Customer Performance

Southwest Inconsistency

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 03:58:00 +0000

Southwest Airlines recent media campaign has been very effective in differentiating itself from other airlines, essentially calling other airlines "onerous" policies such as fees for bags, food, drinks, and other things "ridiculous." It's because of these ridiculous policies that I've become a very loyal Southwest customer - these days I fly Southwest exclusively.

But tonight I experienced one of the most ridiculous policies ever with Southwest. I was flying from Chicago to Reno, with a connection in Las Vegas. I arrive Las Vegas at 8:15pm. My scheduled flight to Reno is at 9:50pm. However, I discover that there is an 8:55pm flight to Reno. So I go to the gate. I ask if there are seats available. Sure, the agent says, but it will cost me $143.00 extra. What?!?!? Then he tells me that if my 9:50pm flight is 15 or more minutes late, then he can put me on the earlier flight without charge - but my 9:50pm flight is only 5 minutes late at this time. So no can do. So we're at the point of arguing over 10 minutes. You gotta be kidding me.

Now, SWA has conditioned me that if I want to take an earlier "originating" flight, I have to pay extra if I have a discounted ticket. I'm fine with that. That is reasonable. However, extending this policy to a connection that I had no control over (as it turns out, the 8:55pm flight is an "illegal connection" because it is less than 45 minutes from the arrival time of the previous flight -- that's why swa.com didn't include that connection when I booked) is stupidity in terms of brand consistency.

So now I'm cooling my heels in Vegas, with nothing to do but flame SWA for their ridiculous policy. And this is after my I watched my business partner (three weeks ago) do what I tried to do successfully as he connected from Chicago to Vegas to San Diego.

Increasing Preference for Self Service

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:57:00 +0000

Research by NCR suggests that customers prefer doing business with companies offering self service. According to a news release, the survey’s results show that 85 percent of global consumers, and 79 percent of Americans, are more likely to do business with companies that provide multichannel self-service via a mobile device or at self-service kiosks. The survey’s results suggest consumers prefer the flexibility of self-service as they change their purchase decisions and behavior in the midst of a challenging economy.
http://kioskmarketplace.com/article.php?id=22683&na=1&s=2

Grandma DTV Customer Education

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 00:36:00 +0000

I was at an innovation session yesterday to generate some creative ideas for customer experiences and customer education regarding customer adoption of new technology. The facilitator started the session by playing this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w34nNux4Xw.

The message was clear - we're not going to be designing an experience like this.

Aria Nuances in Chicago

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:44:00 +0000

After getting a great deal to stay at the Fairmont hotel in Chicago, I decided to eat in their restaurant called Aria. When I entered the restaurant, the hostess greeted me, asked if I was a guest, and took my name and room number. Then something strange happened. As she was about to lead me to my table, she asked if I would like a magazine. Huh? I said no, and indicated I had my own reading (notes from a meeting), and we proceeded to walk to the table. As we walked, I ask her, "Did you ask me if I wanted a magazine because I was eating alone?" "Yes," she replied, and we discussed a bit about why she was trained to do that as part of the customer experience, which to me was a brilliant deduction by the designers. After all, what is more awkward than eating alone and having nothing to do.

The food and service was very good, and I began to notice other things. The service staff seemed to walk at a very measured, relaxed pace. It was a very odd gait, but it essentially had an effect of slowing the whole place down and providing a more relaxed atmosphere. I couldn't tell whether the service staff was on drugs, or if it was part of their training to enhance the nuance of the experience - to bring a calm to the environment. If so, very cool.

The Cheese Shop

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:28:00 +0000

On a recent visit to my brother in Philly, I ventured into a cheese shop in Chestnut Hill. Of course, the Monty Python sketch about the Cheese Shop with no cheese was ringing in my head, but I avoided the temptation slip into my closet John Cleese attitude. My brother and I bought some cheese, had a glass of wine, and noticed a funny sign by the cash register that read, "Customers on cell phones will not be served." Of course, I inquired about the sign. After all, my students a semester or two ago did a great piece of fieldwork on how other customers and stores normalize devient customer behaviors. So I asked the clerk to explain.

"If a person is talking on a cell phone, we don't serve them," said the clerk. "I had one woman talking on her phone pointing frantically to the cheese she wanted. But we cut and slice the cheese to order. So she can't tell me what she wants. So I go help other customers."

