Bella Slade

Navigating the new world of work

Author: bella (Page 3 of 5)

Give it some real Klout

August 31, 2012 / / 0 Comments

If you were a marketer, it’s likely that social influence of your customers would be interesting to you, and one way of looking for it could be having a gander on Klout. Klout is an online system that analyses a person’s influence across various social networking sites and then rates them on a scale of 1-100, labeling them as ‘influential’ about certain topics or subjects. It seems that marketers are attempting to use these scores in order to market to specific people, in the hope they will then go off and influence others about their products or services.

An article from Chorus and Echo talks about a new scheme, or trend that’s being seen – that those deemed to have high Klout scores get preferential treatment when they visit specific nightclubs. And there’s likely to be more of this kind of treatment in future. Forbes has reported Genesys, a contact centre software solution company in the US will begin to integrate Klout scores into its software. This effectively means that those deemed to have high Klout scores (and therefore more ‘influence’ over people), are likely to get routed to customer service agents more quickly, and experience a more efficient service.

So, what’s the big deal? People who have more influence get better stuff, and the company gains loyalty and more followers as the influencers tell everyone about the amazing service they’ve been getting. As Colin Shaw from Beyond Philosophy states, we already pay celebrities to endorse product placement, and marketers are already looking at social influence in any way they can as a value indicator… (Think number of Twitter followers.) It’s win/win surely?

Although it sounds good on paper… I have a problem with this concept. My Klout score is 41. (41 what?) To give you an idea of how unreliable Klout is: Although it thinks I’m influential about Smartphones, User Experience Design and Gluten-Free… Somewhat true perhaps… It also thinks I’m influential about Masters Golf Tournament and Coffee. Of which neither I can stand, and actually don’t ever recall mentioning? Would people from Kenco think I’m a safe bet and try and sell me some coffee? Because clearly they’re not going to get anywhere. More importantly, is there any evidence that people with high Klout scores really influence anyone at all? I do accept, however, that it may get better with time. To be fair to Klout, it only has access to my Twitter account. Perhaps if it had access to other social media accounts, and I was a little more liberal in my information giving practices, it might know more about me and therefore be more accurate. But I’m not about to give away more of my details to find out.

The other thing that bothers me about it, is that even if you really are influential about something… There’s no way of knowing if it’s in a positive or negative way. And even if you did, you could be negatively influential about Rihanna, or positively influential about Disease. What does that even mean? And is the type of sentiment likely to affect how you treat these influential people as a marketer? There’s no doubt in my mind that there is a return on investment available if you can calculate the potential social influence of those you sell products to. Real social influence. But my biggest issue with this model is this: What about if you could buy your influence score to get preferential treatment? We know that some people accumulate fake Twitter followers to look more prestigious, and this could be affecting Klout already. Additionally, we have some issues with marketers wanting to buy exposure to Facebook users, and controversy arising after reports that up to 8% of accounts are fake… So they’re effectively marketing to people that don’t exist. What if you were real…. But your Klout score was not?

A new addition of ‘Moments’ in Klout tries to explain exactly how people are influential about subjects and how they are being influenced. It hasn’t come available for me yet, but Bob Thompson talks about it in one of his posts on Customer Think. It’s possible that a feature such as this might give more insight to marketers about how influential people really are, and just who they might influence.

The Experience Economy

June 21, 2012 / / 0 Comments

While looking for more things to read, I found a new heap of Customer Experience and strategy related books and have slowly been working through them. A little while ago I finished this book by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore.


The Experience Economy


Published in 1999 It’s one of the earliest books I’ve ever come across that mentions Customer Experience explicitly. I’ve recently read that it was based on an article written the year before and that indeed the term is attributed to them. Almost 15 years later, I still see it as one of the most relevant books I’ve read for our times, particularly in the era of Customer Experience Management. For a business book (and an old one at that), it’s a pretty interesting read.

