During the Thanksgiving Holiday I made a last minute decision to travel to Virginia. The mode of transportation? A bus via Greyhound.First off, the bus got me where I needed to go. On that note, did it have the most luxurious travel accommodations? Nope. Was that expected? Yep. But, could Greyhound improve their service? Indeed.

If they could do one thing to improve their service, what would would it be?  I’d start with customer interaction. There are two people customers will meet face-to-face. The attendant at the information desk and the bus driver. Both of these folks, in all stations I stepped through were incredibly stern and belittling. I understand they’re likely tired, and deal with all run of folks who don’t have a clue what they’re doing. But, for those who do have a lick of perception, and for those who don’t, there is one thing these folks could do to greatly improve the Greyhound experience. It’s only one word, and it makes the top of the list of most PR related “top 10 employee responsibilities” posters. What is it that could possibly be so important?

Smile.

It seems so insignificant. But, I really believe something so small would vastly improve the Greyhound experience. If the Greyhound employee takes the initiative to greet the customer with a smile, they’re likely to set a less somber mood; the number one problem hounding Greyhound.

They could also use some well designed signage, but that’s subsequent to smiling.

Ever purchase a shirt.. wash it.. wear it.. then realize that you left one of the little plastic things in the collar?

I did. And, it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I started bending it.. and soon had an “S” type shape. Rather than throw it away, I kept it sitting on my desk. Back to work I went.

A few hours later I was ready to watch the latest episode of Diggnation. I synced my iPhone, touched the iPod icon, touched “videos”, and then selected Diggnation. As it started playing, I went to prop it up against my mac mini and wedge it in with my dock, like I usually do. At that moment, a little piece of white plastic caught my eye. There it was, shining in the sun florescent light, like a gift from the heavens! I grabbed my iPhone, and as if transfixed by the blessing, slowly and carefully set it in the little white plastic thing. It was a moment of magic, like a kid on Christmas morning, I had the widest grin on my face. I now use it daily, as my little iPhone stand. Have a look:

BONUS: the white matches the Apple supplied dock. hells-yea! Oh, and sorry for the blurry pic, the iPhone doesn’t handle close-ups too well!

Sketch of my bike using my iPhone, originally uploaded by kenseals.

There’s a 3rd party app available for the iphone/itouch if you have it hacked called “Sketches”. Took 5 minutes at lunch and decided to see if I could actually make a legit sketch with it. I found it was difficult to make precise strokes, so I used that to my advantage. The squiggly lines and inaccurate strokes were great for portraying movement. I think they really brought this sketch of my Harley to life.. woot!

Maybe I’ll start a weekly sketch using this app.. would be cool to see how good I can get with it if I spent more than 5 minutes on a sketch. Hmph.. there’s some food for though.

A friend from high school turns out to be Captain Planet. If I had only known. Earth!

A few months ago I wrote about Andrew Skurka’s quest to be the first to thru-hike the Great Western Loop. Two days ago, Saturday November 3rd, Skurka finished his hike. Not only was his journey a personal one of self-discovery and pushing his limits, but he sought to bring attention to the reality that is Global Warming.

“The reality is that change has already taken place that has potentially catastrophic consequences. There was a drastic difference in the size of the glaciers on my map and the size of glaciers right in front of me. The snowmelt is shocking,” said Skurka. “With record high heats and record low precipitation along the trail, I felt a foreshadowing of what is to come in our climate.”

I applaud Skurka for his accomplishment, and look forward to (surely) another awesome trek in the future.