From the Desk 7/1/2008

This morning I woke up a little groggy, but that quickly faded as I remembered that we only had to work until Thursday this week. I picked up some Chick-fil-A for breakfast and then started printing the details on the large signs for the BTS sale. I ran out of signs much faster than expected so I put in another call to my contact at Printing Impressions to get additional signs printed. I also created a sign to promote the desk calendars that the stores will begin carrying soon to lead into the new school year. I worked on browsing various sites where customers could post reviews of The School Box and found that almost every review had something positive to say about a specific store or employee, which goes to show that customer service can impact a customer's shopping experience in a good way. I took my lunch break around noon and just ate at my desk as I had a few more facts to gather before presenting my data plotting findings to Dave later today.

I got back from lunch and met with Chris to discuss our plans for a flyer to explain the rules/benefits of using the Georgia Classroom Gift Card at The School Box. After we wrapped up that meeting, Dave popped over and said he was ready to meet with Chris and I for my special presentation. I grabbed my materials and we journeyed into Dave's office. I presented my 6 page report/plan for implementing a customer loyalty program for The School Box sometime in the next 6 months. I was able to read their reactions pretty well and they were genuinely excited and thrilled that I was willing to take on this program. We batted around various ideas for specifics that we would need to have in place before implementing a program like this, but I know that we have to get through BTS before we set a date for working this out. After that I briefly covered with Dave about the data plotting programs I have researched and we settled on MapPoint 2006 by Microsoft. Tomorrow I will begin to find the most economical source for purchasing this software and then move forward with using it to better target areas to market to. I went out to the floor briefly to say hi to Christina as she was working today. I told her we were going to Ikea, but she was going to hang out with her friend Leslie after she got off at 6:00, so I promised her that we would take our own trip to Ikea since I knew she loved that store. I worked on a rough version of the Classroom Gift Card flyer before it came time to go home (or at least away from work).

Stacy and I drove down to Ikea after work. She was looking to buy a chaise lounge chair and I was along for the ride as the "muscle" to help load and unload it from her truck. I was slightly overwhelmed by the size of the store and knew that I couldn't possibly look at everything in the time we had allotted for our adventure. After looking around the top level (mostly model areas set up) we stopped and ate some lunch at their cafe. I had a buffalo chicken wrap and Stacy opted for the Swedish Meatballs with macaroni and cheese. My wrap was delicious and I sampled some of Stacy's, which was delicious as well. We then ventured to the lower level where we browsed through kitchen ware, decoratives, and bedding stuff. It was immense and very affordable. We then grabbed a flat cart and loaded her chair and a coffee table she found onto the cart for check out. We got the items loaded into her truck with only minimal problems with the box the lounge was packed in falling partial apart. We headed back to the Box to get my car when we had to make an emergency stop along I-75 to remove part of the box that was almost blown off the back of the truck. After readjusting the box and putting some loose pieces in the cab of the truck with us we continued on to Kennesaw. I followed Stacy over to her house where we unloaded and assembled the chair. The people that design this furniture are geniuses. It only took about 20 minutes to unload, unpackage, and assemble the chair. I left Stacy's and returned to my apartment. It was a long day as I didn't get home until a little after 9:00pm. I fiddle around online for a bit and then Hickey called so I talked to him for a while. I began to feel my eyelids growing heavy around 11:30 so I decided to call it a night.

Meditation for the day: Philemon 1:3 " Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."