williger’s posterous

my rather reluctant reply to http://twitter.com/culvers/status/2758867400 

Culvers,

I didn't want to discuss this experience further, but honoring your request for specifics...

I'm a big fan. Before you were in Illinois, I drove out of state to enjoy your delicious frozen custard. I've learned to love the butterburger, tuna sourdough sandwich, delicious turtle sundaes, and more. I've been a customer and your evangelist for years! I'm what you would call a 'foodie'. I love eating, I take photographs and write about many of my meals. 

I had been reviewing different burgers on my 'burger blog' and was excited to add a Culver's review to complement the other burgers. I've seldom had bad Culvers's experiences, these mostly limited to wrong orders but never bad food.

This was my worst fast food experience. My perception of your brand was destroyed.

July 20th I went to Culver's at 1765 N. Rand Rd, in Palatine, IL. and from the drive-through ordered the double butter-burger. I was offered a special including fries and drink. Remembering @culvers_on_rt60 promoting Culver's coffee, I requested one.

I pulled up to the drive-through window, and a gentleman was there holding the coffee towards the top, the cap squeezed off and the coffee poured on my hand. The attendant seemed genuinely concerned that he may have burned my hand. 

Employee: Are you OK did I burn your hand?
Customer: I'm fine, just get me another cup.
Employee: Are you sure you're not burned?
Customer: Yes, please get me napkins.

He got napkins and another cap (1st one was on the ground next to my car) and repeated failing at attempting to secure the lid to a bent cup. He then got a 3rd cap, and used the palm of his hand where one would drink from, to apply back-forth pressure, perhaps securing the lid in his opinion, confidently exclaimed 'there!' and handed it me. I was disgusted at the unsanitary handling of palming the drink hole.

They had me pull forward and wait - standard procedure and not a problem. I reached for my phone and went to refresh my screen when someone was at my window, handed a bag, said 'here' and walked off. WOW that was fast I thought.

This is the burger I received (photo taken within minutes):

I couldn't complete my video due to it smelling like feces:

Culver's Double Cheeseburger on 12seconds.tv

I'm not sure what to say. I loved your restaurant and brand. I do respect you reaching out to me, asking to share. Without your encouragement I wouldn't have posted this, and I'm reluctantly doing so. My reluctance is that I help many companies 'clean up' bad perspectives and experiences, and wouldn't want to contribute to anything negative. I do admire your boldness asking me to share! Where do we go from here? 

New DWilly style of #followfriday coming - now to figure out the website!

Friends,

I almost dropped out of Twitter the past 2 months. I really didn't - I was trapped in DMs…

If Twitter is a cocktail party - AutoDMs are jerks who corner me in the kitchen to push MLM financial services*.

I've been struggling with DM management for quite some time.  I prefer public communications on Twitter. DMs are frequently spammy or filled with requests from people who haven't even communicated with me publicly asking to use me to promote them to my followers (heck, I rarely promote my business).

Several weeks back I felt embarrassed that I missed a DM from @ginidietrich and began keeping a close watch on DMs and dug through THOUSANDS of direct messages to make sure I didn't miss others - sure enough I did, mostly were simple things like 'how did you lose weight' or 'I love sushi too' or other things I love talking about and missed because of the spam. I watched so closely that my Tweeting velocity publicly declined to a noticable extent - take a look at this graph of what happened in July/August:

AUTOMATIC DMs RUIN TWITTER.

I've recently seen people who unfollowed everyone like @scobleizer (and this week it seems @JohnChow and others did the same) - that’s one method, however I love my friends on Twitter and would rather deal w/spam than do that!

Like most 'biggies', I use automation to autofollowback - Why? Because if a new friend follows me, I don’t want them to wait for me to follow them back. It feels good when people follow back so I like to do that for others. I guess why this became important to me is because I didn't want anyone to think I ignored them.

Yes autofollowback invites spammers but typically less than 1-2% (2 on the HIGH end) -

• Basic math- IF EVEN 1% of followers DM - that's up to ~893 DMs to process daily! 
• Basic DM processing is ruining my Twitter experience and I had ZERO time to @ reply
• Some days 2% of people DM me - this can be over 1786 direct messages to process!
• More - only 1-2% of DMs I get are REAL DMs (process 800-1800 for ~20 messages?