The basic premise of the book explains how the focus of the consumer economy has shifted. So in the early stages we had the Commodity Business which concerns itself with basic products, sugar, gold, wheat etc. Which quickly changed into the Goods Business which sells differentiated products, as in products that are built of basic building blocks from the commodity business but they’re changed into products that have a Unique Selling Point, which is of course where marketing comes in. They next describe the Service Business which doesn’t concern itself with tangible goods necessarily but with which we’re pretty familiar with considering it makes up over 60% of the British economy (so you’d think we’d be better at it). They then go on to the Experience Business which I would argue we’re only just embarking on. This is the most exciting of the evolutions. An obvious example is perhaps those of theme parks such as Disneyland where the park is designed specifically to create wonder and amazement. Pine and Gilmore state that it’s the job of the business to create ‘memories’ for customers, in other words to architect memorable events for them, resulting in the experience or the ‘memory’ itself becoming the product.

As they Guardian recently reported, even in times of an economic downturn, the spending on luxury and exclusive experiences for the rich still continues to rise exponentially. They go on to report that people, particularly the young, are now beginning to define themselves by what they have done rather than what they own. They state the trend even spreads to China, which is an economy known for it’s obsession with brands and status symbols. I can see the beginnings of this even for those without the six figure salaries. Everyone’s heard of those track days where you can drive an Aston Martin for all of two laps, but what about this:


Zombie Shopping Mall – Complete with Endorsement from Simon Pegg


It’s a kind of Zombie Experience Day where you get to pretend you’re in a Shaun of the Dead movie. Lots of actors are in there loudly moaning and pretending to be after your brains and you go around a deserted shopping centre (a real one!) with a laser gun shooting them all, while they film you and give you the footage as a souvenir. Absolutely genius idea. It reminds me a bit of that scene in Minority Report where people of the future pay to go into a pod and can live out their fantasies, with one guy having constant applause and praise from a circle of people surrounding him, “Oh you’re so great!”.

Further on from this, Pine and Gilmore describe the Transformation Business which includes things like the education industry, where your customer comes out ‘transformed’ as a result of your business. Or even perhaps things like drug rehabilitation? Where customers pay to spend their time somewhere to (hopefully) gain something from the experience. Their main argument is that businesses can now charge for the ‘value’ that they add, and the more they add for the consumer, the more they can charge of course.

This obviously has great resonance for businesses. Even if you sell products, you can still (to some extent) design the experience a customer has with your brand, in terms of customer service and the web site that you have – they all contribute to the experience. Whether you’re an MNC or SME, you have the ability to alter the associations that people have with your business. I do think it’s time for companies to start looking to the future to try to determine how technology can help them add that value through positive, seamless experience and exceeding their customers’ expectations.

Responsive Design

June 14, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Responsive Design is a big phrase at the moment. It’s all about optimisation. Engineering your web site or app to look it’s best on any device is really important – it’s got to be effortless. Advances in CSS3 have made this a lot easier, for designers and developers. It’s also been a leap for customer and user experience, meaning that users can use the web site or the app, whatever device they choose and the experience doesn’t suffer. However, this shouldn’t be exclusive to e-commerce sites, as more people are doing things on the move, all sites should be following this direction. So I’ve decided to make sure that even my own blog is readable from smartphones and from tablets.

This is how it looks on an Apple iPhone 4s and a tablet:

 

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OK, so the text is still fairly small (it does appear bigger on the devices), but it’s still readable and you can even see the buttons on the smartphone (just). You can see how the text nicely realigns itself for a more narrow column and adheres to a different grid ratio. The proportions are good, and the images are nicely resized. Overall, a success I would say. Basically if your users are noticing that there’s a difference between their devices then there’s something to notice, and you need to do something about it. If they don’t even notice then the design is likely to be how they expect – if not better. It’s always good to try to anticipate how the user is going to be using your site, whether they might have their mobile device landscape or portrait, and what activity it is they’re doing. Are they reading? Make the text larger. Are they going to have to type? Make sure the important stuff is kept above the keyboard. Are there a lot of pictures? Make sure they resize appropriately and they’re at the correct resolution and size for the device they’re on.

Ramsay’s

June 9, 2012 / / 0 Comments

For my 21st birthday, my parents gave me a trip to Gordon Ramsay’s flagship restaurant on Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea – aptly named ‘Ramsay’s’. We went last Friday, and I’m now 23. That either says something about the organisation skills of my parents, their schedules (and mine!) or how difficult it is to get on the waiting list. Probably a combination.

