Left brain problems, right brain solutions
By susan | April 7, 2008
Here’s the most fascinating quote of the day:
“Team members realized from drawing that they had been enjoying their special status as a task force and had become so fascinated with the problem before them that they were in no hurry to solve it. This was resolved after management set a strict deadline and promised the group equally intriguing problems in the future.”
That comes from this article at the Times, on the outsourcing of left brain activities and the need for right brain creativity. And the syndrome described above, becoming fascinated by a problem, is something I have long suspected about Congress. That opinion is mostly uninformed, reached by random spurts of C-SPAN viewing and listening to all the discussion surrounding an issue which has not been solved for years and promises to continue along its current path. (insert whatever issue you want, or tell me where I am wrong in this)
Getting back to business, yes, let’s get more right brain thinking on the table. That creative approach seems to have led directly to the awareness described of a fascinating problem. And I was especially amused by management’s encouragement in promising the team “equally intriguing problems in the future” as motivation for solving this one.
Maybe we could promise Congress the same thing? Equally intriguing problems.
If you’re wondering why the political theme here in this post, check out the article and get back to me on the answer to this pop quiz: at which energy company did that meeting and realization take place? Hint: they’ve done quite well for themselves over the past few years.
Meanwhile when it comes to customer experience, on the web and otherwise, the positive trends and solutions may have come about because web designers and people in the technology field are absolutely certain that “equally intriguing problems” will arrive very soon. No need to hold onto the last one as a means of keeping your job. But it’s also very good of management to give a little reassurance of this from time to time. If you solve everything for your employer, will they need you tomorrow?
Topics: customer experience | No Comments »
Tech solutions for gals
By susan | April 4, 2008
Solutions Research Group released a nice report on the group that they are calling “femma geeks” - women who use technology. The research results summary can be downloaded as a pdf from their home page here.
I was surprised to read that more women stream TV shows from network TV sites than men. Until I remembered that more women are probably interested in the network TV shows. (Many men are spending more time online, also with their satellite dishes and sports channels.) But the majority of the results make a lot of sense. There are more women than men, giving them an edge in sheer numerical volume. And their schedules tend to be the most overwhelmed by multitasking. So any technology having to do with time-shifting (online streaming, DVRs) has to be good.
Navigational systems popped up on the list as well, and that’s one product that I believe will continue to do great with femma geeks, or with women using technology. Maybe in part because I love mine so much, but also because it outsources the brain. I stole that line from a wonderful write-up on GPS systems by David Brooks at the Times last fall.
Any technology that involves outsourcing the brain should find happy customers among women. For example, my choice to re-make my entire site using Wordpress. Sure, I could have used dedicated software again to rebuild from scratch, and there were other options available. I chose the solution that suited my needs and left my brain free to focus on other things. My choice was also much faster, and women - on occasion, enjoy speedy solutions. So they can get one thing out of the way and get onto the next.
The analyst’s comment on women was that they had “acute time poverty,” which doesn’t seem to gel with the finding that they are playing more computer games and are more active on social networking sites than men. But that also makes sense. When they do have some time, what they have is the computer. Most of the shops have closed by then, and they might be stuck at home. So when they don’t have time to see their friends, they can connect with new friends or old friends online.
It’s not a perfect solution, but technology helps to fill the gaps.
Topics: consumer behavior, consumer electronics, customer experience, market research, marketing, marketing to women | No Comments »
Airline bag solutions
By susan | March 29, 2008
The title of this post may be misleading, because I am not sure that I have one yet. A solution. Sometimes it helps to start writing and see if the answer comes. Meanwhile here is what prompted the idea:
An article at the Times, Waging the Battle of the Overhead Bin, quotes the frustrations of both passengers and airline staffers when it comes to luggage size restrictions and ways that people try to get around those.
