my embarq

Excerpts from last week's Remote Access (The TV Blog)
By THE JOURNAL NEWS
For the latest television news and to read Remote Access - our staff's thoughts on such hit shows as "Grey's Anatomy," "Lost," "24," "Heroes" and more - click here: www.LoHud.com/entertainment.

Following are excerpts from the past week's entries on Remote Access (The TV Blog) at LoHud.com. The column features sharp commentary from our bloggers on all your favorite shows.


Christmas with Jack Bauer?

OK, this has got to be one of the goofiest self-promoting surveys. Ever.


EMBARQ (I've never even heard of this company!) surveyed 1,000 Americans who they'd want to call up and invite to join them around the dinner table this holiday season, on their cellphones of course. In return, EMBARQ is giving its customers (current, as well as new) unlimited minutes throughout the entire month.


So, 11 percent of the respondents, when offered the following fake characters, chose Jack Bauer, our tortured (and torturing) hero (antihero?) of "24" over the following: Susan Mayer of "Desperate Housewives," Larry David of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Stewie Griffin of "Family Guy," Claire Bennet of "Heroes," Michael Scott of "The Office" and Nancy Botwin of "Weeds."


But this is my question: What happens when Jack is sitting at your dinner table and your kid brother covertly takes out one of those laser pointer thingys and starts pointing it at the turkey, the mashed potatoes, the Christmas tree?


Jack freakin' wrecks your house, that's what. He gets your kid brother in a headlock, shoots him in the knee and demands, "WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR? TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW!"


Before everything is straightened out, you have a crippled brother, a wrecked dinner and possibly a house blown up.


But, I guess, you would have a heckuva holiday story to share with your friends. - Amy Vernon (posted Dec. 4, 2007)


Surviving 'Office' withdrawal

It's been a while since I've blogged about "The Office" because it's been a while since "The Office" went on strike-induced hiatus.


So even as I've been enjoying new episodes of "30 Rock," "Chuck," "Journeyman" and "Heroes," the last few weeks, Dunder-Mifflin has been out-of-sight, out-of-mind.


It's really a shame, because I considered this a real bounce-back season for Greg Daniels & Co., albeit a bounce-back that began in the final weeks of last season.


I'm toying with the idea of a recap/breakdown on the abbreviated season that was, since the way the strike is going we shouldn't expect new episodes for a good long while.


I want to get my thoughts in order first, though you can bet I'll be lauding the beautiful handling of Jim and Pam's relationship and the consistently top-shelf performances by Steve Carell.


I'll also tear into some of the missteps and lowlights along the way: the plunge into Lake Scranton, Dunder-Mifflin Infinity, Rashida Jones' too-abrupt departure.


- Brian Howard (posted Dec. 5, 2007)


'Chuck' star navigates train-wreck interview

In this clip from a Los Angeles talk show, watch the comely Yvonne Strahovski, a native Australian, share some fun stories about landing a phenomenal TV role within three days of arriving in the United States.


Watch her interact with a guy who's clearly never seen "Chuck" before.


In the first minute, he butchers her last name (forgivable, as it is a toughie upon an initial viewing) and misidentifies her costar, Zachary Levi, as Zachary Taylor-our 12th president!


Strahovski even pauses a moment, perhaps wondering if she should correct him, but takes the high road.


In fairness, I butchered the last name of the lead singer of Survivor in a recent TV appearance. But it's not like I'd never heard "Eye of the Tiger" before. - Chris Serico (posted Dec. 4, 2007)

JASON GERTZEN
The Kansas City Star

Hesse The next CEO of Sprint Nextel might be sitting in an office just down the street in Overland Park.

Dan Hesse, chairman and CEO of Embarq Corp. and a well-regarded wireless industry veteran, effectively acknowledged this week that he is in the mix for the top job at Sprint.

"If Embarq performs well, I am going to be listed as a candidate when all these jobs are open," Hesse told Wall Street analysts Wednesday in an investor conference in New York.

When responding to a questioner who referred to him as "the lead contender" in the Sprint CEO search, Hesse responded that he also had been considered earlier this year for chief executive of Denver-based Qwest Communications International.

"I hope that just like in the past with Qwest, and in the future, my name is always up there," said Hesse, whose career includes a stint leading AT&T Wireless. "It means Embarq is performing well."

Add Hesse's impromptu comments to a growing list of distractions as Sprint operates without a permanent leader.

Just last week, news emerged that Tim Donahue, Sprint's former chairman, was rebuffed by the board after lining up an investor group willing to pump $5 billion into the company if he could return as CEO.

The search for former CEO Gary Forsee's replacement is now marking its second month. Sprint representatives decline to specify who is on the short list or how quickly they expect to finish the job.

Under growing pressure from a concerned board and frustrated investors, Forsee on Oct. 8 stepped down as leader of the Kansas City region's largest corporate employer.

A prolonged search leaves open the possibility the Donahue consortium could make a renewed run, a different outside group could pop up or other issues might emerge that require attention from top executives or the board.

