This month’s Head Honcho Hello is happily coming to you from Granada, Spain, where I am visiting my childhood best friend, Arielle. Arielle was one of the reasons I moved to Los Angeles in the first place, in 1998, but three months before I was to arrive, she announced that she was going to spend a year in Spain living rent-free with her sister and brother-in-law so she could work on a book she’d started writing. She extended her stay another six months, met her now-husband, Nando, a few weeks before her departure date, and that was that. I’ve forgiven her desertion, however, and having a friend in a beautiful European city does have its perks.
If I were to review Granada, I’d have a lot to say, much of it positive, though I’ve been fortunate to spend enough time here that I could also discuss some of the city’s nuances. While I’m active in social media, I’m pretty much just a lurker when it comes to reviews. I deeply appreciate others’ investment in time and energy to improve my restaurant experiences (Yelp), book choices (Amazon, I’m still ashamed to say), and hotel stays (TripAdvisor), but I do nothing to contribute to the conversation. Maybe one day I will get my act together on that and reciprocate, not just to bitch about horrible service (which every once in a while I do, if I’m truly upset) but to applaud excellence or outline mediocrity.
You may have heard or noticed that we launched a new and revamped website a couple of months ago. Most of the differences aren’t visible to the naked eye, especially the greatly improved back end that allows us much more control over our own site and lets us sleep better at night because it’s no longer held together with bubble gum and Band-Aids. One of the most exciting improvements, however, is indeed detectable—and usable—by civilians: product reviews.
We’ve wanted to add product reviews to our site for eons. We want more interaction with folks who like (or don’t like) Knock Knock, and we want feedback on the stuff we labor over for so long before it goes public. We are learning organisms here at the Knock Knock global HQ, and we want your wisdom. We also want to see you talking to one another about our wares. You could say, “I laughed! I cried! I ate a wad of paper!” or you could share a gifting experience, such as “I gave the Days of the Week File Folders as a gift to a coworker, and now she’s my wife.” Or you could brag about how organized you are, sharing your own experience, like “I use the All Out Of Pad every day and I never forget the milk.” If you really want to make me happy, though, you’ll start a funny review string that goes viral, one of my current favorite internet trends, like these primo examples; my particular favorite is the banana slicer.
I’ll tell you what: if any of you see fit to write a funny review of a Knock Knock product, I will write a review of your review. And that’s a promise. Go on—I know you want to!