Sponsored Content WEBINAR: ELECTION 2008: E-mail Tips from a Political Insider   WEBINAR: Becoming the Illusionist: The Magic of Using "Brand" to Drive Response without Results Disappearing in the Process   WEBINAR: Score and Win Through Cooperation   TOOLS OF THE TRADE: Holiday's are prime-time for email marketing - maximize your ROI by getting to the inbox   ON DEMAND WEBINAR--MASTER CLASS: High Performance Online and Off-line Strategies for Large Scale Customer Acquisition   FREE WHITE PAPER - Direct Mail and the Internet Find any supplier you need - agencies, CRM, fulfillment, lists, e-commerce, paper, printers, telemarketing, and more. Featured Categories Lists and Data Telemarketing Database Marketing E-commerce Web Marketing Agency & Creative Services Print, Production & Paper Lists and Data Processing :: view all categories Get free access to more than 50,000 list data cards - one of the most comprehensive databases in the industry. >> Search Now DIRECT Buzz Blog Webinars Buyer's Guide Calculators JobZone ListFinder Promo Calendar Research Store E-Newsletters Print Magazine This Month in Direct Magazine Deal With It Direct had a full house for this year's list roundtable. Considering all the additional responsibilities on brokers' plates, that's impressive... See Full July Issue

Many years ago my husband and I were waiting in line for the Snow White's Scary Adventures ride at Disney World in Orlando, FL. To pass the time we tried to remember the names of all seven dwarfs.

Dopey, Doc, Bashful, Grumpy, Sleepy, Sneezy and…and…who the heck was the seventh dwarf? We went back and forth for a few minutes before the man in front of us turned around and said helpfully, “Happy. The one you're forgetting is Happy.”

(That man, by the way, turned out to be author Peter David. But I digress.)

The way I'm feeling today, it's appropriate that Happy was the dwarf I couldn't place, because I'm feeling much more in tune with his curmudgeonly comrade, Grumpy.

I'm grumpy because I'm obsessing about some things that get my rapidly aging goat.

For example:

• Direct marketers, I'm your fish in a barrel. I cover the business for a living. I look at my mail not only to check if my bills and magazines have arrived, but to see if there are any story ideas. So if you can't get me to look inside your envelope or catalog, well, your aim is really, really off.

  More often than not, that's happening these days. And it's depressing. I'm not your typical customer. I don't want to casually toss your offerings right into the recycling bin. I want to be engaged. Sadly, all too many mailers are sending the same old, same old again and again. And I know that over the years I've typed these same words again and again. Sigh.

• Why oh why is customer service so hard for some companies? In the past few months I've had a number of technical problems with a service provider. (I won't name it because everything isn't resolved yet, and I want to see how things play out before I vilify the firm in print.)

  I call with a problem and get one story from a rep. I call two days later and get told something completely different. I make appointments for service calls in my home and the appointments are canceled without any notification. The company offers a meager credit to make up for the hours of time I spent waiting around — and then never posts the credit to my account.

  I'm not so irked by the technical issues — they're inconvenient, but I can manage. I am irked by how the situation is being handled. Deal with problems effectively and you'll have customers who'll stick with you over the long haul, because they know you'll stick by them.

  Of course, there are a few things that are making me feel in tune with, if not Happy, then at least the dwarfs' lesser-known cousin, Hopeful.

• I have another trip to Orlando coming up this month, when I'll be attending the ACCM show. After years of hearing friends rave about JetBlue, I'm finally going to try the airline myself. I have much higher hopes for this flight than I do for the typical air trip. Will I think JetBlue is all that and a bag of chips? (What's that? You say they give out free bags of chips? Cool. )

• On that same trip I'll be staying at the conference hotel, the Gaylord Palms Resort. While I've had less than stellar experiences at Gaylord's Opryland property with both the hotel itself and its customer service, I've heard good things about this one. So I'm optimistic about the stay.

• Finally, there's Starbucks. And not just because caffeine is my special friend. I'm talking about one particular Starbucks locale, and one particular barista — I wish I knew his name so I could give him a proper shout-out here.

  Even before Starbucks shut down its whole shootin' match worldwide for three hours of retraining, this guy was the tops. Why? For one thing, he makes the best latte I've ever gotten from the chain — and I've had a lot of them. For another, he's personable and chatty, in a real and not overbearingly fake way. And he seems as if he genuinely likes his job and enjoys dealing with the public.

  Can you say this about your employees who talk to customers every day? It's something to go grab a cup of joe and think about.

What in marketing is making you feel like Grumpy, Happy or heck, even Dopey? Let me know at beth.negus@penton.com.