Rescued by the Recession

Liz's favorite sandals - rescued by the Recession and Tony's Shoe Repair

Do you want to know what’s faring well in this crappy economy? Old shoes and Tony’s Shoe Repair (case in point: me dropping off a favorite pair of old sandals).

I haven’t been to Tony’s Shoe Repair since I was a wee little kid, and then it was only to accompany my Mom who frequented the place. (Big family, modest income, six kids, 12 active feet).

So when I dropped off a sandal that needed repairs – it was like visiting my past, and there was a line of customers who were likely feeling the same way.

Business may be thriving for Tony’s Shoe Repair – but they aren’t taking it for granted. Tony’s still offers the same quick, honest assessment of the needed repair, relatively low repair costs, and no frills customer service. I’d ask them if they need PR services, but why fix something that isn’t broken?! (Unless it’s a beloved but broken shoe, of course.)

When I returned to pick up my sandals, he remembered me (as well as the multicolored button sandal I had dropped off), stuck it in a brown paper bag, and told me the amount due. I handed him a $5 bill, got lots of change back, and walked out feeling pretty darn proud of myself for beating the recession.

Yelping about Yelp

I decided to give this citizen-driven business review site a whirl … oh my, it’s exhilarating!

I don’t know if anyone will pay attention to or care about my opinions of my parents’ newly constructed senior care residence, a recent auto shop experience, Tony’s Shoe Repair, or my beloved hair stylist. I still feel empowered and impactful … as if I could make a difference in another’s decision to visit an auto shop that treats you like a friend, or one that will tinker with your car, just to create a problem (and YES, I think those kind of businesses DO exist).

Of course, Yelping is easy when you’re saying good stuff about businesses (and NO … I’m not using it to promote BJC clients … yet). The real test will come when the experience isn’t so good. Will I Yelp to vent, without consideration for the business’s side of our exchange? Or will I Yelp to provide some constructive feedback that will help the business and its customers have a more positive experience in the future. As a public relations professional, I prefer to think I will take the high road. If and when I have an experience that has me fired up and angry, I’ll write my review, count to ten, sleep on it, count to ten and then see if clicking “post” still seems like the right thing to do.

Fair and balanced … that’s what Yelpers should be, but aren’t always. That is why it takes consumers like you and me to make Yelp successful. The more populated the Yelps accumulate for a business, the easier for all of us to read between the lines. If a restaurant gets five crappy reviews, and 75 glowing reviews, chances are there was some unbalanced Yelping going on from a very small (and small minded) minority of the restaurants’ patrons.

All biases aside – I still think Tony’s Shoe Repair is one of the best values around. If you care to know my opinions on other matters, go to http://lizyelps.yelp.com … and start Yelping too.

The Art of Telecommuting

If you’re reading this blog, then you probably already know that BJC will soon have an office building to call our own. It’s a very grown up move – transitioning from renters to owners – and we’re a very grown up agency. Of course, until the new office is ready to become the home of the mosh pit that is BJC, we’re all practicing our telecommuting skills. (Not really sure telecommuting is a skill but we like the word so that’s what we’re calling it.)

Full time telecommuting has opened up a whole new world of experiences for us. Here’s a smattering of the things we’ve discovered while working from home:

· A lot happens in a residential neighborhood during the day – cars passing by, people taking walks, delivery guys ringing doorbells (UPS man is a regular at the house across the street…hmmm). Guess I figured if I wasn’t here during the work day nobody else was.

· Sweatpants and T-shirts make for FANtastic work attire when your office is your kitchen table. As comfortable as they are, however, we do enjoy looking sharp and finding excuses to wear expensive shoes.

· Personal hygiene isn’t lacking but some days it does get delayed by a few hours. There is NOTHING wrong with taking your “morning” shower at four in the afternoon (EXCEPTION here that Sara is always showered by 7 am – so she says).

· It’s important to make nice with the guys at AlphaGraphics. You never know when you’re going to need them to stop what they’re doing to print and bind 10 copies of your proposal so that you can meet some ever-changing procurement office deadline.

· An iPod and iHome are two excellent investments. Take the time to create several playlists, you’ll be glad you did. Don’t ever think that you have downloaded “enough” music. (I’ve listened to all 1,200+ songs more than once already.) Plus it’s okay to let your head bob along to the music. No one can see you…unlike when you sing along to the radio in the car.

