Win a New Apple iPod Nano!

Our birthday is coming up in October, and instead of receiving gifts, we’ll be giving them away. Every Friday in October - and there are 5 Fridays in October - you'll have a chance to win one of these. Here's how:

New to Vmeals? Register
Already a fan? Refer-a-friend
Want more? Place an Order

Our Last September Winner!

Well, it's been fun, folks. Just wait until you see what we have for October...

You love us! You really love us!

We take our satisfaction guarantee pretty seriously, so we pay close attention to our customers' experience.We ask for customer feedback after every order. We want to know about the food, how the delivery was handled, and the customer's experience with both the website and our team.

We recently received this email from a customer as the result of our routine request for feedback. Nothing makes me happier than when a post writes itself. (I've also asked her to start writing all our marketing copy.)

Thanks, Deb, for sharing how Vmeals makes your job easier:

The Vmeals order was excellent.

The website is as always extremely user friendly. What I like about ordering from Vmeals is a few things. The menus are right at your fingertips and I love the fact that you can name your meeting.  I handle reconciling the corporate credit card so the charge comes on the credit card and all I need to do is have the Vmeals receipt as it will tell me what the meeting was for. When you are doing expenses that is a great tool instead of having to figure out what the charges are.

Customer Service – the few times I needed to change my order, they have been extremely helpful.

I love the variety of restaurants. You can order a basic sandwich from any sandwich places but I have to say that I love ordering from various places but I do have 2 favorites. Max’s Deli is one as we can order hot sandwiches as a different twist on lunch and they always take a common sandwich to the next level. And my other favorite place is Sam LaGrassa’s as they make an exceptional sandwich but we love to order the reuben and I have been told they have the best pickles.

I love having everything at your fingertips. I know that I can order a birthday cake from Rebecca’s and let’s not forget that many places are now doing cupcakes. I think the website offers a variety of places to choose from as well as what kind of meals you are looking for.

Everything is all in one place and with just one click of the button you can place an order. I also love the fact that they call and verify the order on delivery day.

Thanks again,

Deb

And We Have a Winner!

...and a peek at my messy office. It really is not always this bad.

Congratulations to our latest September Back to School winner. Theresa Baker from Houston,Texas is going to be too cool for school with her new Nook.





You still have one more chance to win a Nook next week. Get on over to http://www.vmeals.com/ and sign up. Wait until you see what's coming in October!

Is Chocolate the Best Way to Improve Morale?

Yesterday the Vmeals Lounge/Party Place was buzzing with activity – no tequila, but lots of chocolate!

We celebrated Dawn’s birthday (you remember her – she put herself in harm’s way to make Shasean Williams day). We had one of the most festive cakes I’ve ever seen covered in M&Ms. We also brought in an ice cream maker and we had ridiculously good/rich/deadly chocolate ice cream with optional Reeses and Oreo pieces.

 

Not only were we celebrating a birthday, we were punching up the weekly sales meeting and building team morale. How? With food, of course. We don’t eat just to survive; eating is highly social and (hopefully) pleasurable.

So what better way to celebrate your accomplishments, reward staff, make meetings more enjoyable, and impress clients than with food? Vmeals makes it easy.

Sandwich trays are always appreciated, but you might also consider a mid-week coffee bar to get the team over the hump or a sweet Friday afternoon cupcake break. When so many workplaces are cutting back on perks, salaries and even staff, here’s one of the simplest and most affordable ways to show your appreciation.

What other ways do you keep spirits up around the office?

Our First Winner!

This was a big day here at Vmeals Worldwide HQ! Congratulations to the first winner in our Nook giveaway.

Didn't Dawn do a lovely job? She was a good sport when we asked her to draw, and then said, "Oh by the way, this will be recorded for the blog."

Then we filled the bag with numbers AND thumbtacks because the paper didn't make a festive enough noise.

Then we gave Jon a confetti canon which had some alarming warnings about space and distance and projectiles.

And still Dawn stood in the crosshairs with a smile on her face.

We couldn't get the canon to fire. Maybe next week. Come on back - you have two more chances to win (and see Dawn risk life and limb). Have a great weekend!

Serving it up Vmeals Style

As promised, I wanted to take this opportunity to put us in a service frame of mind as we approach 9/11. Tomorrow will officially be recognized as a Day of Service and Remembrance. I'm sure you'll remember - who could forget what happened on that beautiful September day (much like today here) in 2001. It seems as vivid as if it were yesterday and yet like a lifetime ago. Time is funny like that, isn't it?

