Daily Nonsense

Google Calendar Rocks

I had been trying to figure out a way to keep track of not only my appointments and stuff but Brooke’s as well. I read an article on Lifehacker that discussed using Google calendars and sharing them to make an ersatz to do list. All well and good as ideas go but I couldn’t get past the sharing part.

“You can SHARE Google calendars” I asked myself?

My moment of Zen as it were.

We now have a shared calendar system that either one of us can update and helps me remember what I’m supposed to be doing and when.

Pretty sweet at the end of the day.

“May I help you?”

Some of you may know that I once lived in retail-land, far above the Caramel Mountains and beyond the Sodie-Pop Sea. As a Staples employee I was taught to ask the question “What Can I Help You Find Today?” This is an open ended question and pretty much demands anything other than a Yes/No answer. The rationale here is to engage the customer, not simply point the way. Pointing the way simply shows the customer where the product is. It doesn’t show the customer why he should buy it from me.

Seth Godin, a man who is quickly becoming my “Marketing/PR/Why Do I Exist” go-to answer guy, posted about the basic futility of the question “May I Help You?”. That question really isn’t about opening a dialog, it’s about finishing a conversation.

Copied below, in it’s oh so terse entirety, Seth’s Blog post:

“May I Help You?”

… is almost a useless thing to say.

If you want to end a conversation with a teenager, just ask, “How was school today?”

If you want to end a conversation with a customer, just ask if you can help. Instead, ask, “can I get you a hot drink?” or “what’s the worst thing about your insurance company?” or “one slice or two?”

[Thanks, Seth]