How do your customers relate to you – as a friend, a partner ….

''What is your relationship with your customer like ?''

I treat my customers as my friends / partner.

''But what does he/she thinks ?''

I don't know. Each one has different perception. But generally I hope they think of me and my business as friendly.

''How often do you interact with them ?''

As much as possible
1. Through our Advt.s (hope they are watching)
2. When they come to buy my product
3. If they call for support or replacement

But I do everything possible on this earth to reach out to my customers. I regularly send catalogs, new products updates, thank you letters etc. I have also trained my front end people (sales, support) to be very friendly.

''How many times did they come to you, without any promotional talk from you ?''

What do you mean by that.

''How do you feel, if someone knocks on your door, every other day asking for a date ?''

If I like that person, that would be fantastic, but if I don't I would hate it.

''Exactly, by sending papers, you are knocking on customers doors. Do you know if they love you or hate you for that.''

I don't know. Some love and some hate, i guess.

''What should a stranger do to become your friend ?''

Hmm.. Let me see …

1. He /She should have some common interests with me
2. Should be pleasureable to talk to
3. Should be available when I want
4. Shouldn't interfere with my life more than what I want
5. Should think good for me
6. Should be trust worthy (I hate liars and cheats)

''Good. Do you (your business) meet these criterea in your customer's point of view ?''

I hope so. Atleast I try my best to be the best friend for my customers.

''Think again, do your " Push" techniques (mails, brochures, catalogs) really meet these criterea.''

What is the alternative ? What else can one do.

''If I were to befriend someone, I would organize fun party and invite them.''

But that doesn't mean everyone would come.

''Obviously, everyone would not be same kind. But if I can create an environment, which most of the people feel it to be fun (learning, or earning or ..valueable), I would attract as many as possible.''

Ya. I know. they would all come, enjoy the party and go buy competitors stuff.

''They would, if after interacting with you /business, they are convinced that you are not the best for them. But if they like what you do, they would be your ambassadors. ''

Ok. But I cannot physically organize a party for my world wide customers.

''Internet is supposed to connect people. Does your business use internet to invite customers for a enriching experience. Not just to boast information about you and your products. You can connect with these networked mass, through internet. But no one wants to attend a "sucker's" party, right !!. ''

Right.

''The idea is to design environments to befriend with your customer. Not just at the time of sale, but much before and after that. A longtime friend can be a valueable asset to your business. And if you have 1000's of such longtime buddies, think what is possible.''

1. You would know what they want
2. They would promote you
3. They would be open to try other products from you
4. They would stick to you in hard times.

''Yes, the trick is to create environments of friendship. Key emphasis is "not just at the time of sale", but much beyond it. I call this>

Business Relation Design.''

But is it not same as CRM – customer relationship management.

''NO. because you can never manage a friendly relationship. I don't think any one remains a friend, if you try to manage (manipulate) the relationship. CRM only focuses on how to get maximum out of the customer (be the best "sucker"). Customers are smart. They can easily find a sucker among friends. or vice versa.''

Dell – knocking on door !!!

Shaving the wallet not beard

Economist wrote this on Mar 16th 2006

“For the most cynical shavers, this evolution is mere marketing. Twin blades seemed plausible. Three were a bit unlikely. Four, ridiculous. And five seems beyond the pale. Few people, though, seem willing to bet that Gillette’s five-bladed Fusion is the end of the road for razor-blade escalation. More blades may seem impossible for the moment—though strictly speaking the Fusion has six, because it has a single blade on its flip-side for tricky areas—but anyone of a gambling persuasion might want to examine the relationship between how many blades a razor has, and the date each new design was introduced. “

 I wrote this 6 months back (Sep 2005)

Gillette 5 blades – cuts more wallet than beard

Problem - When I shave with 3 blades, it takes more strokes to cleanly cut the stubs. or worse some show up above the skin (not a clean shave).

Why ?

