I have a really weird question…
June 2nd, 2006
That was how a phone conversation started for me today when Carla from Washington called me. You see, her 9-year-old son was working on a project for a unit on Native Americans that involved coming up with a tagline for the item he was trading - feather headdresses. Carla and her son were drawing a blank, so she looked around online, stumbled onto our website and decided to give us a call. The call was forwarded to me… and it kinda tickled me.
We love a random brainstorming challenge as much as the next guy, so I sent an email to the team requesting some quick thoughts. Perhaps not our best work, but fun! (Ah, to be in 3rd grade!) I called her back and left our suggestions on voice mail. She called back to thank us for agreeing to play and said that she was just going to tell everyone about our site.
Carla in Washington might never have crossed our path under normal circumstances, but by making the decision to say, “Sure, why not?” instead of “That’s not really what we do,” we’ve created an advocate. It was an odd little exercise in the middle of a Friday afternoon, but there’s a moral to the story: never pass up an opportunity to Fascinate, Inspire, Reward and Engage. We don’t know who will hear the story Carla tells, but what’s important is that there is one more person out there who has a Brains on Fire story to tell.
That’s what Word of Mouth is about. It doesn’t have to be parachuting into Times Square a la Richard Branson. Sometimes it’s just the genuine little interactions your company has with everyone it touches from day to day - be it client, vendor, prospect… or Mom in Washington.
Other posts by Jennifer.
Randi Hardwick says:
I think it’s great you all helped the kid and his Mom out and I know it was a fun exercise, but I really, really wanted to hear what you came up with! All of us unispired, unengaging people are fascinated by your FIRED-up imagination!
June 3rd, 2006 at 10:04 amBrookie says:
I was curious, to find other people,like me that have they’re Brain on Fire. That was great you contributed your insight to this family, kudos !
June 4th, 2006 at 1:19 pmJennifer says:
Fair enough, Randi. Most of our suggestions were pretty silly. (Remember, this was for a third grade project) Things like “The ultimate feather in your cap” or “These hats aren’t for the birds!” There were some with more of an historical bent: “Put your Pow-Hat-On” (a reference to chief Powhaton) or “You thought the Horse was crazy, you should see his hat!” (a reference to Crazy Horse). And there was even one person who pointed out that headdresses were actually quite sacred items and would never be sold or traded. So his suggestion was “Honor in Life. Glory in Battle.” And there were some we threw out as well. But that’s the basic idea. It was fun!
June 5th, 2006 at 6:30 am