An interesting example of how a store creatively uses subdued punishment to norm customer behavior and get customers to perform.

Transformative Consumer Research

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:02:00 +0000

The Association for Consumer Research (ACM) has started a database of literature related to transformative consumer research for individual, societal, and ecological well-being.

http://www.acrwebsite.org/tcrdb/default.asp

Anti Smart Meters

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:34:00 +0000

Rebecca Smith's WSJ article (4/27/08, R5,7) provides an alternative view on Smart Meters and feedback devices and whether or not they will really save customers money. The primary challenge is that smart meter systems cost to much money (for customers), and that the cost of programs will wipe out the benefits.

Low-Key, Non-Emotional Messges More Memorable?

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:37:00 +0000

NIH today released the results of a study that show that low-key, factual anti-smoking messages (rational) are more memorable than attention grabbing messages (emotional). Study was done using MRI and neuroimaging. Details are at http://www.nih.gov/news/health/may2009/nida-15.htm

Training Brain Performance

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:30:00 +0000

An interesting article about conditioning related to incentive programs that help train the brain to change behaviors and performance (WSJ 4/28/09, D1,3). It is all about different kinds of incentives, such as lotteries, deposit contracts, and financial incentives.

Key to this article is a report of a GE stop smoking program that offered workers $750 to stop smoking. 847 employees participated.

Customer Education Games

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Thu, 14 May 2009 22:54:00 +0000

Here's an interesting twist on customer education in terms of enabling customers to recognize that they might potentially have a need for a good or service. ARS Ready Rooter's Energy Challenge game asks questions about various energy efficiency measures related to different parts of a home. See http://www.arsenergychallenge.com/

On the plus side, it help me connect (although not immediately) a need I might have to ARS's services. On the minus side, the feedback I get when I select the wrong answer is condescending and treats a potential customer like they are stupid. From a customer experience standpoing, kind of makes me apprehensive to call them for service -- will their field service techs treat me like I'm an idiot?

The better solution would be to make the feedback initially constructive and helpful. For example, instead of feedback saying, "You can't be serious," a better approach would be something along the lines of, "A lot of people incorrectly think this. ARS can help get you the right answers."

ITunes Gift Card PITA Factor

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Sun, 10 May 2009 00:20:00 +0000

My son recently purchased an Apple ITouch mp3 player. Today he got a gift card (first one) and came to me trying to figure out how to activate it (he's a smart kid, and had quickly figured out how to use the ITouch when he purchased it). On the back of the card was a set of four steps. The third step was to enter the code shown.

Which code would you enter? Well, there are three "codes" shown on the card - the one below the barcode, one on the lower left, and one on the lower right. Entered them all, none worked. So much for Apple's intuitive user interface and specific instructions.

So we did what any self-service customer would do, which is to find some help online. After exploring a few links, we came across this page and picture:

This solved our problem instantly and my son was able to register his card and start spending. What we can't figure out is why the instruction shown in the above example isn't integrated into the card itself (in our book, we call this an Embedded Tool). If Apple had to devote a page on its website to communicate this simple action (even lottery cards have this instruction), it seems logical that lots of other people are having this problem.

Anyway, we've now passed through the learning curve so usage of future cards will be easy. But the first experience was a pain in the ass (the PITA factor) and is very inconsistent with Apple's easy-of-use experience promise.

Energy Feedback and Value

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Fri, 08 May 2009 00:41:00 +0000

This past week I attended the Utility Energy Forum conference held at Lake Tahoe. One of the more interesting presentations was by Bruce Ceniceros of the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District (SMUD). SMUD has been testing Positive Energy's paper-based energy feedback product in a controlled experiment. 35,000 randomly assigned customers are receiving the Positive Energy feedback, and 55,000 customers are a control group.

The results Bruce presented indicate that overall reduction in energy usage is about 2% (treatment group compared to control group). Although Bruce didn't present specific facts or numbers, my subsequent discussion with him suggested that the $1 million investment in the Positive Energy solution had a positive benefit of about $2 million (the math formula was a bit fuzzy here for me, so I can't do justice in explaining it -- so for now we'll need to take Bruce's word). Also, no data was presented with regards to overall customer savings on their bills -- which I think is another way of assessing the value of the $1 million investment for 12 months. So, let's try a simple hypothetical: ((35,000 customers x $100 average bill) x 12 months) x 2% = $840,000.