"When a company is without a permanent leader, it's in limbo," said John Challenger, an expert on corporate talent searches and CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "The ability to fend off various kinds of entreaties and offers is more difficult, especially when a company has some weaknesses."

Hesse, who leads Embarq's 19,000 nationwide employees from a headquarters office about a mile from Sprint's Overland Park campus, often is mentioned as a prospect. In addition to various telecom executives, others reportedly include Andrew Sukawaty, a former Sprint PCS president who now leads the satellite communications venture Inmarsat.

Since Forsee's departure Sprint's shares have fallen about 15 percent. Sprint executives have been tempering expectations during what should be a prime selling season.

"I definitely think it is concerning that they have not been able to find a replacement CEO over the past couple of months," said Michael Nelson, an analyst for Stanford Group in New York. "It seems to be a company that lacks direction and has sort of a convoluted strategy overall."

A more blistering critique erupted a week ago when Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's "Mad Money," picked a new member for his "Hall of Shame."

In Cramer's view, Paul Saleh, Sprint's acting CEO, is not a strong leader. Sprint was wrong not to welcome back Donahue, or at least listen closely to his plans for turning Sprint around, Cramer said.

"We want Tim Donahue ― he is the former executive chairman of the combined company ― to come back and rescue us," said Cramer in one of his trademark outbursts. "There's a guy who actually knows what he's doing."

When customer service providers waste my time, treat me rudely or are unable to help me, I think: "Here is a business that's ripe for a competitor." Businesses that invest in hiring great workers and then in training them to provide first-class service will eventually crush their competitors in the marketplace.

And businesses that focus on the short-term bottom line and don't worry about customer loyalty are setting themselves up for extinction.

The business weekly I edit, In Business Las Vegas, ran a Question & Answer interview in its Nov. 16-22 issue with Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com, the Las Vegas-based leading online shoe retailer that is staking its future on service.

Hsieh told In Business that, frustrated by poor customer service, he was inspired to build a company focused on taking care of customers.

Zappos spends a lot of money to train employees, with a four-week program that includes three weeks of classroom focus on company history, customer service philosophy and company culture and one week of talking on the phone with customers and taking orders.

Every employee, from top to bottom, goes through the same training, with the goal of making sure that every Zappos employee is on the same page when it comes to customer-service philosophy.

"We empower them to do whatever it takes to make the customer happy," Hsieh said. "All we care about is that we go above and beyond for the customer.

"In theory, customer service should be an easy thing, but it's not easy, because, if it was, I wouldn't be so annoyed or frustrated with so many other companies."

For the most part, we're lucky in Las Vegas.

We live in a hospitality-driven market, alongside hundreds of thousands of folks who provide top-notch customer service every day.

Las Vegans know what quality customer service is, and presumably demand it when we conduct our own business.

A few of my favorite customer service providers are national outfits, including Starbucks, Southwest Airlines and FedEx.

Among local companies, in the casino business Bellagio and Wynn Las Vegas rank high among the Strip resorts, while Red Rock, South Point, Green Valley Ranch, Orleans and Sunset Station are among the local casinos with the best service.

Although lower-cost restaurants aren't known for customer service, one that should be is Sweet Tomatoes, the soup-and-salad chain.

At lunch on a recent Saturday I was struck by how pleasant the workers were and how diligently they worked to keep tables clean and customers served.

Of course it's not too hard to find poor service, even in Las Vegas.

I've been disappointed by the overall quality of customer service at mass-market grocery store chains in Southern Nevada.

Before I moved to Las Vegas in 1999, I spent 11 years in Sarasota, Fla., where the dominant supermarket chain is Publix.

Their employees were friendly and knowledgeable, kept their stores clean and were quick to help those who needed it.

Here in Las Vegas, Whole Foods, of course, has great service, but it is a little too costly for my everyday shopping.

Trader Joes has even better service - and great prices - but its stores don't carry as many products as do supermarkets. When it comes to supermarket shopping, I usually shop at Smith's, but occasionally go to Vons or Albertsons.

I find the service at all three chains to be poor to acceptable, at best. When I asked some of the folks I work with to name businesses that provide poor customer service, most people cited near-monopoly utilities, including Embarq, Southwest Gas, Cox Cable and Nevada Power.

I don't have a lot of experience dealing in person with the customer service providers at these companies, but based on the telephone customer service I've received from some of these outfits, they could stand a lot of improvement.

Other businesses cited for poor service were Wal-Mart (not enough checkouts open, not enough employee assistance, bad attitudes); Home Depot (not enough employee assistance, shortage of checkout lanes), and fast-food restaurants (and anywhere else with teenage workers).

I don't know why some businesses are willing to live with providing poor service.

The fallout may not be immediately noticeable, but eventually an entrepreneur like Tony Hsieh is going to target them - and put their customers out of their misery.

Jeff Simpson is business editor of the Las Vegas Sun and executive editor of its sister publication In Business Las