Customerspective

Shopping is Not a Contact Sport

I don't believe that shopping should be a contact sport. I don't appreciate a crowd when I'm trying to get through my list. Shopping can be enough of a trial without adding a thousand other people, all on the same mission.

So I hadn't planned on shopping yet, nor had I given my gift purchases too much thought before today, but when a wild winter storm woke me at 5am with no sign of sleep in sight, I opened up my laptop and went to one of my favorite retail sites, Wishing Fish. They have cool gifts (no, I don't get a kick back!) and I found almost everything I wanted for my siblings and half of my boyfriend's presents. Then I hit Amazon for my niece and nephews' toys and in one hour, 80% of my holiday shopping was done. For an extra chunk of change, I could have had everything gift wrapped if I'd been so inclined (but gift wrapping all our presents together is how we spend Christmas Eve in my family--yes, a little odd, but that is what we do).

I expect I'll hit a big box store for gift wrap and tape, and I'll go online again for one last sweep to get my mom something special. But I'm essentially done. And I didn't have to brave the crowds or snow or the mall or slushy parking lots or shopping bag handles that break. I didn't have to listen to unhappy children or rude sales people or refuse samples of pumpkin walnut chai latte mix from overly eager staff.

On the other hand, I didn't see Santa or the twinkly lights or the giant tree at The Store Formerly Known as Marshall Field's and I didn't pretend to fence with tubes of gift wrap as blades in the department store aisles with my boyfriend. And I certainly didn't retire after hours of my "shopping" with friends or family to a warm cafe for hot chocolate to review my purchases and catch up on things.

If holiday shopping is simply for the experience, then by all means, let's go. But for getting things done, I'll take the Internet every time.

The downside of web's social networking services.

"Orkut, Linkedin, Friendster, Technorati, Del.icio.us, Digg…"  The list grows bigger and bigger each day.  And I am not even close to covering all the other websites and e-commerce venues that offer some kind of social networking feature to improve sales and/or increase references.

With all the buzz around them, do social networking services work? Definitely.  Do they work for everyone? Definitely NOT!

As with all things Internet, what works for some sites may not necessarily work for yours.  Without careful analysis and planning, you may end up investing time and money in features that won't add value to your product or that none of your customers will use.  Or even worse, you may find yourself basing major decisions on input from a very small percentage of customers that does not accurately represent the needs of a bigger target audience.

In his last column, 'Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute', Jakob Nielsen asserts that "In most online systems, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action".

See the column's full text here.

Security Breaches: Trash to Treasure?

Several shocking security breaches, compromising the personal data of millions of customers, have been reported lately.  Below are just a few of the most flagrant cases:

• Chase trashes 2.6M customer files
• Second Lifers' 'first life' hacked
• Wells Fargo leaks personal data)
• AT&T deceptive on data theft )

What amazes me about these breaches is not only the scope and impact of the leaks, but the way in which they occurred.  Most of them have been caused by an improper use of data by employees (like the now infamous case of the US Department of Veteran Affairs). Others were caused by losing control of how personal data was handled by companies' partners or vendors. Chase's customer data was mistakenly thought to be trash and thrown out. Quite a treasure trove for identity thieves.

Although most corporate reactions to leaks have improved by becoming more forthcoming and transparent, the breaches are still a huge blow to costumers' trust.  How can anyone believe a website's Privacy Policy or the company's Safety Statement when such egregious security gaps abound.   

Transparency is good, critical even, but is not enough.  Sooner or later, companies will have to start taking security lapses seriously. And it better be sooner, because as the saying goes: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Dedicated Techno-thingies

After reading a few recent Customerspective and Signal vs. Noise blog entries, regarding excessive product feature sets resulting in confused and frustrated buyers and users, my thoughts turned to wireless phones...

Why do cell phone manufacturers think everyone wants EVERY possible feature on their phones, including (but most definitely not limited to) cameras, MP3 players and PDA functionality?

I recently purchased a new cell phone and the only enhanced feature I desired, beyond just having a working phone, was Internet access - especially as we enter college football season... I have to have constant score updates!  My new phone also came with a camera, which I will hardly use, but I don't mind it since it's easy enough to understand how to (1) click the camera button to turn the camera on and (2) click the button a 2nd time to snap a photo.

