1-800-NOT-COOL
Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 3:33PM
Remember when it was neat to see a clever vanity phone number? Like back in the 1980s? We caution our franchisees against this practice on their online media for a few reasons...
It's tough to type the vanity name into a phone these days because many new phones don't correlate the letters to the numbers on the keys anymore. The old Ma Bell standard of knowing a phone number by its "exchange name" is gone, and thus the need for the letters on the keys. If you're at a loss (or just too young) to know what I'm talking about, see this... (exchange names explained) My phone number growing up began with OVERBROOK.
People can't relate to the letters because even SMS texting has gone away from being a number-key driven activity. Our SIGNARAMA stores were very used to claiming "7446" as their last four digits because that equates to "SIGN." Neat if you knew that or could figure it out, but most customers can't make that leap these days, so why ask them to?
Have a look at your website, email signature files, heck, redo your printed literature to reflect what people know and do today. Use the numbers not the letters. The vanity phone number concept has lost its cool.