The point I am making is whether enhanced feedback has value. Given the hypothetical illustrated above, the answer is "no" for the first year if customers had to pay for the feedback (which they are not). Yet what we don't know if those savings will persist in subsequent years, and whether if SMUD continues to invest in this feedback whether we'd continue to see reductions year after year (the law of diminishing returns might come into play).

Anyway, it is good to see that feedback has impact, but the program is missing one significant theory-based element that is inconsistent with the Coproduction Experience Model and previous research: that of goals. The PE report doesn't include a goal. It just shows the social norming data (which if you want to stretch things could be considered a goal). Now Bruce did report that a hundred or so postcards with various goals (5%, 10%, 15%) were sent to some subjects (about 200), but the details on this were also fuzzy.

Another interesting fact about the study is that about 3% of customers called, emailed, or wrote to opt-out of the program.

I've emailed Bruce to get some more details, and will update the post as I learn more.

Enabling Annoying Customer Performance

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Fri, 01 May 2009 22:26:00 +0000

It seems that "hypermilers" - people who drive in such a way to increase MPG, are driving other drivers crazy (WSJ, 4/17/09 A9). The interesting thing about this is that car manufacturers are installing devices in cars that aid this kind of driving, such as Nissan's "eco-pedal", which provides the driver pressure-based feedback when stepping on the gas too hard. Additionally, customer education has sprung up to teach people about "eco-driving."

Smart Meters a Dumb Idea?

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:39:00 +0000

I've been working on the customer behavior side of smart meters for a couple of years now, and most of the press has been pretty positive. A 4/27/09 WSJ article (R5,7) by Rebecca Smith questions whether smart meters are a dumb idea. The angle of the article is on the cost of installing the smart meters, and that utilities will charge customers for the meter (guess what, utilities have been charging customers for the mechanical dumb meters for years now).

While colleagues have blasted this article from an economic perspective, I've reflected on it from a behavioral perspective. A speaker at a conference I attended said, "If you think feedback isn't important, just count the number of mirrors you have in your home." People thrive on feedback. It is the primary driver for helping people improve their lives. While the recipe for saving energy is relatively simple -- turning things off -- the question really is when and what we turn off so that we maintain a level of comfort. Energy waste is the villian here, and smart meters, as a core technology for enhancing a coproduction experience of vision, access, incentive, and expertise, is one of the more valuable solutions to come around in a long time to help us be better consumers.

Feedback and Energy Consumption

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 20:58:00 +0000

I came across this interesting paper by Sarah Darby on feedback associated with energy use. A good overview of the research and methods, with lots of good references to the core literature. See http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/research/energy/electric-metering.php.

Embedded Expertise

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:23:00 +0000

WSJ, 4/10/09, W13, has an interesting article about embedded instructions/education in machines and devices -- essentially machines that talk to you to help you accomplish tasks. The driver is that people are searching for other channels of communcation from devices rather than just staring at a screen.

Embedded Customer Education

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:20:00 +0000

An interesting WSJ article (4/10/09, W13) by Christine Rosen explores "Machines That Won't Shut Up," an essay on the plethora of new technogies that are embedding speech, or even text-to-speech capabilities. The purpose of this embedded speech is not only educational (in terms of the machines explaining how something works), but performance-oriented as well, such as reading your email, notifying you of tasks. Regarding their usage in cars, the author suggests that these devices pose a significant distraction hazard, even if they are "hands free".

This article reflects the customer expertise model in our book, in terms of Embedded Tools, in which expertise is embedded in products in the form of textual, visual, or auditory prompts.

Car Disabler

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:53:00 +0000

An interesting twist on Vison and Incentives reported in the WSJ, March 25, 2009, p. D1. Some auto dealers have been installating "disablers" in the cars they sell and finance. If a customer is late on a loan payment, the disabler notifies the customer and counts down the days until the car will be automatically disabled. Car lot owners indicate it works so well that customers rarely miss payments. The loss of mobility is a strong incentive (punishment).

Stakeholder Workshops

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:46:00 +0000

In March, I was invited to speak at ComEd's AMI Future stakeholder meetings, a series of workshops facilitated by Plexus Research/RW Beck that collect the community's requirements for smart meter systems. I spoke specifically on the customer experience/customer behavior aspects of smart meter systems.

What I want to point out is that these stakeholder workshops are a direct example of one of the First Principles I discussed in my October posting -- that of 1. Embrace customer-centered design. Bringing the different stakeholders together prior to writing the business case and regulatory filings strongly reflects the customer-centered design principle at a mega level.