I do not however need access to my iTunes library or my business applications from a phone... Nope, I just don't need that.  I have a MP3 player for when I want to tune out and a laptop for when I'm on the road and need to do some work.

Yet it would appear that I should want these features given all the "Go, Go, Gadget, Go!" phones in the marketplace right now - RAZR, Chocolate, PEBL, Q, Pearl, Banana, and the list goes on...

And let's face it, a MP3 player that just plays MP3's is most likely going to be better than a phone that tries to play MP3's while it still attempts to work well as just a plain old cell phone... Kind of like how a computer printer generally works best when it's just a printer and not a printer/copier/fax machine combo.  It's usually much easier to use as well.

Even Captain Kirk had separate Communicator, Tricorder and Hand Phaser gadgets and it didn't seem to bother him one bit... Beam me up Scottie.

Everyone's a Publisher

I was reading a recent study by the Patricia Seybold Group (posted on ATG's website) and was struck by a comment by Susan Aldrich:

"In 1995, unbeknownst to almost all of us, the majority of businesses in the world were catapulted into the publishing business."

It's true that burgeoning online communication channels make it more and more obvious which companies do not understand how to make it easy for customers to interact with them. And the wealth of self-service channels, and easily available content makes it imperative that companies put some strong analytical thought into publication systems, processes and measurements.

I would contend that, like a top-notch human resources practice, having a well defined publishing model for business information was a necessary competence for well-run companies prior to the internet. The internet merely made it more transparent and obvious when a company is not customer-centric. Both the digitization of information, and customer expectations of self-service empowerment, now, more than ever, require that companies continuously investigate customer goals, and the processes customers would like to go through to acheive those goals.

In other words, good companies think critically about the customer experience, and design processes, content and interfaces to make that the best experience possible. Is that such a surprise?

Kill it, it's SPAM!

Bad news for email marketers. In a recent survey, almost 4 out of 5 consumers (79%) confirmed they used their internal system's "spam" or "junk" button to eliminate email they don't want. And almost two out of five (37%) did it as a way to unsubscribe from stuff they'd opted in to receive.

What does this mean for you? If your company uses email as a marketing and communications channel (who doesn't?), then you've got to think very carefully about several things:

1) Keep your email lists clean. Use double opt-in methods to ensure people really agree to your email communication.

2) Keep your content relevant. Consider segmenting your email lists into micro-lists, then develop content for each group.

3) Don't barrage your readers. Too frequent communication is one of the top reasons people drop off lists.

4) Put your unsubscribe option at the top of your message - not the bottom. Give people an easy out, and they'll take it - letting you know that they're not getting value from your communications. This will also give you a chance to re-recruit them when they see a relevant offering on your site or in your ads.

On a related note, an Email Labs study from last October showed 52% of at-work users "always use the preview page" and 17% frequently use it. Think about writing and formatting for preview pane users (HTML turned off, graphics suppressed, small viewing window)

Ultimately, the customer (and prospective customer) experience determines whether you’ll retain them over time. The better you get at communicating with people when, how and about what they want, the stronger your relationship will be.

Halloween - A Spooky Customer Experience

"Thanks!" - said the little boy. - "You have a very scary house, mister."

Given the circumstances, I took that as a compliment. After all, it was Halloween and all kids were going from house to house in search of candy and the best spooky experience.

But the comment got me thinking about how Customer Experience can be relative. If I had received that comment on a typical day, I would be concerned about my house's lighting, security or just on how to avoid being embarrassed in front of my neighbors' kids. It is really amazing how the customer experience depends entirely on the Customer Perspectives and Expectations.

It is pretty easy for a large company to forget that and start interpreting their customer's complains and suggestions from a wrong point of view, without really understanding what the customers meant at first place.

Customer Experience may be about looking for and reacting to customers' inputs, but it is much more than that.  Customer Experience is also about understanding the subtle context that sometimes affects the Customer Perception.

You better be prepared to understand your Customer and not just listen to them. Or else, next time you hear something like "hey, Mr., you have a very scary house!", you could be changing your whole company's strategy because of a simple compliment.