First thought: well of course passengers will try to carry on everything they have. Airlines have often demonstrated that they cannot be trusted with consumer luggage, and those times that they can be trusted (which is most of the time) they may ask you to wait for up to an hour in a bare room with a conveyor belt and few options for seating, snacks, or restrooms. Even Starbucks, the ubiquitous provider of a “third space,” seems to have neglected hundreds of baggage claim venues around the nation. Meanwhile the airport posts a sign asking you not to sit on the edge of the conveyor belt. Probably because they know how much you want to sit down at that point. How tired and jet-lagged you are. Otherwise why on earth would you choose the metallic edge of a conveyor belt as a seat? For example, if a leather couch were nearby as an alternative. Or even a plastic bench with those funny molded seats.
Well, now my mind is going to the most unexpected solutions. At first I was thinking it might be on the airlines, should they choose to accept this mission, to win trust when it comes to luggage and to deliver it faster. But they would only do so if they really wanted to, and so far it seems they have not. According to the article, they complain that passengers inconvenience them by trying to get around the rules. I saw no self-examination of their role in creating the passenger desire to covet an entire overhead bin.
For starters, you could take out the overhead bins and install lockers. Maybe a little locker assigned to each seat would do the trick. People could sell and/or barter locker space if they were not using it. (Wow, this idea would get a lot of consumer complaints. I can hear the protests now: bring back the overhead bins so we can fight over them!)
But now I am thinking here’s an opportunity for someone else. When one industry demonstrates that it is not interested in providing the best and most desirable consumer solutions, there’s often a gaping hole and opportunity for someone else to step in. (See also the Apple iPod and iTunes, but maybe nobody remembers that Apple was not formerly in the consumer electronics or music business; they have so completely claimed both with what they have created.)
Turn the baggage claim into a place where people can enjoy themselves. As it turns out, if you are enjoying yourself, you do not perceive the activity as “waiting.” I do not have the scientific studies at my fingertips to prove it, but I’m pretty sure that if you are doing something really fun, like riding a roller coaster, your brain is not saying to you - how much more time is this ride going to take? When can we get back to the car in the parking lot? Your brain is engaged with the present.
One family that I know experienced many airport delays over this past holiday season, and in all that time the youngest, who is under age two, seems to have been largely unaware of the inconvenience. He was apparently making a great many new friends along the way: other kids who were also hanging out in airports. Who knows what he was thinking? I am now thinking that toddlers are perhaps amazingly good at Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now idea; living that from day to day. But let’s get back to the idea.
For those passengers who are able to forgive the past, maybe forget it entirely, and simply accept the airline’s promise to take good care of their luggage (I’m assuming that airlines still promise this today) and deliver all of its contents without too many extra markings on the bag or pieces detached, they might find a wonderland of delightful experiences awaiting them at baggage claim. Perhaps even a shower facility, a place to take a nap, or a playroom for the kids. I do not know who would provide this, or how much they would charge. I know there are times I would have paid for a shower, a snack, a place to lie down, during that hour of waiting. What if you did not have to watch the conveyor belt? What if they brought your bag right to you?
I could go on but this post is too long already. All I know for sure is that where there are complaints, there are also solutions. Meanwhile if you decide to trust your bags with the airlines, I hope you make new friends at baggage claim. And of course, bring your iPod if you want to watch television while you wait. So far it seems to be BYOE at baggage claim: Bring Your Own Entertainment.
Happy trails.
Topics: airlines, consumer behavior, customer experience, ipod, travel | No Comments »
Best Buy gets women, in training
By susan | March 28, 2008
As I was reading this piece at the Hub Magazine (Best Buy is winning with women), I was reminded of a friend describing a trip to an electronics store a few years ago. She was looking for a new audio system, and had taken along a guy friend for company. The sales staff only spoke to him, and not to her. Needless to say, they did not close the sale.
So it’s a little funny to me that Best Buy had to conduct market research to discover things about women (don’t they have women in their own families?), and that they have had to train people so specifically - as described in that piece at the Hub. But hey, whatever works.