I pay for the professional TweetLater / SocialOomph at $29/month primarily so I can get @reply digests and to automatically follow new followers. Their @Reply service has failed me for 2 months** so last week I switched over to SocialToo.com and was excited about their spam filtration.

Recently I was followed by an account @ArticleCafe and automatically recipricated - this resulted in them sending me TONS of DMs - Did I block them, no! I sent them a friendly @ reply asking them to stop this auto-DM behavior. I then setup commonly repeated phrases in SocialToo to have them auto-delete phrases, like 'join my mafia family' repeated several hundreds times daily - what I failed to do was read fine print that in addition to deleting DM box it would also unfollow.

                I recommend checking out the DM tools on http://regillo.com/twittertools

Auto-DMs suck but I respect people make mistakes and I give second chances. I don't want to unfollow anyone.What I can't do is process hundreds or thousands of DMs daily without SERIOUS life consequences.

I'm turning off the SocialToo auto-SPAM until they have different options for how it operates. I will have all DMs go to my email (like they have since June 18th, 2008) so that I can process locally. I love communications, I dislike forced marketing.

I apologize if anyone was auto-unfollowed for auto-DMing me. Just @ reply me so I can follow you back.

Thank you,

Darren

*Nothing against MLM or financial services - just not in the kitchen at a party!

** I still pay $29/month for SocialOomph as  it's a great service. Check them out! :)

1.         Lemon being a citrus fruit, fights against infection. It helps in production of WBC's and antibodies in blood which attacks the invading microorganism and prevents infection.

2.         Lemon is an antioxidant which deactivates the free radicals preventing many dangerous diseases like stroke, cardiovascular diseases and cancers.

3.         Lemon lowers blood pressure and increases the levels of HDL (good cholesterol).

4.         Lemon is found to be anti-carcinogenic which lower the rates of colon, prostate, and breast cancer. They prevent faulty metabolism in the cell, which can predispose a cell to becoming carcinogenic. Also blocks the formation of nitrosamines in the gut.

5.         Lemon juice is said to give a glow to the skin.

6.         A few drops of lemon juice in hot water is believed to clear the digestive system and purify liver as well.

7.         The skin of lemon dried under the sun and then ground to make powder can be applied to the hair for a few minutes before bath which relieves head ache and cools the body.

8.         Applying lemon juice to acne dries the existing ones and prevents from getting more.

9.         Lemon juice acts as a natural hair lightener and skin bleach which reduces the pigment melanin and prevents the risk of chemical allergic reactions which is common with hair dyes and bleaches.

10.     Lemon juice is given to relieve gingivitis, stomatitis, and inflammation of the tongue.

11.     Lemon juice is given to prevent common cold.

12.     Lemon juice is given to prevent or treat urinary tract infection and gonorrhea.

13.     Lemon juice is applied to the sites of bites and stings of certain insects to relieve its poison and pain.

14.     Lemon juice relieves colic pain and gastric problems.

15.     Lemon juice soothes the dry skin when applied with little glygerine.

16.     Lemon juice used for marinating seafood or meat kills bacteria and other organisms present in them, thereby prevents many gastro-intestinal tract infections.

17.     Lemon juice with a pinch of salt (warm) every morning lowers cholesterol levels and brings down your weight.

18.     Lemon juice is the best drink to prevent dehydration and shock in case of diarrhea.

19.     Lemon juice can also be used as a mouthwash. It removes plaque, whitens the teeth and strengthens the enamel.

20.     A table spoon on thick lemon syrup everyday relieves asthma.

21.     Lemon juice relieves chilblains and itchy skin.

22.     Gargling lemon juice relieves throat infection and also used as a treatment for diptheria.

23.     Lemon juice is an excellent treatment for dandruff and greasy hair.

24.     Lemon applies over the face removes wrinkles and keeps you young.

25.     Lemon juice helps to prevent and cure osteoarthritis.

 Lemon is not usually allergic or toxic to many.

I'm not a doctor - don't take my advice, don't sue me - be happy :)