Vacations every day!

In North America, we find ourselves in spring break vacation season. That got me to thinking...

When we travel on vacation, things often are difficult and/or stressful: car troubles, delayed or cancelled flights, confusing directions, motel showers, bad food, cab rides and the list goes on. We have to decide what to pack, hope we actually remember everything we intended to pack, make travel arrangements, pay a lot of money for things that we already have at home (like a comfortable bed) and generally displace ourselves from the comfort and routine of our lives. So why do we consider vacation travel fun and desirable?

It seems to me that there are two reasons. One is it is a new, fresh experience. We get to break the mold. Get away from the every day. We see new things, meet new people, have exciting new experiences. Even if our vacation destination is a familiar one, it is different from the every day things that are a part of our "regular" lives.

The second reason that vacations are desirable is that on vacation, the focus is on you. Most of us have to serve others (customers, bosses, teachers, parents and children) in our daily lives. On vacation, we get to do something for ourselves for a change.  People serve us!

Wouldn't it be wonderful, if our customers got "vacation-style" interactions with us on an every day basis? If we could make our customers feel that they are the center of attention when they deal with us and they have new, interesting, and exciting experiences when they deal with us, doesn't it stand to reason that their interactions with us will be more desired and sought out? And, like a vacation, doesn't it stand to reason that the customer who experiences "vacation-style" interactions will be willing to put up with the occasional mistake or inconvenience in order to have those interactions?

We do when we travel.

The Swiss Army Knife of Our Time

When I was a kid, after many years of begging, I finally got a present I deeply coveted...a Swiss Army Knife.  My Swiss Army Knife had a large blade and a small blade, a nail file, a screw driver, an awl, a scissors, a can opener (which I could never figure out), a genuine imitation ivory toothpick, a tweezers and a corkscrew.  What more could anyone want?  I think I only regularly used the big knife blade.

I wonder sometimes if smart phones aren't the Swiss Army Knives of our time.  They are sold with a seemingly endless array of features, most of which I suspect are rarely if ever used.  In the store, it is fun to think about using your phone to create business reports and watch movies, but eye strain and readily available, larger-screened options quickly prevail.  In the ad it sounds like a blast to be able to contact a bunch of friends at the same time, whether to plan a great social outing or to just guffaw over the latest TV sitcom.  At home, I realize that I don't have 10 friends that I want to call at the same time.  Most of them don't know and/or like each other and rarely do I do anything with that many of them at a time.

I expect that as smart phones become more and more de rigueur, manufacturers will need to come out with stripped down models.  There is a certain segment of the population who will appreciate, and buy, a phone that is designed to be, well, just a phone.

Once, in college, I used the corkscrew on my knife to open a bottle of wine.  (yes I still had the knife then and yes, I swear it was in college!). Similarly, once, I used the flashlight app on my phone, but even then it was just to show it off.  At least with the corkscrew I got to drink some bad wine!