Market research can seem superfluous, because it often reminds us of what we should know already. For example, ignoring someone is not a good way to make a sale. Here’s what Best Buy is doing in training, according to that piece about a store in Richfield, Minnesota:
“Nate had also been trained to shake the woman’s hand before the man’s, give equal eye contact to both, exchange names immediately and to repeat the customer’s name three times within the first few minutes.”
Imagine. Giving eye contact to both equally. I’m not even sure that men require eye contact as much as women do, but “equal” is a good start. (See also scientific studies on babies and eye contact preferences by gender.) After which, Nate (in above example) seemed to figure out that the main prospect was the woman, and spent more time with her.
The last time I went looking in a Best Buy at some cameras, I described to the sales guy the features that I liked in digital cameras and he proceeded to steer me towards the ones that he liked. So what I learned was precisely what he would like in a digital camera. Which would have been very useful for me to know, had I wanted to sell or make a digital camera for him.
I am not sure what he learned. But perhaps he has been doing some training with Nate.
As for eye contact, I am usually making eye contact with products in a store, not so much the sales guys. But if they follow my eyes, that’s probably a good way of listening too. I’m really not too sure about the handshaking. After I have been helped, and when I feel quite rewarded, I am more than happy to shake your hand and say thank you. But maybe Best Buy’s research suggested that women wanted to have their hands held literally at the very beginning of their store visit.
Women are all different too, and that’s where listening comes in. To find out how this woman is different from the last woman who came into your store.
Topics: customer experience, market research, marketing to women, trends | No Comments »
Google’s search-within-search rocks
By susan | March 27, 2008
First I saw this article in the Times on Monday: A New Tool From Google Alarms Sites. And I suspected that as usual, I would not find it alarming. I did not. So I was going to post something then, about how maybe competition is all around on the web anyway — so where was the news in it?
Yesterday I discovered the function itself, quite by accident. I googled “imdb” because often that is easier and faster than doing a control-L and typing in the url (and both of those methods are faster for me than going to a list of bookmarks and selecting and clicking). Of course I was planning to do a separate search in the imdb.com database itself, but this time I did not have to do that!
Google opened up a sub-box below the imdb listing, invited me to input the film there, after which it took me directly to that page in imdb. Thank you Google (again).
Here’s the problem, which Google had already solved in part but now they solve it further: no individual web site implements the search feature as well, even within its own content. I discovered this years ago when I tried searching medical sites for symptoms. Google is much better (and far less alarming) when it comes to identifying a few common symptoms from a vast quantity of data and then giving you results that simply say: you maybe need to eat a few more mushrooms. Some liver or lamb perhaps. As such, Google is also better for holistic medicine and may have a fan in Michael Pollan who wrote In Defense of Food. Because doing that same search at a site like WebMD would likely send you running out for drugs or chemicals and a battery of high tech tests. When mushrooms might be all you need to feel much better.
I looked again at that article in the Times, and it appears that the primary argument for people who are worried about Google’s feature is as follows: they are concerned that users will see advertising (oh my!) and be distracted by that and go to other sites. So here’s my question:
When did a little advertising ever distract you from what you already wanted to do?
Topics: customer experience, online marketing, web services | No Comments »
Pingg’ed at last
By susan | March 6, 2008
Today I got pingg’ed, and it was such a pleasure.
For years I have endured Evite invitations, which consist of emails with no content. From the user’s perspective, that is. The emails offer a big link, and one generally knows the sender, but the lack of any real information requires you to click and visit a web page to find out what is going on. After which, the web page is often a bit of a mess.
Here’s what I like to know when I am being invited to a party or an event: location, time, details. Why do I have to visit a web page to see that? Emails are so handy in the way that they give you a space in which to fill in those details. So why weren’t they there? I kept wishing and hoping that someone would send those details in the actual email, and Pingg does that. Finally.
