Barbara Walters Price

Do you want fries with that?

I visited a fast food joint yesterday for lunch and ordered in the drive through lane. 

Them: "Welcome to [fast food joint]. May I help you?"

Me: "Yes, I'd like a chicken sandwich combo with lettuce, tomato, and mayo with a sprite, please."

Them:  "You want a chicken sandwich?  With what on it?"

Me:  "Lettuce, tomato, and mayonaisse. The combo with a sprite."

Them:  "The chicken sandwich combo?"

Me: "Yes, with a sprite."

Them:  "What would you like to drink?"

Okay, this exchange may have resulted because the person on the other end was busy collecting money from a customer ahead of me, or maybe because she wasn't paying attention, or maybe because her headset was malfunctioning, or maybe because I wasn't ordering in the manner in which she was prepared to accept it ... or maybe it was a sign that I shouldn't be eating fast food.. 

Whatever the reason, I was frustrated and ready for the whole experience to be over with.  I was too hurried and hungry to protest to management and, really, what for?  Would it have changed anything?  I'm not sure it would.

How do your prospects/current clients "order" your services?  Are you too busy to give them the proper attention?  Too bored with their needs because it's just the same old-same old?  Is your technology lacking?  Or do you force your prospects/current clients into a box in order to respond to your systems?  If you make it difficult for your prospects, I'm certain that like me, they won't complain.  They'll just go elsewhere. 

The lesson is obvious: The first touch is obviously the most important.  Make it easy.  Make everything easy.  What's one thing you can do to ease the ordering process for your prospects/current clients?

Are you blacklisted?

Great resource from Seth Godin for those of us with e-mail newsletters (you do have an e-mail newsletter, don't you?). 

If you have a legitimate email newsletter or alert system, no doubt you've found yourself on a blacklist here or there. Blocked from entire services, perhaps even AOL or gmail, just for sending the email you promised you would send. Here are some resources to fix the problem (or avoid it).

Tax preparers now watchdogs

[From Accountingweb.com » July 17, 2007]  New provision would change tax preparers' role and increase fees

"The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) is urging Congress to modify a provision it approved that has resulted in a fundamental change in the role of tax return preparers and will likely cause an increase in preparer fees for taxpayers. The provision is included in the Iraq war funding bill that became law in May.

"The new provision puts tax preparers in a position of supporting the IRS rather than their taxpayer clients," Tom Ochsenschlager, AICPA vice president - taxation, said.

Yeah, right ...

Percentage of parents who say they never
feel angry at their children: 46.

Source of data: Census Bureau, A Child's Day: 2003, Survey of Income and Program Participation

Source of post: Demo Memo "Demographic Trends with an Attitude"  Take a look at their blog.  Some of the information found there is useful for marketers.  And the rest is just interesting and/or fun.

Did you see it?

From the June 2007 issue of Selling Power in a tidbit titled "Made You Look!" by Lisa Gschwandtner (p. 37):

"The perfect pitch is not about facts - it's really about what the facts can mean to your customers.

In their book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, (Random House, 2007) authors Chip Heath and Dan Heath tell a story about Nora Ephron, who wrote the scripts for When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle.  Ephron, who started her career as a journalist, still remembers the lesson she learned on her first day of school.  The teacher asked the class to write the lead for a story based on the following facts:

'Kenneth L. Peters, the principal of Beverly Hills High School, announced today that the entire faculty will travel to Sacramento next Thursday for a colloquium on new teaching methods.  Among the speakers will be anthropologist Margaret Mean and California governor Edmund 'Pat' Brown.'

Ephron and her peers diligently wrote new versions.  Most read something like: 'Governor Pat Brown will be among the speakers addressing the Beverly Hills High School faculty next Thursday ...'

The teacher looked at their stories and shook his head.  'The lead story is ...'