· A house makes lots of noises during the day. Is it haunted??? Probably not, but go ahead and turn up the iHome volume a little louder to at least drown out the sound of the odd creaks and groans emanating from the walls.

· We miss “doing business in the hallways” at the office. Our staff meetings have gone from bi-weekly to weekly, last for up to two hours, and involve a meal of some kind. Of course the upside of this is that we get to enjoy some great local Phoenix restaurants like Scramble and Maizie’s Café.

We will undoubtedly continue to thrive as telecommuters but we’re really looking forward to the new office. That’s our story, and we’re sticking to it.

Flashing at our age?

Yes, BJC’s fearless leaders are participating in a new venture to help keep them young. ImprovAZ is a grassroots flash mob effort just getting underway and Liz and Sara decided to join up – just for kicks. The only problem is that we had no idea how embarrassing this thing would be (okay, we actually did but in the conceptual phase it really didn’t seem like a big deal). When they started asking what special talents we had – singing, miming (yes, they really asked this), dancing, magic tricks – we figured we were in over our heads.

Nonetheless, last month we ventured out into the world to “surprise and delight” strangers all over the place. The first mission: the big welcome at the airport to a complete stranger, Debbie. (See details HERE http://improvaz.com/).

It took longer than expected. On a Sunday night we thought the airport would be flooded with drivers seeking their “pick ups” but unfortunately the first availability didn’t turn up for a full two hours after we arrived at the airport. So $12 in parking fees later (blasted garage), we had our first mission accomplished. And yes, even though you don’t see us in the pictures, I’m pretty sure you can hear Liz laughing in the video. We’re just a little camera-shy.

How in the world did we get involved in something like this, you wonder? Sara first read about flash mobs in an article in the Wall Street Journal and knew that something similar was underway in Phoenix following the successful “No Pants Day” in January – in which several hundred people left their drawers at home, hopped on the METRO and met up at a coffee shop on a Saturday (no, Sara did not participate). The entire event was organized on less than a week by networking on Twitter. Can you believe how much fun that is? The power of Tweets – we learn something new every day. Now if we could just learn how to mime, or do magic tricks…

Proof that we were there...waiting at the airport outside baggage claim

Rare Treasures Galore at BJC!

If AZCentral.com’s “Best of” list is wondering where the Valley’s greatest treasures are, they needn’t look any further than BJC – or more specifically – BJC’s dumpster.

As we prepare our office for the highly anticipated move to our brand-spanking new building, we’re all attacking our offices and common areas with vigor, purging the old and organizing the rest for the most efficient move in history. (We’ll let you know how that turns out.)

Every Thursday, we all gather as “purging day” meeting reminders appear in our Outlook pop-ups. (Really it’s just an excuse to wear jeans on a Thursday.)

This past Thursday we uncovered treasures that could dazzle any crowd – and by any crowd, we mean PR folks who’ve been around since the early 90’s.

Near the end of the purging hour, we all gathered for an impromptu show-and-tell, circa kindergarten. (NOTE: for some of us, that was in the 80’s, and others the 60’s, though I’m not naming names.)

Some of the precious show-and-tell findings included:

· a Finder Binder from 1996

· Several vintage Book of List copies from as early as 1991

· a choice professional headshot from our own Little Debbie look-alike, Liz Meyers(pictured below)

· An extremely rare overhead projector (raise your hand if you remember taking copious notes as a student while listening to the calming hum of the projector – bonus points if you were the lucky pupil that sat directly to its left, feeling as though your face may melt off from its heat)

· A slide projector – which likely served as the highlight of parties when Sara showed friends and family Spring Break sildes from that trip to Cabo in 1984

· an old jar of Skippy peanut butter that expired in 2004 (ok, that one was mine)

· An internship handbook from 1987 – guessing we’re no longer required to provide our interns with a typewriter

I’m sure you get the point. During purging day, we uncovered hoards of crap treasures. And with three more purging days to go before the big move, who knows what else we’ll uncover. I can’t speak for anyone else, but personally, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a bag full of old McDonald’s prizes. I think my odds are good.

