As I get ready to move into a new position in the coming weeks, I am discovering that I am learning a lot from my toddler and day care.

She’s been going through a transition of her own – moving from the infant room to the toddler room, which is probably the biggest transition of her young life. (Except for well, being born. That was a shocker.) It’s something that we’ve all been a little sad about. Her infant teachers were about as awesome as we could possibly imagine, and we were all tearing up a bit at the thought of the move, and bracing for her reaction.

But here’s the thing – two days into her new world, she’s handling it fine. In fact, it’s changed her attitude at home – and I think it’s because she’s embracing the new experience.

My theory is this – Kate loved the infant room, but as one of two older kids in the room, there weren’t a lot of things to challenge her. She wasn’t unhappy – at all. But she wasn’t overly stimulated, either. Now, it’s a new world, and each day begins with the tears of discomfort as she gets dropped off in this still largely unfamiliar place. But she settles within minutes, and when she comes home, she’s like a different kid.

Previously, she’d come home after a day and she’d be curious but sometimes cranky. More than anything else, she wanted to eat. It was totally fine. She was fun and great – and hungry.

But this week, something different has happened. She’s happier. She’s even more engaged. And food is fine, but she wants to laugh and explore even more. She runs and smiles and listens and communicates and connects.She’s motivated when she comes home to learn even more.

That’s what a new experience can do. It challenges you in new ways. It stretches your horizons and taps into new parts of your brain. And if it clicks – that exhilaration carries over to the rest of your life. For the kid, it was time to move up. And it was for me, too. I hope I get half of the boost from the change that she has seemed to get from the move to toddler.

What about you? Is it time for you to step up to the toddler room?

Somehow, even though I really don’t travel that often, air travel has been a frequent topic of my blogging.

Usually, I’m bitching about something. This time – I’d like to sing the praises of the airline that lost my bag and gained my trust.

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People need to keep me off planes – they tend to generate blog posts.

Today a reminder of the importance of being consistent.

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The customer is always right.

It’s a nice idea, but I don’t actually believe it.

But whenever possible, the customer is someone you want to make it right with, and recently, I have witnessed a few scenarios where brands that might have the best of intentions fail to think through their options with customers in mind, and end up driving away people who they could have won with a little change.

Start today with the airlines. I know, it can be like shooting fish in a barrel, but to be fair, airlines do have a challenge moving people and their stuff together in a difficult security environment. But my wife today experienced the classic business traveler scenario on United, where she had to sit and wait as a flight headed to her destination left with plenty of empty seats, unless she wanted to pay an outlandish change fee. Moving her would have been a moment of effort, but it could have been done.

So she sits. She waits. And she and I think, “Gosh, the next time out I won’t be tempted to fly United.” If there was an actual reason – such as security, then fine. But there’s no security issue – or else a fee wouldn’t solve it. If it was that her checked bag couldn’t be moved, Ok. But she didn’t check a bag.

Nope, it’s just the way it is.

Different industry, similar issue. Went to the store yesterday to buy razor blades for my Turbo 37 blade monster of a razor. (Not really -just a Mach 3 turbo, from Gillette.) At our local CVS, they have one of those razor blade dispensers that looks like something out of the 1970s, where you push in the button, it shies like a child’s toy and you get your blades. It’s great, I guess, for keeping away thieves. Except that in this case, it didn’t work. 8 different slots didn’t work. I couldn’t buy a 12-pack, an 8-pack or a 5-pack. And it’s the second time in different stores that has happened to me.

I could have gone to the counter, gotten a clerk, and had them unlock the case, get me some blades and paid. But that’s asking a lot. So I bought some disposable razors from another company and moved on. I’m not sure if this is a CVS thing or a razor company thing, but as a customer, I don’t care.

Because the old broken technology there was the way it is.

So what’s my point? Here are two (actually 3) big companies that want to be customer-connected. But someone along the line isn’t looking at things from a customer perspective. And because of that, they may have lost customers it would have been easy to keep.

Lessons:

If you can’t see things (or don’t let your people) see things from the customer’s perspective, and do right by them, they won’t be customers for long.

