Where Do Beta Trial members Come From? (Part 2)
I started to answer this seemingly simple question in an earlier post (Part 1) and my fingers got tired after telling the story of only our first 4 Beta Trial Members. And, sadly, you sort of need to read Part 1 of this tale for this post to make sense. Here’s the rest of the saga (hopefully) of where the other 96 came from.
October 1, 2006 was the big delivery day for our first Beta Trial Members. Linda Thompson, a skeptic turned convert would be returning for her second trip with her Owner’s Locker. Laura Johnson and Marilyn Garfinkel (who seriously doubted the value of Owner’s Locker) would be trying out Owner’s Locker for the first time.
Between Linda’s first trip in August/September and this visit, she had described Owner’s Locker to a friend and MouseOwners member, Pam Enri (matysgranma). Pam and her husband, Tom, come to Orlando a lot and were interested in giving Owner’s Locker a try after hearing Linda talk about us. Although I had not met Pam, I agreed to have a Locker waiting for her as well as she was going to be joining the group in town the first week of October.
I remember Linda asking me whether Pam would qualify as a Beta Trial Member since she wasn’t a member of Disney Vacation Club. I told Linda that I was actually glad she wasn’t because Owner's Locker would cater to all of the resorts in the Orlando area. But I was curious as to why she stayed at DVC resorts if she weren’t a DVC Member. Turns out Pam and Tom rent DVC points to stay at Boardwalk several times per year. Yet again, I tell myself just how much I can learn from this Beta Trial.
The person that would be the owner of Locker #006 also checked into Disney’s Boardwalk Villas that day. One Kim Holtman. Kim is the owner of MouseOwners and she and I had corresponded about Owner’s Locker prior to her trip. Kim liked the idea and had said that it would be OK to discuss the Owner’s Locker on her site. She even agreed to display a small Owner’s Locker banner next to the MouseOwners forums at no charge. Kim accepted my invitation to dinner and I met up with her and her husband, Eric, in the Belle Vue Lounge at Boardwalk and we later had a fantastic dinner at Flying Fish Café. I explained the business to Kim and Eric and they were extremely supportive and agreed to become Beta Trial Members. I had brought Locker #006 with me just in case! (actually, I thought I had brought Locker #005, but there’s one more reason to have a rock solid bar code tracking system!)
Mar put together a Grand Gathering boat trip to view the Magic Kingdom fireworks and hosted a pina colada party in her room at Boardwalk beforehand. This time, I was brave enough to sign up for both.
I saw all of the new Trial Members on this trip and they were really excited about their Lockers and now the “word of mouth” chatter began. The picture above is some of us prior to Mar’s fireworks cruise. To my left are Pam Enri and Marilyn Garfinkel. To my right are Laura Johnson and Kim Holtman.
The Lockers began to be mentioned in trip various trip reports on the MouseOwners boards. The real power and potential of the discussion boards as an advertising/ educational medium for Owner’s Locker became more and more evident. Here were people actually meeting for the first time but acting like long lost friends because of their relationships that had been formed in the discussion forums. The reputation established on these boards was extremely important and it was obvious that there were levels of trust between these folks.
Right after that crew left, Beta Trial Member Ken Welch arrived for his initial Visit with an Owner’s Locker. Ken was thinking “second home’ and brought along a number of items to leave in his Locker—including a spare laptop. Never thought of that. Ken, Millie and I had dinner at Kona café at the Polynesian and just happened to walk out on the beach after dinner as the fireworks began.
At about that time I noticed that Noel S, in one of her posts on MouseOwners, talked about shipping stuff down to WDW and I contacted her and described Owner’s Locker to her. She jumped on the opportunity to give us a try (“sounds like a cool biz!...God knows, we’re your target market!!!") and we agreed that I would deliver her Locker #005 in person at The Gurgling Suitcase at Disney’s Old Key West Resort when she was there later in October. Tough duty. I’ve got to say that I thoroughly enjoyed sitting on one of the picnic tables outside the Suitcase watching people look at Noel’s Locker wondering what it was. Noel and her husband Eric were joined by several friends that evening and one couple was so excited about Owner’s Locker that they wound up with Beta Trial Locker #007, which I just happened to have with me. Meeting Noel and Eric was another bit of good luck. They’ve both had careers with Microsoft and Noel’s background is marketing. Handy, huh? Noel and eric may have gotten a free Locker but I have gotten lots and lots of good advice in return.
And, believe it or not, another meet was being organized in late November by (surprise, surprise) Linda Thompson. There was considerable buzz about Owner’s Locker on MouseOwners at this point and some of the folks showing up for that event had read the comments of the Beta Trial Members and began asking about Owner’s Locker. One of those people was Kathy Sebelski, who said, “where are the lockers? Even though we drive, it might be worth getting one.” Music to my ears. I contacted Kathy and Ron and agreed to get their Locker to them at Linda’s get together after Thanksgiving. It was another fateful meeting. Linda was now on her third trip with her Locker and the airlines wound up doing me a great favor by losing Linda’s luggage. She just happened to have a dress in her Locker that say the day—or evening.
I hit it off instantly with Kathy and Ron (whose license plate is “yensid” and we agreed to have dinner at Flying Fish during their trip. Kathy began to appreciate the value of her Locker instantly and by the time they headed back to Indiana, Ron was a huge convert, too. They are the couple in the video on the splash page on the OL site and are some of our best proponents. In fact, Ron and Kathy were talking up Owner’s Locker with a couple they met while Ron was getting his hair cut in the Magic Kingdom and brought their name and phone number along with him when I met them for dinner. Ron and Kathy had Locker #010 and the couple they met got Locker #011.
Kathy I learned would make an excellent Beta Trial Member because she is so detail oriented. She was extremely curious about how Owner’s Locker worked logistically. And at this point, all I could do was describe how things were GOING to work as the website wasn’t live and the barcode based warehouse management system wasn’t functional yet. Sadly, I confessed to her over dinner that my secret back-up system was to write the name of the Locker owner on the bottom of each Locker so I wouldn’t get them mixed up. Leave it to Kathy to turn her Locker upside down as soon as she got back to her room. And it was just my luck that in my hurry, I had forgotten to write the name of the owner on the bottom of one of the Lockers. I knew there were only five Lockers out and four had names on the bottom so I wasn’t too worried. Do you think Kathy told me?
Hmmmmm.
This may sound like a lot of effort but in the early days it was essential to find the right people, convince them (one way or another!) to try Owner's Locker so the could experience it first hand and let the buzz from their excitement spread. Linda Thompson was a one woman public relations company. Laura Johnson peppered her posts with comments about how Owner's Locker had changed the way she vacationed. Ken Welch talked about have one Locker for the summer Visits and another for their winter Visits. And Marilyn Garfinkel now desribed Owner's Locker as "addictive." Was it worth the effort?
You'd better believe it!
OK, that takes us to Locker #011. I guess there’s going to have to be a Part 3…..sorry.
JDVM
www.ownerslocker.com