Check out that fancy font overlay! That’s how you know you’ve made it.

Social Media Overload

Is it just me, or do you also yearn for the weekend just so you can disconnect from various glowing screens that have your brain in a perpetual state of information overload Monday through Friday? I am mixed on the social media revolution. On the one hand, it’s an incredible concept. Who would have thought we’d have the ability to broadcast in real-time to millions our latest client news or glee over getting our hair “did,” even just five short years ago? Just last week I was able to determine who anonymously sent me flowers thanks to the sharing of information on Facebook.

But I’ll be the first to admit, does anyone REALLY care about my updates and Tweets? Sure it is mildly amusing at times to see what contacts in various parts of the world and in various professions are doing at that moment, but when I stop and think about the number of truly useful and meaningful updates and Tweets I have come across, does it justify the time wasted (not to mention frequent annoyance) of combing through thousands of others?

Thanks to the relative ease of social media and software that identifies people you might know, it doesn’t take winning the lottery for friends to come out of the woodwork. Granted, reconnecting with a pen pal I met in Florida when I was ten and a long-lost grade school friend has been great (and something that without Facebook likely never would have happened), but sometimes I wonder if our people skills are dwindling these days. It’s so easy to meet online and exchange comments online with one of your hundreds or even thousands of friends and contacts, but how would it be if you met them face to face and tried to have a conversation? For starters, I am not sure we would recognize most of our “friends.” I suppose it’s the blessing and the curse… the ability to connect with people you never would have, but is it at the expense of really taking the time to develop true relationships with those around us? At the end of the day, are we really as connected as we think we are?

I often wonder where we are going to be in another five years. Real-time sharing of information is certainly an interesting concept and we all seem to be scrambling to see what we can do with it and how we can leverage it for ourselves and our business, but right now it seems a chaotic free-for-all as everyone tries to get their share of the action. Will we soon come to know Twitterers anonymous (Twitonymous)? People who, when separated from their wireless devices, experience some sort of dangerous withdrawal because they can’t bear the thought of not knowing what is going on with everyone else right at that moment? Will it ever Twindle or will the Tweementum continue? My head hurts thinking about it. In the meantime, I find myself hitting the extremes… after a week of social media overload, I am ridiculously excited at the prospect of showing up at a trailhead to hike this weekend and being the only person there and far, far from cell phone range.

Denny’s Giveaway – a PR Grand Slam

That's lots of free food

Last week when I saw the Twitterverse abuzz about Denny’s free Grand Slam breakfast (apparently I missed the Super Bowl ad), I immediately picked up the phone and called my sister to see if she wanted to meet up for a big fat-laden, free treat. I completely forgot that the restaurant down the street is not a Denny’s – it’s a Coco’s and they were NOT offering a free grand slam (fortunately I realized that before going into the restaurant). It was better that we didn’t make it – since subsequent reports had people waiting in line for hours.

So did Denny’s score on this one? Definitely, on many levels:

• People thought of Denny’s and actually used Denny’s in a sentence. I can’t remember the last time Denny’s was discussed in my house other than when my husband suggested celebrating every family birthday there (since meals are free on birthdays) – to which I responded with a raised eyebrow.
• The social networks were NUTS with Denny’s talk – Facebook, Twitter – Denny’s Grand Slam held strong as the #1 discussed topic on Twitter for a good 24 hours.
• Denny’s looked like a good neighbor – reports said they turned no one away and these days there are plenty of people that are not only hungry for jobs – but just plain hungry.
• For its investment in the promotion (reports estimate at $15 million), Denny’s received about $50 million in free publicity.
• It was a good news story at a time when the country is sick of bad news. And I think Denny’s knew it could leverage this collective disgust and turn it into a whirlwind of good mojo.
• I’m guessing – just guessing here – that the Denny’s free breakfast promo turned into a little economic boon for other breakfast places. I had such a hankering for eggs after hearing about this promotion that I went to my favorite place and enjoyed a very NOT free but satisfying omelette (shout out to Matt’s Big Butt Breakfast in Downtown PHX).

In the end, will the throngs of people return to Denny’s because of its goodwill? Who knows…but I can tell you that the world will talk about the success of Denny’s promotion for a long, long time. Especially if giving away two million grand slams sends them into financial ruin.