Customer Experiments

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:29:00 +0000

The February 2009 issue of the Harvard Business Review includes a nice article on designing business experiments ("How To Design Smart Business Experiments). Lots of the examples deal with customer performance issues that look at testing innovations. This article connects well with our work on customer performance issues associated with the Smart Grid (smart meter systems), in terms of research and experiment recommendations we're making.

Incentives Reduce Smoking

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:05:00 +0000

The WSJ (Feb 12, 2009, p D1) reports a New England Journal of Medicine study in which smokers paid to quit smoking were more successful than smokers who were not paid. From a customer performance standpoint, this piece of research links directly to the Incentives component of the coproduction experience model.

Treatment group subjects received $750 in cash, spread out through multiple payments that encouraged long-term behavior change.

Customer Needs and Jobs

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:46:00 +0000

An interesting twist on customer performance, which relates to the "understanding" aspect of our coprodution experience model is that of customer needs. Bettencourt (Marketing Management, Jan/Feb 2009) has an interesting take on customer needs, looking at them from a job perspective. As a job, there is a goal or problem the customer wants to solve, with specific outcomes they desire. This view is consistent with the chapter on Vision in our CDIYC book.

However, they way these "jobs" are portrayed are very rational -- the job that needs to be done. But what about the emotional? I exchanged email with the author to investigate this further.

PCH: Your article forms a clear argument for what I’ll call “rational customer needs” – the job and outcome – and is well done. However, I’m unclear about how you are addressing “emotional customer needs”. For example, I might define a rational need for a residential customer as, “Reduce my greenhouse gas emissions by 2% per year.” Clear job and outcome, consistent with your formula, precisely measurable). However, an emotional customer need, such as, “Lead a low carbon lifestyle” or “Possess cool, designer technology” is much different (it has those imprecise, subjective words, but more accurately describes the “feeling” the customer wants).

Lance: Although not reported in the Marketing Management article, we also capture emotional jobs – feel this way, be perceived this way. Although this is true, I believe that at least one of your “emotional” job statements is actually quite functional – though it may have an emotional/value-driven motivation. Thus, I would say that “Lead a low carbon lifestyle” is very functional, and might even be recorded as “Leave a small carbon footprint” which makes this more evident, whereas be perceived as caring about the environment (perhaps an underlying emotional motivation) is the true emotional job. In a similar way, someone might be tempted to say that a job such as “Find a person to marry” is an emotional job because it has such a strong personal component. However, I would disagree. Such a job is highly function even though it resonates on an emotional level because people want to “avoid feeling lonely” or “feel loved.” I agree that it is hard to say which comes first, though we both agree that they are definitely related. My personal belief is that emotional jobs and values are key drivers of the relative importance of different jobs and the priorities of outcomes on getting a job done. In reverse order, satisfaction of functional needs is a means of satisfying the emotional/value ends – consistent with means-end laddering.

Customer Relationship Types

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 20:41:00 +0000

We've been doing some work recently on helping a client redefine its relationship with customers. Another model we've come across that aims to "classify" types of customer relationships is one in the Jan/Feb 2009 Marketing Management article by Slater, Mohr, and Sengupta. It creates four types of customer relationships: True Friends, Butterfiles, Barnacles, and Strangers (based upon customer value).

Stories as Emotional Drivers

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:35:00 +0000

Our upcoming chapter in the book Memorable Customer Experiences (Gower Press) called "Balancing Act" looks at the balance between rational and emotional customer experiences. Wachtman & Johnson's article in Jan/Feb 2009 Marketing Management offers an interesting perspective on the emotional side of a customer experience, in terms of the use of story as a means of communicating the emotional side of a brand. The connection here is trying to blend a customer's personal story with the company's story. We've been investigating this in one project in terms of the customer's desired "lifestyle" as the root source of customer's emotional needs.

Social Norming Feedback

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Honebein) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 01:10:00 +0000

Here is a link to an NPR Marketplace piece on 1/6/09 discussing a pilot by Puget Sound Energy on providing feedback comparing your energy usage with your neighbors. Essentially, peer pressure. No results published yet, but an interesting increase in complaints to the call center about the program -- all of which were negative. Yet in the end, only 19 people opted out (which is the right thing to offer customers -- that choice thing).