It’s amazing. Not only does Pingg send a clean and simple email showing a paragraph invite and a simple list of date, location, and address, but it adds another service I’ve had to do myself. Next to the address line in the email is a map link. Clicking on that link takes me directly to that address in Google Maps, which is my preference and what I’ve been doing all along.
Before, I would have had to open the email, click on the link, wait for the Evite page to load, decipher the address from a barrage of information, copy the revelant line of information, go to Google Maps, input the address line there and type in “new york ny,” and then wonder what I was doing there. The whole process took me so far out of the party mood that I often forgot the point of it all.
Incidentally Evite offered map links to some other provider but I only find Google maps to be clear and decipherable. So that was a personal preference.
In any case, having now been pingg’ed, I wonder what I shall do with all my extra time. Since Pingg is doing the work for me and taking me straight from the email into the map, I suppose for starters I might start showing up at the party on time.
Yay.
Note: to use Pingg in a way that is even more generous, I would recommend adding the actual date of your event to the subject heading of your pingg-mail.
Topics: customer experience, web services | 2 Comments »
Do you want an extra $1.2 billion in sales?
By susan | September 13, 2007
A great little article over at vnunet.com (thanks to the CEA brief for bringing it to our attention) reports on a study from Saatchi & Saatchi about why women are not buying more technology. Answer: because nobody talks to them.
By talking, I also mean listening of course, as follows:
- Identifying what kinds of tech products women want (market research, or simply asking).
- Understanding what kinds of tech products women like right now.
- Knowing what their questions are, and how, when, and where they want to buy.
Also, making sure that the product speaks to them, the store speaks to them, and — as with any marketing agenda, that all of the messages surrounding these factors are somehow relevant to women and what they want.
In other words, pink is not relevant.
Pink is just a color. Women also love blue, black, grey, and a wide assortment of colors. Making a product pink demonstrates the following: you could not be bothered to do anything else. You are underestimating the intelligence of the prospective buyer (it’s the same product, only pink?).
Of course, if your existing customers are all that you need and want, and you understand them best, little incentive exists to go out and find new ones. After all, that takes a little effort. But sometimes all you have to do is hire people who already understand the new customers that you want to reach. And then listen to them too.
Here’s a nice tidbit from the study:
“43 per cent of women go shopping for consumer electronics without a specific brand or product in mind.”
A shopper with an open mind! So all you have to do is put something in front of them that makes them think, ‘oh, this is exactly what I want.’ How you get from here to there is easier than it sounds.
Of course, the article also focuses on “lady geeks.” Identifying “women” as some sort of broad category (no pun intended) where everyone in it is the same is not recommended. It is definitely a good idea to focus on women who already love technology and just want better choices for them than what is available right now.
Besides, I count myself in that category. Thanks for listening.
Regarding the subject heading of this post:
If you want numbers, the Saatchi & Saatchi report suggests that the industry is abandoning 600 million in British pounds by not serving Lady Geeks. I went over to XE.com (a lady geek thing to do) for English to American translation, as follows:
600,000,000.00 GBP = 1,216,077,596.53 USD
Wow, us lady geeks have deep purses. Want to know what else we keep in there? Just ask.
Topics: consumer electronics, customer experience, marketing to women | No Comments »
Reward early adopters
By susan | September 10, 2007
A quick follow-up to the post below, and a crazy idea:
First, here’s a link to the Times article on Apple customers’ early adopter frustration.
Second, this is something that Apple may not want me to suggest, but here goes:
I personally was not all that interested in a getting an iPhone until I saw my friends using it. In other words, those early adopters are part of Apple’s sales force.
So here’s the crazy idea:
Instead of charging early adopters more for products, how about discounting the price for those who buy it within the first two months? Don’t think of it as a discount. Think of it as a marketing expense.
Tossing in another photo here, just because it’s a pretty product.
Topics: consumer electronics, customer experience, early adopters, iphone, marketing | No Comments »
Customer experience and the golden rule
By susan | September 10, 2007
Two quick notes on customer experience and the iPhone.