It coincided nicely with the end of term, so I was really looking forward to going. I went with my parents and some of the family so it was great to have a group of us to catch up at the same time. It began with some canapes, of lobster cornettos, truffle, basil and parmesan dough and scotch quails eggs – which were all really beautiful. Next came an amuse bouche – yes those really pretentious things taken foam the French that are supposed to ‘amuse the mouth’. For us it was a pea and mint mousse, which was absolutely gorgeous. Next came the starters, so here is a picture of mine:


Pan-fried sea scallops from the Isle of Skye with heritage apples, fresh walnuts, celery and cider emulsion.

I’d have never have thought of putting scallops with apple, but it was actually a beautiful combination. And there’s nothing I love more than some hand-dived king scallops. Probably my favourite of all seafood. Next came the mains, mine was:

Isle of Gigha halibut with Atlantic King crab, cauliflower couscous, finger lime and ras el hanout infused broth.

The flowers were incredibly pretty. I’ve also wanted some on my main course haha. Next came what was called a ‘fruit soup’, I think it was orange, passionfruit and also had jasmine tea in it. With some sort of white foam on top. It was interesting, supposedly a palate cleanser I’m guessing. Next was my favourite part of all, dessert:

Banoffee pie souffle, banana and salted caramel crumble.

Lastly we were given some petite fours of chocolate ganache and turkish delight with gold leaf, which were also lovely. But along with those came some strawberry ice cream coated in white chocolate, and they came in dry ice:


The best thing about the meal (other than the food of course) was the service. The staff were formal, and proper yet friendly, but not overly familiar. Your glass was always full but you never noticed when it was topped up. They had an expert for the wine, an expert for the bread (mine was a rosemary loaf – amazing!) and the Maître d’ would come and talk to us, but would also serve like the rest of the staff. It gave out a really good vibe. They also overheard that the occasion was for my birthday… No one had told them. Yet they gave me a coconut ice cream surprise with a candle in haha!


It was an absolutely stunning seven course meal, the best I’ve ever had and completely deserving of his three Michelin stars. Ramsay, despite what people say about him, is still my favourite. Next I’d like to take a trip to Bray to go and see some of Heston Blumenthal’s creations at the Fat Duck. I expect he’s the only one that can pip Ramsay’s to the top spot.

Scamming Supermarkets

June 7, 2012 / / 0 Comments

There is nothing new about misleading supermarket offers, they have been reported on numerous occasions, not to mention most recently in the Guardian. Buy one get one free, or buy three for two, or bulk buy to save pounds. Most famously, our friends Tesco and Ocado, have been upping the price the week before an offer so that they can then legitimately say they’ve brought it down in price, when in fact it’s either normal or still overpriced. Which? research has already highlighted the problem for consumers:

“It’s unacceptable that shoppers are confused into thinking they’re getting a good deal”

Quite right. So. Have they learned any lessons? Many stores claim that the pricing were simply a mistake on their part. Is this true? I doubt it. Most of their labels are deliberately not cross compatible. E.g. one is units and one is kg so you can’t directly compare. That can’t be a mistake too, can it?

To prove they’ve made no effort to change, I have an example of my own. Recently I was in Asda, and I was on the hunt for some Kiwis. I found a pack of four, which is what I wanted, at the ‘bargain’ roll back price of £1.25. BUT. Right next to it. Literally right next to it, I find loose kiwis at 22p each. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that’s a saving of 37p. It might not sound like much, but it adds up.



But what does this mean for consumers? Well, primarily that their trust in the supermarkets is being undermined. Customers are not going to believe they’re being treated fairly, and if one supermarket decides that this isn’t good practice and doesn’t carry on, then they might well be the ones on top. If not just because no one can be bothered to do the maths just to work out if they’re being scammed or not. The other problem is of course the excess in packaging on their scam bulk buys, which annoys everyone and seems unnecessary. Others have outlined the better service and quality of food at other sources such as local grocers and farmers markets where you can get a cheaper (and much fairer deal), but not everyone has access to these – at least not on a regular basis. So when are supermarkets going to step up to the mark and stop scamming their own customers? It also begs the questions are these going to the infiltrate the online supermarkets? Maybe they already have.