I will spend most of my day tomorrow ferrying my kids from one game or practice to another, but I will also be spending part of it at home making dresses from pillowcases for little girls in need. I came to be involved in this project through my my work in social media, and ended up finding something where I could do good simply by putting my passion for sewing and cute clothes to work. (If you care to learn more about this project, you can check it out here.)

Shayna with Myra Gayle & Mazie 

Let me tell you about a couple other Vmeals staffers. Shayna, our sales rep in the Atlanta area, is passionate about animals. For many years she has volunteered with a number of animal rescue groups around metro Atlanta.

In the past few years, she and her husband Craig, have have begun to take a more active role in helping homeless pets around Atlanta(and by "active" I think she means taking them all into her own home).They are the proud parents of 5 rescue dogs. Shayna also still tries to fit in a weekend at the local dog shelter whenever possible. If you are in the Atlanta area and interested in adopting a rescue dog, Shayna recommends CPR (don't worry, it's not doggy mouth-to-mouth - it stands for Canine Pet Rescue).

Some of the donated goodies!

Mary Pat, another one of our sales reps (she covers Central Virgina and Hampton Roads), has found a way to apply her sales and marketing skills to her love of running, kids sports, and charity work. She has raised funds and procured donations for the Legs For Liberia Race in Fluvanna County (Effort Church) for their missions program and for the Pink Power Triathlon in Richmond to support the Richmond YMCA and their programs.

She has also started a new non-profit (501 c (3)application pending) called Cleats For Kids. The mission is to raise funds to be able to buy cleats for kids. They also donate gently used cleats at fundraisers, community programs and to coaches to distribute to families in need. She saw a gap where children who qualify for program scholarships might not be able to afford the shoes. She may be starting in her own back yard, but she has big plans for the program.

That's just a peek at the diversity of interests among the Vmeals team. Next week we'll see what everyone else is up to, but we want to hear from you. What organizations do you support? Give them a shout out and include a link in our comments section below.

At Your Service

Vmeals makes exceptional customer service a high priority. We understand that great customer service is good business, but there’s more to it than that. Every member of the Vmeals team believes service is the heart of our business, because we all happen to have a heart for service. It’s in the Vmeals DNA.

On April 21, 2009, President Barack Obama signed legislation that for the first time officially established September 11 as a federally recognized National Day of Service and Remembrance. What better way to channel our lingering grief than to choose to serve one another? For the next week we will be sharing our stories of service on our blog and our Facebook page. We invite you to share yours as well. This is your chance to get the word out about the causes that you’re passionate about.

In preparation for this series, I asked the team here to share some of the ways they serve their community and volunteer their time. I have to say it was fascinating to see how their choices reflect their unique personalities, strengths and passions. We hope that by sharing what matters to us and highlighting the work of some amazing organizations, we can in some small way honor our country by helping spread a culture of service. Won’t you join us?

Back to Business

In this part of the country, it was a fabulous Labor Day weekend - chamber of commerce weather, as they say. Summer of 2010 was officially the hottest on record here. That on the heels of the Snowpocalypse last winter, and I say Mother Nature owes us a few good days.

The team here kicked off the long weekend with Margaritas, chips and some tasty black bean and corn salsa Friday afternoon. As you can see, we really know how to have a good time.

We totally killed this bottle of tequila.

Yeah, it was an airplane bottle that we split 4 ways - so?

Well, it was 3 in the afternoon, and we are responsible professional adults here. Don't judge.

More importantly, however, we are rested and refreshed and ready to get back to work. How about you?

Don't forget: We're giving away a free Nook eReader this Friday. If you are a Vmeals customer, you can enter to win by simply referring a friend to Vmeals. Anyone new to Vmeals can enter to win by registering on our website. It is so easy, there's no excuse not to throw your name in the hat.

Back to School Giveaway!

Whew! Our first video blog post is up. September is going to be really fun! Make sure to look for us on Facebook and follow @vmealscs on Twitter to keep up with everything going on. Click through to find out how to enter our Nook giveaway.

The Vmeals team will be firing up the blender and headed to Margaritaville this afternoon to enjoy our last blast of summer.  Hope you have a great Labor Day weekend ahead.