Spending time with family-taking a week off

In order to spend time with family during this holiday season, I'm taking this week off from blogging. I wish you all safe travels and joyous times in this holiday season!

Shopping at Christmas: an uncle’s manifesto to the retail world

Being the “World’s Greatest Uncle” to six girls is a more daunting task than I ever thought. This Santa is waiving the white flag. The situation is critical and I’m running out of time trying to shop for a 12, 11, and 8 year old that are still on the list. All I know is that retailers have me on the run and it’s time to fight back.

Any good battle plan starts with a cold, hard look at reality. Here it is: “Santa” is unemployed this year, still waiting for that Lexus with a big bow wrapped around it to magically appear in his driveway, and looking at a Christmas list from the girls where over half the items have at least three digits before the decimal. As the phrase “even Santa has a budget” pops into my head another dilemma arises.

You see, I’m shopping for girls who live four hours away, I have no idea what half these items are—can someone explain to me what that DS something with a light is?—and there’s no help in sight. I’ve used my lifeline to call “mom” and she’s not answering. I hear the voice of Regis Philbin in my head asking “Is that your final answer?” as I have until the end of the day to buy and ship in time for Christmas.

Thus I offer you my manifesto to the retail world.

1. Make clothing sizes consistent and clear. Holding something up and trying to judge if it will fit is like driving with a blindfold. I’ve now learned that 3T doesn’t fit a pre-teen. I’ve also learned not all designers use the same size charts, never mind that even when they do an X for one is XL for another. Don’t get me started on how girls’ and women’s clothes always cost more than boys’ and men’s. 
2. Offer—and stock—larger sizes. Plus sizes for girls are rarely in stock and even more rarely stocked to begin with. That means turning to the women’s section. Let me tell you, translating from girls’ sizes to women’s sizes is like switching from “English” measurements to metric without a converter chart.
3. Learn the look of a guy in trouble, or who seems lost. Guys who are out shopping for the female on their list—no matter her age—can always use advice. More than once I’ve been saved on a shopping trip by identifying the nearest mom and asking her advice. They know what works, what doesn’t, and where to find it.
4. Use technology to offer more on-the-spot help. Play to men’s well-documented love of technology and the too-common “I won’t ask for help” egos. Webchat, smartphone apps, and Twitter personal shopping assistance with store map links would be a great start. They also play to the “sometime caveman” in just about every guy who just wants someone wise to tell them what to get and where to find it without bruising their ego by publicly asking for help.

Like most of life it all comes down to this: keep it simple, keep it relevant, and make it accessible. After all, the sight of a sobbing man in the girl’s clothing section is never pretty.

Using a snowstorm to build your brand

One of the oddest lessons I’ve ever learned in business is the joy of adversity. Most of us spend our time trying to avoid failure, minimize mistakes, and maintain a good front. I’ve done the same many times myself. What I’ve come to realize, though, is adversity can be the best thing that ever happens to your business. I’ll use my recent experience being snowed in at a hotel to help make my point.

This past week I was staying at the Sheraton Hotel in West Des Moines, Iowa. A two-day stay there quickly turned into four as a storm marked by wind gusts of up to 50 mph dumped over 14 inches of snow on the city. My appointments for the trip dried up almost as quickly as the snow piled up on my car. As my attention turned to visions of food shortages and empty newspaper racks I noticed something: the hotel staff kept smiling and the hotel kept working.

What happened
They proactively notified every room of their plan to move to a buffet menu for the evening meal. The next morning breakfast was on the house. Staff who were already at the hotel slept there overnight to ensure service the next morning. Two staff with a Bobcat and a brush-mounted snowblower worked through most of the day and night keeping the entrances and sidewalks cleared. The newspaper rack never ran out. The front desk and restaurant staff kept smiling. One of them commented, “hey, it’s a bonding experience for us.” Another posted a sign “It’s Iowa in December. You either love it or leave it and we’re not leaving!”

