Archives / July 2005

This New York Times article reports...

The owner of Macy's, Federated Department Stores, said yesterday that it would convert at least 10 different store brands - including Filene's, Famous-Barr and Hecht's - to the Macy's name in 2006.

Same inventory, same prices, same level of service, same store. Once the customer passes under the large lit-up sign outside and enters the store, what does it matter?

Changing the name doesn't change the customer experience.

Speaking of the power of simplicity: here's how Stonehenge could have been built by one man: Link to video

Remember Einstein's famous precept? "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler."

That's been on my mind lately as I've described customer experience to potential consulting clients and others.

Stated as simply as possible, but not simpler, there are four steps in transforming the customer experience within a business:

1. Listen to the business.
2. Listen to the customers.
3. Synthesize the two inputs.
4. Suggest improvements.

Remove any of these steps, and the method no longer works. Add anything, and it either fits inside one of the four steps or it might be irrelevant. In other words, I think this four-step model achieves Einstein's goal.

Of course, there are lots of sub-steps...

- Listening to the business requires interviewing stakeholders, analyzing past research and documents, and reviewing competitors.

- Listening to customers means conducting open-ended listening labs, facilitating stakeholder discussions, and analyzing results.

- Synthesis is the process of creating a "customer experience strategy" that intersects business and customer goals.

- Suggesting improvements means creating mockups of the new service or product, based (importantly!) on the strategy from the previous step.

But regardless of the details, at its heart the customer experience method is best described by those four simple steps. It systematically answers the question, how can the company improve to serve customers better?

Remember: every customer-facing organization in global business will invest in answering this question in the next decade - if they're not doing so already. Whether you're in such a company, or independently helping from the outside, it's good to have a grasp of this model.

But be careful that you don't violate Einstein's rule. There are, of course, two ways to do this:

- Be too complex: Some methods promoted within the fields of usability, IA, and user experience are too complicated to explain easily... or understand at all. Overly academic, pseudo-scientific, or exceedingly nitpicky, these methods tend to be tactically focused (at best) or dangerously ineffective investments. They aren't "as simple as possible."

- Be too simple: Many companies skip the second and third steps; that is, they NEVER get face-to-face with a customer; and so they never create a strategy based on customer needs. Occasionally we get calls from companies that "already know the issues" and want us to jump immediately to drawing mockups, without interviewing a single customer (?!). Please tell me, dear reader of this newsletter, that your company does get stakeholders in front of real live customers!

Avoid those two pitfalls and you'll be more likely to create significant business results.

Finally, if you're interested to read more detail about this method, I'd point you to our whitepaper, "Joining Strategy and Usability: the Customer Experience Methodology."

Here's a summary:

The customer experience methodology (CEM) works solely in context of the client's business: its strategic goals, current resources (organizational constraints, timeframe, etc.), and competitive position. Customer experience improvement, after all, is about driving business results.

The CEM is less directed and less task-focused than traditional user experience research methods. For example, in a CEM project, usability tests are conducted in the form of non-directive "listening labs." CEM results are easy to measure, by comparing key metrics before and after a CEM project is conducted.

Download the whitepaper here:
http://www.creativegood.com/doc/creativegood-method.pdf

Although the Costco website could use some help, Costco is doing lots of things right within the organization. From the NYTimes today: How Costco Became the Anti-Wal-Mart.

Excerpts:

Costco's average pay, for example, is $17 an hour, 42 percent higher than its fiercest rival, Sam's Club. And Costco's health plan makes those at many other retailers look Scroogish. One analyst, Bill Dreher of Deutsche Bank, complained last year that at Costco "it's better to be an employee or a customer than a shareholder."

...Good wages and benefits are why Costco has extremely low rates of turnover and theft by employees, he said. And Costco's customers, who are more affluent than other warehouse store shoppers, stay loyal because they like that low prices do not come at the workers' expense. "This is not altruistic," he said. "This is good business."

Thanks, Mike Krypel!

From a Yahoo News story:

"This is an ultimate disaster for airlines and all of our customers, who will be horribly inconvenienced," says James May, the [Air Transport Association's] president and CEO.

What's the ultimate disaster for the airline industry?

Congress wants to extend daylight savings for a couple of weeks. You know, so that it (in NYC, anyway) it doesn't get dark at 4pm come mid-November.

Programming expense, maybe... but "ultimate disaster"?

Link

From AdPulp: "...it is hard to imagine that someone who only recently led the largest-ever blood donor initiative for the American Red Cross with such energy and enthusiasm is now in vital need of a liver donation."

I spotted this ad in the New York Times yesterday and was struck by its immediacy and authenticity.

David Yee tells of a great customer experience at Danny Meyer's Shake Shack here in Manhattan. I'll agree that every dining experience I've had at Meyer's restaurants - Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Eleven Madison Park, Tabla - has met or (more often) exceeded expectations.

Note: I've never seen a billboard, poster, commercial, promotion, or ad of any sort for any of Danny Meyer's restaurants. Yet they're always packed with enthusiastic customers (and equally enthusiastic staff).

(via three-time Gel attendee jason kottke)

P.S. Seth has a similar take on another experience.

I don't usually link to fun stuff in the blog (get the weekly fun stuff listings in the e-mail version of Good Experience), but this is exceptional.

ASICS is running commercials in Japan that boast, flamboyantly and loudly, about the gel in its shoes. See the TV commercials here. "Gellllllllllllllllllll!!!"

(Thanks, Peter)

Cool keyboard, if it's ever widely available. Each key has a screen on it showing what letter, function, or application it controls.

(via kottke)

"Consumers don't see Whole Foods ads in their local papers, during daytime television shows or even in magazines.

While other food retailers spend heavily to draw shoppers, Whole Foods counts on its brand, its reputation and targeted community efforts to bring in customers."

From Whole Foods shuns ads, sells lifestyle.

(Thanks, Scott)