Fabulous Fabergé

May 30, 2012 / / 0 Comments

I love Google’s Doodle today. It’s in memory of Peter Carl Fabergé’s 166th birthday. I’ve been lucky enough to able to see some real Fabergé eggs in Russian museums, and it’s lovely to be reminded of them. Google have really nailed the art of brightening up their users’ day. It’s the small things I guess.

Eat Cookie?

May 28, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Okay so I’ve been slacking. But I’ve had a busy May and I attempt to recount some of the things I’ve been doing very soon. But I had to post about this today because it’s so relevant. I came across the first instance of the implementation of the new Cookie Law today.


I’m glad so many companies are taking it so seriously, so quickly. But is there any research on how much consumers really know about what companies are doing with their data? And is this the best way of getting consent?

What’s in a name Starbys?

April 1, 2012 / / 0 Comments

This post is a little late in the day since the hype is already over, but I feel like I had to make some sort of comment on it since it is very much at the heart of customer experience. And I hadn’t time to write anything until today.

So Starbucks have decided to try and call you by name and write it on a cup so they can call it out when your skinny mocha frappuccino is done. I say try because they can’t possibly remember all of them.

I remember the first time this happened to me. I was at a Cafe called Gusto, on Coogee Beach in Sydney, Australia. All I wanted was a Green Tea if I remember correctly, and the barista confidently says to me ‘Name…?’. I was half inclined to ask her to repeat herself since I couldn’t understand what on earth she would need that for, until I glanced behind her at the blackboard covered in a Sarah and a Charlotte. So I gave her my name and waited for her to put it next to Sarah and a Green Tea afterwards.

As it happened my housemate ended up waitressing there and she said it made customers happy when they memorised their names and orders so they could make them before they’d even paid for them. Which by all accounts has to be good service. But it’s a very personal service, used be independent coffee shop baristas to make their customers happy. There are many perils with this sort of behaviour – if I were a barista I’m not sure I’d like the pressure. Imagine trying to spell ‘Bartholomew’ without causing offense, or detect the humorous undertones of ‘Gail Force’ and ‘Amanda HugandKiss’. And then of course there’s the problem with all the accents and the dialects. It’s an articulatory minefield. There are lots of comments from coffee shoppers.

“Don’t know why everyone is so bothered by this… it’s standard practice across the pond as well as all over europe. who says you have to give them your real name anyway? besides, it’s fairly unlikely they’ll remember it next time…”

But isn’t that, indeed, the whole point? At least it was in Oz, they were so good at remembering order after order because everyone that turned up was a regular that it actually worked. And gave you a nice warm fuzzy feeling inside.

“What is the big deal?” says someone else. “There’s plenty of other things to moan about.” Yes certainly, but someone else outlines what bothers me the most:

“If a waitress asks my name & chats because she wants to thats lovely. If she does it according to her corporate script I’d rather she didn’t bother.”

You know full well that the contents of their nicely rehearsed message was relayed to them on a script on Monday morning’s meeting, and they don’t give a flying coffee bean what you think of it. They’re doing it ‘cos if the supervisor notices they’re not then they might have to clean the toilets that evening. And that’s not the sort of employee pressure I want to contribute to.

Besides all this, I’m well aware that it works in other countries quite well and many people appreciate the familiarity of having someone remember your name and your beverage of choice. However, I can’t help thinking that the American giant that Starbucks is, has rather underestimated the British somewhat. We are a reserved breed, and we like our privacy and can’t really make the connection between giving our name away for an Espresso. As someone outwardly expressed

“Someone stuck behind a counter doesn’t need to know your name to serve you. They are not your friends, unless of course you wish to make friends with them.”

Quite right, indeed. No need to get all ‘chummy’ as it were. What are they going to do when there are queues out the door, as there usually are at 9am in central London? As many others have commented, they would prefer Starbucks to get their drink order right first and not take 20 minutes about it, before trying their luck with names.

If they are going to persist with this behaviour I suppose we might as well all have some fun with it. What about saying your name was Robocop. Or Lord Voldemort.
Or:

“I started to go by the name Fonzy. At least when they called it out i could go ayyyyyy. Never got tired of doing it.”

Or you could always try:

“My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius; father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife; and I will have my skinny latte with an extra shot, in this life or the next!”

(All comments shamelessly stolen from some comment box or other)

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