Waves of attention — New business hires hardy hands to drum up customers

By Jenny Neyman

Photo by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Lisa Blackburn waves at traffic on the Sterling Highway in Soldotna in a Lady Liberty costume. She signed on for a job as a “marketer waver” for newly opened Liberty Tax.

Redoubt Reporter

The past few months haven’t given Lisa Blackburn much cause to smile.

The net-mending business she and her husband ran in Clam Gulch didn’t do well this summer, with few fishermen requesting their services fixing tangled, snared or unwoven gill nets. Come winter, she was left with a different sort of tangled mess to unravel — bills to pay, kids to care for, lacking income and an absent husband.

Blackburn needed a job, and went to the Kenai Job Center to see what she could find. She wasn’t going to be picky, she decided, and a work order for “marketer wavers” caught her eye.

“I didn’t know what to think. That’s why I applied for it,” she said. “It said ‘zero experience.’ I should have known.”

She reported to the newly opened Liberty Tax Service on the Sterling Highway in downtown Soldotna to inquire about the job, and was handed the requisite uniform — a Liberty Tax sash, a Statue of Liberty costume with a day-glow, bluish-green velvety gown and pointy hat, and a reversible arrow sign saying “Income tax” on one side and “Honk if you love liberty” on the other.

She donned the Lady Liberty get-up over her winter gear, grabbed the sign and tromped down to her post on the sidewalk along the highway, flanked by American flags stuck in the snow berm. Now her job is waving to passing vehicles, trying to brighten up other peoples’ days.

It may not have been what she expected, but it’s not so bad, really, she said.

“It’s kind of fun,” Blackburn said. “Everybody waves and smiles. I get lots of responses.”

Most are honking, waving and smiling. Some girls yell, “Yea lady liberty,’” as they whiz by.

Not all are so friendly.

“I’ve got a couple fingers and a couple crude gestures. It’s ridiculous,” Blackburn said. “For the most part I think people like it. It puts smiles on their faces.”

The wavers are an attempt to draw attention to the tax preparation business that opened in early January.

“It’s part of the marketing we do — gorilla marketing and business to business,” said Charles Jones Sr., marketing director for Liberty Tax in Soldotna. “Gorilla marketing is when we’re out there marketing face to face, marketing to other businesses, actually talking to people on the street.”

Jones’ brother-in-law, Jim Duffield, is a CPA and moved to Soldotna to open the tax preparation business. Duffield’s wife, Maria — Jones’ sister; and Jones’ wife, Charity, operate the business together. They’ve held classes for tax preparers and there are six in all working now, either full time or on call.

Paying wavers is an investment that may or may not pay off in attracting clients, but Jones said it’s a strategy Liberty Tax employs franchisewide, so he’s giving it a shot in Soldotna.

“I’m not too confident (it will work), but I’m up there,” Jones said. “We get a lot of responses to marketing. I’m going to start going out there and doing some of that myself.”

Well, business-to-business marketing, at least. He’ll leave the waving to the new experts.

“I tried it for about five minutes myself. I like it, but it’s not really for me,” Jones said.

Liberty Tax plans to hire 12 to 15 wavers and keep them working through tax day, April 15, Jones said. Shifts vary, from three hours to longer, depending on how many wavers are available and whether they show up when they’re supposed to. Blackburn said the recent cold snap of near-zero temperatures hasn’t been too bad. She just dresses warm and takes a break once an hour to go inside and warm up.

Wavers get paid by the hour, with a bonus of a free MP3 player if they last at least two days.

“They can listen to it while they’re out waving, so they don’t get bored just standing out there talking to themselves,” Jones said.

Blackburn said that if she sticks it out until April, she’ll get a bonus. She’s still looking for other work, but plans to keep waving until the job is done. After all, there are worse things she could be doing than adding interest to peoples’ day.

“Oh heck yea, there’s a lot worse,” she said.