You don’t have to engrain an alphanumeric phone number into someone’s head with a catchy jingle, because odds are they’re going to punch those numbers into the phone while those numbers are right in front of them…and it will be easier for them to dial without having to look for letters. If you’re looking at an ad or a website that entices you to call a phone number, it doesn’t just “end” after a matter of seconds. But if you’ve ever tried to actually call one, well, we all have to admit alphanumerics are just plain harder to dial than numbers. This person actually drew out a telephone dial pad and tried to put the letters where they thought they should be…and incorrectly at that (the “ABC” starts over the “2”, not the “1”).Īlphanumeric phone numbers are great in 30 second TV spots or 60 second radio ads – they’re easier to remember than a string of numbers, and since the ad will likely be over by the time you reach the telephone, these are helpful for getting the phone call response to the ad itself. Yes, they knew it was “1-800-45-MACYS”, but without a phone that actually *has* the letters over the numbers of the dial pad, that phone number is pretty useless. See what’s going on here? The person who scribbled this out on the in-flight magazine was desperately trying to figure out what the phone number for Macy’s shop by phone service was. Recently, I picked up a copy of the in-flight duty free magazine and found this little gem: I spend a fair amount of time on airplanes, and every once in a while a past occupant of the seat I happen to be in leaves something interesting to look at between the all-electronics-better-be-off phase until 10,000 feet. Which is great, except for the fact that at the time, I didn’t know how to figure out what numbers all those letters mapped to, and I was staring at a Blackberry dialpad full of numbers – not a letter in sight. Why? Well, I needed to call Southwest Airlines to reschedule a flight – and I knew the number was 1-800 -I-FLY-SWA. “You don’t want to make a call?” “Nope, just want to look at the phone.” I know it sounds like the beginning of one, but this is not a joke, and I actually did this a while back. A guy walks into an airport bar and asks the bartender if he can just take a look at the phone.
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