Blog

Getting Social

  here are many people familiar with the old adage: “You are what you eat!”, but these days, I’m starting to hear a new one:  “You are what you tweet!”     or a few years, Matchmaker has been registered with Facebook and Linked In and Twitter, but we haven’t been active users.  This week, however, we made the switch, updating our accounts to reflect our new name, Matchmaker Logistics, and pledging to become regular participants in these social media conversations.  getting ourselves ‘psyched up’ for this new venture, we stumbled across a great article in

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Unlucky Weekend?

What a difference a week can make. Last Friday, I was enjoying the pool during a family vacation in sunny Orlando, Florida. This Friday, not only is it the 13th, it’s also time to pay taxes! Talk about an unlucky weekend…. Although I’m generally not superstitious, I couldn’t help but wonder: “Is Friday the 13th really unlucky?” A little internet research led me to an article in the Huffington Post which highlights scientific studies that have been conducted to answer this very question. The article states that Dutch researchers looked at statistics from traffic

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Family Magic

Greetings from Disneyworld! That’s right. This week, I’ve been on vacation with my family in Florida. With 8-year-old and 3-year-old daughters, my wife and I thought it was the perfect time to let our kids experience the wonder of the Magic Kingdom. But our kids decided to teach us a thing or two about magic instead. As a Type A personality, I envisioned early morning departures to the park with Fast Passes in hand and a well-planned strategy in mind to maximize each minute and decrease our cost per ride. Our kids didn’t see

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Fools Rush In

Do you remember back in 1983 when Burger King introduced the “Left-Hander Whopper”?  The burger, rolled out by the famous fast-food chain, was “re-designed to fit more comfortably in the left hand.” How did Burger King achieve this feat? All of the condiments on the Left-Hander Whopper were rotated 180 degrees, thereby redistributing the weight of the sandwich so that the bulk of the ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, tomato and lettuce skewed to the left. Burger King insisted that this revolutionary new burger would result in fewer condiment ‘spills’ for left-handed hamburger lovers. The burger

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Spring Fever

We’ve been fortunate to enjoy an exceptionally mild winter in North Carolina this year.  But this week, Spring really sprung.  The azaleas and the dogwoods are blooming; the grass is regaining its color; and leaves are budding on all of the trees.  I have to admit that the explosion of flowers combined with sunny days and ‘perfect’ temperatures, have given me a serious case of Spring Fever. Yet, I haven’t given in to Mother Nature’s temptations.  I’ve remained at my desk, in my office, working hard.  Years ago, when I was a high school

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St. Patrick’s Day Fun

At Matchmaker Logistics, we’ve all decided that St. Patrick’s Day is one of the best holidays ever–beer, friends, drinking toasts, and more beer. No stress, no pressure, just good times and good music. So today, we celebrate with a few of our favorite Irish toasts and our very own leprechaun-inspired video (double click on the photo and wait for video to load): As you slide down the banisters of life may the splinters never point the wrong way. May your troubles be as few and as far apart as my Grandmother’s teeth. May the

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Creating Employee Loyalty

This Tuesday, we celebrated the 6th anniversary of Pam Carrier’s employment with Matchmaker. Considering that the average employee spends just 4.1 years with an employer these days, 6 years means a lot. Some companies out there do some pretty ‘crazy’ things to retain their talent: Chesapeake Energy offers dermatology services, including Botox injections. Employees also have access to tanning beds and spray tanning services. Cisco employees can drop off their cars with mechanics for a free oil change. Microsoft’s Redmond Campus has over 20 shops and restaurants, including a spa and a pub! Kimpton

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Traits of a Great Salesperson

This week Mary has been on the road making sales calls to present our new Quote and Ship LTL software package.  We’ve been very excited about this new product and we were anxious to see how it would be received. Things couldn’t have gone better: Mary called me after each sales visit to tell me how much she liked the customers and how they wanted to use the new product.  After setting up the new software for our customers, I called each of them to let them know they were good to go.  Each

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Awarding Others

This Sunday marks the 84th Academy Awards. It’s strange, isn’t it? Highly paid actors and directors and composers get annual recognition for the work that they do, yet so many of us have ‘thankless’ jobs. How many times do dishwashers, window cleaners, receptionists, payroll clerks, trash collectors, restaurant bussers, airplane dispatchers or accountants gets nominated for their great work? Not often enough. Yet, earlier this week, Michael Meyers of Bella Transport Inc., made our A/P Rep, Aaron, feel like Hollywood royalty when he sent this email: “Just wanted to let you know how much

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Matchmaker Plays Cupid

On Valentine’s Day, Mary got a fantastic call from one of ‘our’ drivers. Robert with Kottke Trucking, called in to say how excited he was to be working with Matchmaker on Valentine’s Day! He said: “I hope that we are a perfect match!” Whether you’re a hopeless romantic who loves a day dedicated to wine, chocolate and flowers, or a more skeptical sort who sees Valentine’s Day as one of those manufactured ‘Hallmark holidays’, we bet you still appreciate a good love story. This week, we get to share two of them: Congratulations to

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