First, it seemed Apple was a bit surprised when people who bought iPhones just two months ago got upset at Apple’s $200 reduction in price. Jobs has offered $100 in rebates to each of those customers.
That story doesn’t bother me too much. Early adopters are mostly aware that they are buying high and buying now, because they want it now.
Of course, this type of thing does not encourage more people to become early adopters. Something that manufacturers ought to keep in mind if they want more early adopters in the world.
Second story was on AT&T and some rather obscene roaming charges. The New York Times sums it up here. First, a guy with a $3,000 roaming bill because he did not know that his iPhone would be automatically checking for email messages several times each hour while he was in Europe.
This is just silly.
Clearly, someone at AT&T must have been aware that this type of thing would happen. What did they think? That most people would just accept it and pay up?
It’s one thing for a company to offer a $50 rebate and make it really inconvenient and know that most people won’t bother going through the inconvenience (and so the company won’t have to pay up). It’s quite another to devise technology that drains people’s resources so quickly and efficiently and not expect some kind of a backlash.
Just a thought.
I still think the golden rule ought to apply to corporations. Not because it is unprofitable, but because taking care of customers actually does lead to better profits and better PR and — well, it’s just good for business all around.
Along those lines, I’ve said before that I want a better cell phone. Even more, I want a better cell phone carrier. This industry needs a little shaking up if you ask me.
Topics: customer experience, iphone, wireless | No Comments »
Let go of your unprofitable customers
By susan | July 25, 2007
I meant to pipe up on this story a while ago when I first read about Sprint’s decision to drop customers who called their customer service lines too much. Now I’m seeing it reported again by another source, and with greater depth and perspective. So maybe it’s time to talk about this.
I completely support Sprint’s decision, which may surprise those who see me as being purely on the customer side. I’m not. I’m on the customer side when it serves the provider or manufacturer, and vice versa.
(Incidentally, I disagree with the “five ways to cope” as a customer offered by that article. If you’re a customer who’s been dropped, I suggest you happily skip to the next provider and don’t look back.)
Let’s get back to the company perspective.
The underlying reason for paying attention to the customer is about profits. And if some customers are draining you, let them go. It should be a mutually beneficial relationship!
The goal here is about finding a good match: between customer and provider, or between employee and employer, or between any two parties who agree to go in on a deal together.
A provider should be as free to drop a relationship as a customer is free to drop the provider. Which leads me to another point on the customer side. Since we’re talking about Sprint, here’s a cell phone story:
My cell phone is underwhelming. The reception it gets is maybe half as good as my old cell phone before that. And I have not bothered calling the customer service line about it. Which makes me a fantastic customer!
Even when I am deeply annoyed with their product, I do not bother them. I merely make plans to move away, when that can be done quickly and easily with a minimum of fuss on my part.
I could make a point here about how you may not be hearing from your most dissatisfied customers, and as a result, they will suddenly move on to someone new without warning. In fact, now that I’ve raised the issue: your most fantastic customers might suddenly leave you, unless you have done something for them lately.
So recently I was scouting around to see if there was a cell phone out there that I really liked, which presented a bit of a challenge. When I finally found one that intrigued me, it turned out to be offered only by Verizon.
Which leads me back to my present provider. It’s the company formerly known as AT&T and then Cingular and now back to AT&T again. When I started with them, they were AT&T. I think. I’ve been with them since 1992. It’s been a long and trying relationship, what with the name changes and all. I have attempted to leave on several occasions over the past 15 years, but still I find myself with the company-that-keeps-changing-its-name.
When this fantastic customer (who does not call the customer service line) decides to switch, it will be swift and decisive. And yes, I often think about something for ten years before making a “quick” decision.
Turns out, to get the offered deal on the new phone with Verizon, I would have to abandon my old number and not do the transfer. So that has given me pause. But hey, if my provider is willing to keep on changing its name, maybe I can change my number too.
Here’s my question: can I change it back again?
Topics: customer experience, marketing, wireless | No Comments »