Your customer service strategy is only as good as its weakest point, whether that is personnel, systems, or technology.

You may have great social media and other systems in place to address complaints, but in some cases, you may never get the complaint. You may just lose a customer.

My wife and I have been talking a lot recently about the concept of fellowships. She’s thinking she needs to create a fellowship opportunity for her company, and I’m thinking, “You know, the idea of the fellowship may be a great way to help people with great skills but no experience into a new career.” Like say, for example, if you’re a journalist. You can write. You can tell stories. You are comfortable interviewing people, speaking and writing intelligently, you have general business experience, and you can do all those things that are so important in a number of new social businesses.

Well, except for one big thing – maybe you lack the business background for a mid-level social media job. You lack that little bit of experience, because no matter how they like to think they are attacking the online space, your publisher is more typically a laggard than a leader in new media.

Enter the fellowship.

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I was fortunate enough today to get an invitation to #tastybytes, a luncheon sponsored by the folks at Compete, which focused this afternoon on location-based marketing.

(Thank you, Tyson Goodridge at Dialogue – I know it was a good lunch because I left with about five ideas I’d like to try with LBS and news and/or clients.)

But the session got me thinking about “check ins”, which was one of the early topics. As most of you reading this know, apps like Foursquare, Gowalla and a number of others ask you to check in and publicly (or non-publicly) declare where you are. Then you might be eligible for points, prizes, mayorships and more. But the panel early on began discussing whether the check in itself was going away – replaced by devices that simply do the work for you, checking you in to various places and sites as you go about your business.

On the one hand, the convenience of a world without pausing to check in has its selling points. Imagine specials, discounts, messages, and tips just coming your way as you walk down Newbury Street or another shopping area. It’s a win-win – you get discounts, the stores get your traffic, and the app developers get your valuable data and habits with which they can further market to you.

But there is an aspect to this that still creeps me out. And that’s the lack of control – of my information, of my location, of my public persona. Sometimes, yu just want to stay hidden – and this auto-location makes you like the kid in hide-and-seek in grade school who was always the first one found because he or she couldn’t stay quiet and still. “I’m over here!” your phone shouts, and someone, somewhere now knows who you are and where you are.

That’s troubling, and not just for the security reasons that robmyhouse.com and sites like I Can Stalk U have so brutally and easily demonstrated. And it’s deeper than the tracking cookies that permeate the internet anyway. On the web, cookies let people know a lot about who you are, what you’re interested in and how you spend your time and money. But LBS technology can track your exact whereabouts in order to market to you, at a level that can be a little freaky.

So what, you say? I don’t want to get too carried away – but marketers don’t have a perfect track record of keeping personal information safe or treating it responsibly. Any time you share data with some organization, knowinglt or unknowingly, you are taking a risk. With LBS, generally, you’re also getting a reward. And ultimately, the question is whether the reward is worth the risk.

To me, having control over my check-in means I have some control over the level of risk I am taking. Don’t want to check in to announce I’m on vacation? I don’t have to. But if it means I get a $100 discount on my hotel, maybe I’ll call the neighbors and ask them to keep an eye on things. But the choice is mine. If my services check in for me, there is a possibility they’re informing the larger world of things I don’t want them to know. But an auto check in means I get more of what I want with less effort – and that’s tough to pass up.

So where does it all come together? With earthquakes in the news, I can’t help but see the tectonic plates of privacy and convenience coming together. Can they co-exist quietly? Sure. But they could also crash together with unhappy results. Facebook has been criticised for its privacy policies. But LBS raises the bar for the kinds of information being collected even higher. What if data is being sold in unscrupulous ways? What if hackers get in? Or what if a stalker wants to track a target?

I’m not saying privacy and convenience can’t coexist. But I am saying that providers and marketers who use LBS need to be sensitive to how deftly this balance must be handled. Failure to do so could cause some significant harm. And in the meantime, I’ll hold on to my need to check in myself. I might miss a few deals, but I hope I’m keeping a little more control of my information.