1. blade can’t reach low enough on stub (otherwise it might cut skin)
2. blade is at angle to the stub (hair stubs grow in multi directions)
3. blade didn’t pass over the area (curves of jaw /skin)

So…

Put another blade following the first one. As the first blade cuts and lifts the hair stub, second blade cuts the extra stub that peeps out of the skin.
Good logic. But why have 3 rather than 2. Because 3 is better than 2. and 5 is better than 3. Didn’t we learn our Maths!!

But … That doesnot solve the problem due to 2 & 3 reasons for bad shave listed above.

Is Gillette solving the problem any better with 5 blades than 3 blades. If not, why should anyone pay more money because Gillette R&D’s ineffectiveness.

Thanks Mark Hurst for your post on this

Should businesses care about user experience ?

Should business (shareholders) care about this “experience” fad ?

They should if it provides growth (in revenues and profitability). It is important that experience stuff is understood by people beyond the marketing department. CEO should know it for sure.

Why care for user experience beyond the sales booth :

• a. Users as Marketeers – viral marketing !! A happy user will tell good stories about (or around) your product to his friends / family.
• b. Loyal Customer – Everyone who cares for loyality (because new customer acquisition is costly), should worry about user experience beyond the sales booth.
• c. Cross sell – a happy customer will try more products from you.
• d. Avoid activitists – ensure that customers don’t become activists against your company.
• e. Market research – involved user would tell you about market need. What people want. The chepeast and most effective market research / feedback.

Can one influence the experience without control over the context ?

General concept in experience economy is that a well defined /designed context can provide a greater experience. But there are many more levers in the hands of a designer/CEO/ marketing/ Engineering to influence the user experience.

Product as commandos :Think of your products as commandos who infilterate user environment. Commodos should survive and accomplish mission(spread the goodword) independantly in uncontrollable territory.

One can segment products /services as :

• 1. Happily ever after – sell once, and buyer never comes back to you. (not to confuse with only-once-in-a-lifetime product).
• 2. See you soon – comeback because of wear and tear or boredom or new improved version.
• 3. Refill – comeback for refill
• 4. @ your service – continuous contact, else no service.

Is there an experience if you are not in contact with customer. Yes, because your product (even in 1 category) is interacting with him/ her beyond your shop.

Usually type 4 (@ your service) kind of businesses use the experience stuff (Disney park, Starbucks …). But even category 1,2 businesses such as Harley Davidson, Apple.. are influencing user experience much beyond the sales desk. If context is the main lever, it is important that businesses create more interaction points / contexts for influencing user experience. Don’t just have support department, everyone in the business has an interest in post sales interactions. itunes is a great place to interact with the users.

So how to reinvent products /services to use this theory ?

Think of relationships. Friends, family, spouse etc. That is understand the orbits of user experience.

What would you do to become a relation (friend or …or spouse) – Use same principles in product /service design. Check this for parameters for reaching deeper levels of human experience orbits.

Technology doesn’t know it is dealing with humans

Walgreens has been calling my home (through an automatic message)reminding me to collect my photos., which I had already collected 3 months back. “Oh ! maybe our system didn’t update it” excused the clerk, as if it is common occurance for her, when I went today to inform them of the harassing voice messages. She checked and confirmed that there were no photos pending on my name. Then she deleted the entry on computer.

If their computer system is smart enough to alert them of un-collected packages, why couldn’t they tally with their inventory and update it ?

Using technology, they did create a automatic voice message system, but ignored that it could sometimes behave erratically and irritate me – the customer.
Do not rely too much on technology, customer is a human being and can get pissed off with simple errors in that.

Second experience at Walgreens

I picked up a shake-it-torchlight for my kid, along with other things. This was stocked near the cashier counter and had no price label.

“tell me how much this torch costs” I said.

“I don’t know, have to check in the back shelves” he said ” maybe $5 or $6… would you buy”

He catalyzed my decision not to buy that. A positive answer would have encouraged me to buy that for my kid.

