So often, in a store, you will notice a sign that says, "Please don’t take unpaid merchandise in the restroom."

The word "don’t" is a very negative approach and you can find that "don’t" will cause people to shy away… even if that is not intended. Try to take a positive approach to things you would hope your customers would understand.

Last month when I was in Hawaii, I went shopping at Hilo Hattie. I noticed this sign:

It is amazing that you can say the same thing but be far more friendly when saying it.

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Corey Smith is the Chief Web Architect for Dealer Marketing Systems and maintains a news service for the copier, printer and document management industry.

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I flew into Honolulu last night on a much needed vacation… but the mind of a blogger never rests.

My wife and I were waiting at carousel D6 for our bags. After we had been waiting for about 15 minutes… marveling that so many bags go unclaimed while so many people stand and wait for their bags to appear, we heard an interesting announcement.

“For your convenience, passengers on flight 1865 can pick up their bags on either carousel D6 or D7.”

Did I get that right? Now, I am responsible to check two different carousels? How do I know which to check? How is that convenient for me?

So, I walked over to D6 and my wife stayed at D7.

Was it really for my convenience? I don’t think so. I think it was for the convenience of the baggage handlers. However, it doesn’t seem too customer friendly to say, “Sorry, we messed up. Now you’ll have to look in two places for your baggage.”

Corey Smith is the Chief Web Architect for Dealer Marketing Systems.