On Words and Business

Zappos.com

Friendly and empowered customer service staff.  This is a way to make a customer feel appreciated.

Except in deepest, darkest winter the streets near my house are often filled with solicitors of some sort. Save the planet. Save my track team. Vote for Joe.

I don’t sign petitions, donate money, or otherwise contribute to solicitations on the street. So, as I run the gauntlet of the adorable kids who want money for their team, the Greenpeace people, and the Democrats asking for my vote, I try to look appropriately unapproachable (although not so much that I frighten any tourists).

Except for the little kids who shouldn’t know how to do this, why don’t these solicitors take the hint that I am not a warm prospect if I determinedly look away or if I have walked as far as possible to the other side of the sidewalk the moment I saw them see me?

This is a legitimate marketing and sales technique for these types of causes. But I’d really appreciate a bit more marketing savvy and understanding of how a real prospect would behave.

And I’d appreciate not having to choose between flat out ignoring someone who has directly addressed me or answering NO to a question such as “Do you care about the environment?” or “Can you help us save the children?”

A marketing or sales approach that makes the prospect feel bad about not engaging doesn’t seem like the best approach.

As a lover of books, it pains me to write in a book. I had to do it when I worked in publishing (to note changes and updates for subsequent editions), but other than that and a brief time in college when I thought highlighting text would help me study, I’ve never been able to do it.

Books are precious to me and within the past two weeks, I’ve broken the spines of two books I’ve been using a lot for reference. This is simply evidence of both love and importance to me, but still painful.

What do you hate to see done to a book?