FedEx may be big losers at the interaction with the blogosphere, but they are still the most consistent and customer-focused courier company in my experience.

The story:

Being that I'm still rather 'unsettled' in this strange new land, I needed to courier my first paycheque North to Canada so that my husband could deposit it in the bank for me. This required a HUGE leap of faith for me because I was sending a cheque, signed on back for deposit (yikes) across the country.

Nothing this tenuous ever goes smoothly. Nothing.

First off, Ken had to work at 10 am and FedEx didn't offer a before 10 am residential delivery. I couldn't have it automatically delivered to his workplace, because they weren't in until 9 or 9:30 (and FedEx has a tendency to be too efficient at times). The woman at the counter couldn't make a note on the delivery instructions, but she did hand me a big ole bic pen and told me to write a note on the package itself.

Now, not that this would make a difference, but it sure made me feel better. It was a potential solution for me and she showed amazing creative thinking on customer service.

Of course, the package wasn't delivered before 10 am, but as soon as I called FedEx to complain, they had everyone on it. I received several phonecalls that indicated they: contacted the driver, he had confirmed the re-routing, and it had been delivered and signed for at the new location. No extra charge. No hassle.

Every step along the way, they made me feel safe and good about my decision to use them for such precious cargo. And, though there were definite hitches along the way, every single customer service person I spoke with was empowered to find solutions and communicate these to me. It was like watching a perfectly choreographed scene in an exciting ballet.

Us bloggers have to come to terms with the fact that we are only a piece of the overall conversation. Most of the conversation still happens offline, and, I would argue, that MOST of the conversation is most crucial at the one2one customer/customer service agent point in time. It's worth a whole lot more to empower your customer service agents to make customers happy than to devise strategies on how to join the conversation at this or that point.

If you can do both, you will rule your kingdom for a long time.

So, although FedEx didn't win any favours fighting a blogger over some creatively used packaging, they are still the most consistent and remarkable courier company around in my opinion.

Oh, and, look...I'm blogging about it, too...;)