Bring your inner child to work day.

I recently brought in ice cream sandwiches to work. Wow, was I rock star! It was a ‘spur of the moment’ thing at Walgreens…a hot Friday afternoon at the beginning of the summer...everyone has been working so hard…I thought it would be fun. I even brought low-calorie fruit juice bars and fudge bars for anyone watching their weight. Out of 18 people, only 2 chose the low-cal treat.

Everyone’s inner child peeked out of their office and gave me a big toothy smile. You could hear giggles and energy and chit chat. It was great.

Then we started a funny conversation about kid stuff: Quisp and King Vitamin cereal, Johnny Sako, Ultraman, Isis, Mr. Patches, Romper Room (with Miss Lois) and DB’s Delight quiz show. I can tell you I was very productive the rest of the day and those conversations triggered my creativity. Every day should be “Bring your inner child to work day.” Sometimes she needs to color quietly in the corner. Sometimes she needs to skip down the hall or do the hula hoop in the board room.

Are vanity numbers broken now?

You know what I’m talking about—Call 1-800-Steemer® (Stanley Steemer). The S on my home phone (yes I still have a land line) is on the 7 button. The S on my blackberry is on a button with the letter A and the question mark. So now what? How do I call Stanley Steemer from my blackberry if they only promote the vanity number?

This issue came up on vacation when I was trying to schedule my sky dive and the phone # was something like 800-SKY-DIVE and I couldn’t figure it out on my blackberry…it got me thinking…

So I asked a self-proclaimed blackberry expert at work. He said you can hold down the ALT button while you dial and the phone will figure it out. What about all the other people who haven’t figured it out yet? Or never do?

You have to promote the vanity number with the numeric translation. Seems random (hence the name of the blog) and silly to worry about but the sky dive place was lucky I had a land line to translate. They would have lost several hundred dollars in revenue. Imagine that happening over and over every day. Now it’s not so random, huh?

I LUV Southwest Airlines!

And not just because bags fly free. I rarely check luggage. I love everything about their customer experience, how marketing supports it and how their employees deliver it.

For my vacation to Orlando I booked my air on their website. A few days later I received an e-mail about my upcoming trip with suggestions to book a hotel, rental car or park tickets. How polite and helpful! The offer on the car included 4X points so I booked it. A few days before my trip I received an e-mail promoting their early bird check-in for $10 each way. I booked it. Two timely and relevant e-mails and I converted on both…over $200 in additional revenue from two e-mails that cost pennies.

I can’t imagine how long it took IT and Marketing to integrate the reservation system with the CRM program but it was well worth it. I wonder if everyone in the offices wears khakis and tennis shoes too.

The employees at the gate and on the plane were, as usual, super friendly, helpful and upbeat. Of course the flight was filled with families with young children heading to Disney World; infrequent fliers who don’t know to check-in early on-line, who over pack so their carry-ons are huge and they want their group of 4-6 to all be seated together as they board in Group C. But somehow, through the help of the employees and through their friendly instructional announcements, everyone gets seated and we depart from the gate early!

Of course you have to love the free in-flight snacks. Then when we get to the gate, the captain sings a song. HUH-larious. The bags quickly show up at the correct carousel. (Are you picturing the baggage guys with the “bags fly free” letters painted on their stomachs like football fans? LUV it!)

Awesome customer experience all around.

PS photo from the Southwest Facebook Fan page submitted by Susan Norris Smith. “Even Mr. Bubble flys Southwest Airlines.”