What they did that made the difference
What they did was simple: they saw the joy in adversity and the opportunity to make a difference through service that mattered. To take it down a level to the more practical they did a few other things right as well:

1. They focused on what they could do.
2. They were clear about what they couldn’t do.
3. They communicated proactively and succinctly.
4. They didn’t make the situation any more than it was or any less than it was.
5. They went the extra mile in ways that mattered to their customers.

Lessons learned and next steps
Companies can spend millions on advertising, marketing, and public relations but the actual user experience and word of mouth are the king and queen of success. So how to move forward?

• Take the opportunity to find joy in adversity in your business.
• Take the time for “the experience audit” as David Avrin talks about in his book “It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Who Knows You.” 

Test out your business just like a real customer would. Call your own number, read and fill out your own forms, use each product you offer, do it on at least a quarterly basis, and require that every leader in your organization do it as well. You won’t always like what you learn. Do it anyway and do it consistently. When you do fail—heck, even when you don’t “fail”—focus on creating joy out of adversity. Put it all together and you’ll have your own way to build your brand through a snowstorm.

Twelpforce needs to be tweaked

Best Buy’s Twelpforce service is missing two key components: usability and clarity. How quickly and effectively Best Buy closes those gaps will determine whether this prescient move pays off or fades as another great idea that didn’t quite make it. The current situation highlights the risks and rewards that come in social media initiatives and corporate partnerships.

Guiding principles for customer service and partnerships

Before I make my case for what didn’t work and what to do next, I’ll lay out the “ground rules” I’m basing my case on.

1. Set clear expectations with prospects and customers for what your service is and isn’t.
2. Offer intuitive service—or at least make it easy to use.
3. Make sure your partner is equal or superior to you in brand quality and resource quality and depth.
4. Build the bridge to where your customers want to go—as long as it’s also where you also want and are able to go.

What happened with my first experience

I had my first experience with the Twelpforce on Thanksgiving Day when seeking advice on what cellphone to choose for my father. After searches of both Best Buy’s website and Twitter I finally managed to find the Twelpforce. Being a novice Twitter user I had difficulty determining how to send them a Tweet. I wasn’t even sure anyone actually received it until 28 minutes later when I received a response. After two Tweets the Twelpforce rep told me I’d be better off going to the store for selection support.

Built-in challenges for Best Buy

• The learning curve for using Twitter is surprisingly steep. Twitter’s tutorials and Help articles leave a lot to be desired.
• Twitter doesn’t readily support “hold time” estimating the way a phone queue or instant message chat queue can.

Where Best Buy could improve the experience

• Be clearer in the ads who and what the service is for. The TV ads imply that the non-techie can go to Twelpforce for “instant” advice that includes product selection. Tweets are time-consuming if the consumer is clueless on where to start. Refine the ads so the examples shown very clearly show what the service does—and doesn’t—offer.
• Make it easier to find the Twelpforce. Even if the corporate website isn’t where you want them to go, when you’re launching something new consumers will go to what they know to find the new thing they want. Build them the bridge—even if it’s a temporary bridge.
• Make it easier for the Twitter novice or newbie. When your partner isn’t up to speed it’s incumbent on you to make sure the gap is bridged. In this case Best Buy might have its own “Help Library” or links to other best-in-class resources for how to start on Twitter, how to send the Twelpforce a message, etc.
• Create a way to monitor response times. Someone should be in place to set expectations when staff is inordinately busy. A non-response says we’re either uninterested or unable to pursue your business. 
• Teach staff how to ask concise clarifying questions. Twitter doesn’t let you provide much context, so when I started with a broad picture of what I was trying to do the service rep stopped there and sent me to the store. 30 seconds of description at my wireless carrier’s store lead to an instant response with exactly the right phone for my needs. The right clarifying question could have done the same on Twitter.

The bottom line

Great ideas are only as good as their execution. Usability for the consumer is 2nd only to the quality of the product itself in making that execution successful.

Related links

What Best Buy Learned About Service as Marketing and Empowering Employees
Buying, Selling and Twittering All the Way
Twelpforce home page