction why would or should anyone make things better for me? They must be thinking things are just hunky-dory since no one is complaining.

So I write the occasional complaint letter.

But the letter of complaint can’t be where my responsibility as a consumer stops. In a day and age of buzz words, we must endeavor to be more pro-active in our consumer duties.

We must preach. We must praise. We must promote.

Today I realized I am a self-anointed consumer evangelist. I sing the praises where praising is due. Today I am in the pulpit promoting Taylor and Jones. These guys not only are amazing butchers and traditional English savory pie makers, but they are just the most amazing customer service providers.

I dashed in today to discuss an order I need this week. I want delivery on Friday earliest. The first guy (a very friendly bloke) broke the bad news to me.

-Sorry, we’re not delivering this Friday.

So I asked for Gareth Jones (my primary contact is in fact David Taylor, but the lazy sod is off enjoying a month holiday back in Ireland.) Gareth knows me from my years of customer devotion. Gareth says:

-We’ll deliver for you and only you this Friday.

Now, THAT’s what I wanted to hear. THAT’s what I needed to hear. Now, these guys aren’t going to special deliver to YOU just because they’ll special deliver to me *insert wink* but they’re going to make every effort they can to provide you great sausages, pies and other food products freshly made or imported from the UK (their menu is staggering and their prices are amazing.)

I’ll gladly climb a pulpit any day to promote this amazing shop, this dynamic team. Their products are outstanding and their devotion to their customers is unparalleled. At least in Sweden.

Perhaps if there were more consumer evangelists there would be better service. People would raise the bar of expectations and demand the best. Shops would have no option but to cater to the customer’s needs. So get out there and preach about your favorite shop, mechanic, supermarket cashier or crossing guard. Become the consumer evangelist.

This one is looking forward to her Friday delivery of sausages and other yummy BBQ favorites.

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Tags: customer service, sausages, taylor and jones
Posted in Swedish culture, Swedish products, stockholm | No comments »

Better customer service. It’s about time.

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

My fancy watch needs a new battery. Because it submersible to 100M (so useful in the shower) the watch needs to be pressure tested and that’s not DIY. So into the shop it went.

I had thought I would be blogging on why it should take so darn long to get a watch battery changed in Sweden since “While you wait” is not really ever an option in Sweden, at least not at the “more established” (I guess I should just call it snooty) watch retailers. But for the first time in the life history replacing demanding batteries for demanding watches, I heard the unbelievable:

“Would you like to pick it up later today or tomorrow?”

In the past I’ve waited weeks for this process and I’ve given up wondering what takes so bleeding long. That’s what it takes, this is Sweden. But times; they be-a-changing.

So tomorrow it is. I just wonder what time.

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Posted in Swedish culture, Swedish products | No comments »