You don’t need technology for that. Big organizations rely on “human” / untrained humans, who fail to see the impact on customer experience.

Free is most abused word

Yesterday, I was offered a free chocolate box at RiteAID pharmacy.

Why ?

“I don’t know… my manager told me to… it’s free..” the clerk said.

I have no idea why they do that – not know why they give off a $7.25 box for free.

I did take the box suspicously. It neither made me thankful, nor grateful nor loyal to RiteAID.

In fact I grew suspicious of them.

Did “FREE-CHOCOLATE-BOX-SCHEME” designer imagine that it could have negative experential response?

Hugh Macleod offered to include my(anyone’s) blog-rss on his bloglines.

Did you also think the same as I thought,

“what’s the catch ?”

Sometimes we don’t trust experts – when they try to sell

Today I went for oil change @ Lube express.

The technician behaves like a doctor for my car. He tells me what I should do (meaning choose costlier service package). He warned me that if I don’t do as he says, my car might breakdown. I was scared. Sitting inside, while he pulled so many tubes and filled many more liquids, I was wondering is this a good experience ?

Have you ever understood what they to each other
” we got this guy..hmmm $$$ …let’s party…” something to that effect.

I feel that every time I go for oil change, I am advised of so many things that I end up paying a hefty $$. Couple of observations :

1. I am amazed at the complexity of cars (even in this technological age). Do you how many liquids are your car ?( Petrol, injection fluid, oil, wiper fluid …).

2. The technician knows everything about my car. He changes from being a doctor to a salesman.

3. I sit inside the car, while he does something in the bonnet and below the car.

4. After the session (once I paid big $$) I am always told that now I don’t have to worry for long-long time.

5. But then, I get my car looked after while I enjoy my radio.

6. They show me lot of dirty parts out of my car to prove their point.

Do I trust them ? Does it matter if I don’t ?

Wouldn’t it better if they gave me a one year schedule, with all the costs for each session. That way I would know cost of maintainance. Lube express knows how to train technicians to be salesmen, but still raise lots of suspicion in the way they do their job.

I would love them, if they tell me for a specified $$ per year, they will ensure smooth running of my car. Then I would go back to them :
a. eventhough many others want to do offer me similar service
b. without any discount coupons.

Design for Experience -Google video :)

See

my video on Google video

‘Remark-able’ is not enough, become a story character

Seth say’s it brilliantly : make products – “Remark”able ( “Purple Cow”, “Big M00″).

So that people will remark (include in their stories) and spread the good word. In other words, leverage users /viewers to expand your reach. Best products are ones which intrinsically help connect to others.

I agree but think “remark”able is not enough.

Why not ?

1. I agree that users can be and should be leveraged (through their stories) to reach out to bigger audience.
2. Stories are better than remarks.
3. Remarks like comments are just passing. Stories are often told again and again. Moving stories involve the closest people to you (often yourself).
4. You pass a remark on a stranger, while you introduce a friend, involve a family member, relate to a lover, and tell a autobiography.
5. For more valueable introduction/involvement/ relation/ connection with the user and their world, one needs to do more than being remarkable.

Orbits of Experiences (how they can spread the word):

1. Remarkable (Sensory) – “Wow!! did you see that… you must “
2. Friendly (Interactive) – “Meet my best friend…”
3. Family (emotional) – “our new family member …”
4. Lover (relate) – “my partner… she understands me.”
5. Self (connect) – “that changed me…a turning point in my life”

The above effects not just marketeers. A designer, maker/developer, marketeer, business owner, user, all need to realize that we humans value the world according to these kind of orbits of experiences.

it’s design not Technology

Interesting !!

Being a technology professional I have become very interested in Design. Especially design for better human experiences.

This post suggests that

It seems engineers and programmers are discovering the importance of user experience and understanding the “invisibility” of technology: