Apple Retail Store Purchase Process
I love Apple products and the Apple retail store. The checkout process however, needs some work.
Unless you are getting help from an Apple retail associate, the store is not really setup for someone who just wants to go in and buy a product. The lack of a line of registers is a novel idea and by giving each associate their own iPod Touch / credit card scanner device, you have no need for the checkout line bottleneck.
Checkout/Cash Registers Provide a Destination for Paying
However, there is something natural about a line of checkout/cash registers -- you know where to go when it's time to purchase. You don't feel like you are interrupting an associate who's floating around the store. You know the person behind the register is there for one reason and one reason only: pay them your money for a product off the shelf.
Self/Expert Checkout
Since I do most of my product research online before heading to the Apple store, I walk in knowing exactly what I want. I end up spending the majority of my time wandering aimlessly trying to snatch up an Apple associate before the next uneducated shopper occupies them for the next 15 minutes with questions.
I'd love the ability to self-checkout at the retail store. Or some other means for getting an associate's attention that signals them that I'm ready to buy.
If this were an e-commerce site...
Checkout is perhaps the most critical component of an e-commerce site. It's the make-or-break moment for your customer in the shopping process. Frustrate them and they will bail.
What are you trying to accomplish with this page?
This post's title became the topic of an interesting discussion in our Marketing Team in which we were discussing the concept of providing a better template for Product Managers to submit their creative briefs for traditional and interactive media requests.
However, a template won't fix a fundamental misunderstanding of the commercialization process.
The Purpose of Commercialization
Commercialization is about transforming the value proposition of your brand or product in bite-sized chunks that are tailored for the end-user at the appropriate stage in their shopping process.
Commercialization is NOT about picking items from a menu of capabilities from your marketing communications department and web teams to randomly fit as many tactics as possible into your available budget. Remember, just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
1 Simple Tip to Factor User Experience into Commercialization
A general rule of thumb I use is asking one simple question: What is the next step you want the consumer to take?
If you can't answer this question, put your work on pause and honestly map out the context in which the consumer is arriving at this point in the shopping process and how your message is going to help them proceed to the next step.
Ask this question frequently throughout your commercialization plan and you will find yourself building a mental map of how your target end-user is navigating your product category. This will help you frame up the user experience across multiple tactics in-store and online in digestible chunks.
When you have a product or service complaint, where do you go?
I've been noticing more and more than companies still primarily use their customer service phone centers as a primary means of measuring satisfaction of their products/services with consumers.
Why do consumers call customer service?
Maybe it's just me, but when I spend my time to call customer service, it's to get a specific issue resolved on that call. I do not call to "leave feedback."
Additionally, I go online first, perform a Google search, and see what resolutions are available to my problem (if any). My confidence level in finding an answer to my question on a company website is low. Odds are, I will find a discussion around my topic with other consumers who are experiencing the same issue. All of this takes place completely externally of a company's call center.
So, why are companies relying on call center data to measure satisfaction?
Call centers were previously the "front lines" of interaction with your customers. This is no longer the case. Online communities are the front lines. Let's take a look at a few examples:
1.) Apple's iPhone 4 Antennagate
Apple's antennagate was a great example of where Apple released statistics based on their own call center and support center data. While the data supported the fact that the antenna issue was small relative to previous reception issues on older iPhones, in no way did their data incorporate feedback and comments from the public. I own an iPhone 4 and didn't have the problems that others reported, but at the same time, Apple's call center is the last place I go for support for my device.
2.) Spike TV: "We actually don't get many viewer calls..."
Similarly, (I'm an MMA fan) Spike TV recently aired a tape delay of a UFC event that took place in the UK. The tape delay allowed Spike to air the show during primetime hours (8PM-11PM Eastern) in the U.S.
Because sports newscasts like ESPN report on the news in realtime, many MMA fans were furious when ESPN posted fight results during College Football on Saturday as the live event took place in the UK.
This prompted the MMA community to question why Spike TV would air the broadcast via tape delay. Their research shows that primetime is the best time -- and I totally understand this. It's actually when I want to watch these events (rather than early afternoon). However, this is what I found interesting:
There was quite a bit of hand-wringing among MMA fans this weekend over Spike TV showing UFC 120 on tape delay from London, leading to some fans finding out the results of the fights before they aired in the United States. But Spike TV says that the hand-wringing has been limited to a relatively small number of fans, and that the majority of viewers prefer to watch the fights in prime time.
"We actually don't get many viewer calls," said David Schwarz, VP Communications at Spike. "I've never received any and I know it's very minimal.
(Source)
I'm not even sure where I would go to call Spike TV. Their website contact form is only a customer service contact form (no email address, either). It's no wonder why they don't receive many viewer calls...and they shouldn't use this as the only source of data to measure satisfaction.
3.) Domino's Pizza utilizes multiple communication channels
A company can no longer rely on just their internal data they collect when a consumer calls or emails.
Via brandchannel.com:
Weiner says the new recipe "came from the thousands of direct consumer feedback messages on several media channels."
Domino's had an image problem with the public. They performed focus groups to understand why. Notice how they reached outside their normal data collection channels to truly measure satisfaction...we're not talking just call center data to back up a change in product.
Kudos to Domino's (and their new recipe is better, too!).
Consumers talk about brands outside of a brand's communication collection points
It's easier for me to post my opinions on a blog, Twitter, or Facebook. There are a lot of other opinions from consumers on these networks, too. Companies need to invest in monitoring tools to measure true satisfaction of their products -- because consumers are shifting behavior more and more to posting to their communities online than to offering feedback directly to the company.
In fact, it's not even a behavior shift because public opinion has always lived outside of a brand's communication channels -- there's just now technology to broadcast your opinions.
And for businesses, technology exists to measure consumer comments and sentiment outside of your normal data collection channels like customer service, email support, and product surveys.
Usability Reminder: Product labels need to be clear just like website headlines
We've recently moved to a new city and state and while trying different grocery stores near our new home, I've come to the realization that companies don't pay attention to product packaging usability. A lot of focus on the "look" of the label but not the ease of use.
I say this because every time I open the refrigerator, I can't quickly identify which type of milk the two 1-gallon containers are without carefully reading the tiny letters on the package:
Consumers are trained to shop by skim, 1%, 2%, and whole milk. Yet the Publix label emphasizes "reduced fat" (their 2% name) and "low fat" (their 1% name) as the primary label. This is a usability faux pax because the single, most important descriptor on this product package is not the primary part of the label.
When there are no standards, use best practices
When there are no color-coding standards (Publix uses green and pink for their 2% and 1% color labels, respectively -- other suppliers use different color schemes) and the product packaging itself is identical, then the most important part of the packaging label needs to describe what the product is. "reduced fat" and "low fat" are not how consumers shop for milk.
This would be like Apple calling their line of iPod Touches something other than the storage size that differentiates them:
Here's how Apple really does it. This makes sense to the consumer and doesn't force me to explore more to understand what each of these products means. Milk labels should also leverage this best practice:
Treat your website like a retail store, not a campaign.
If you ran a retail store, would you update the signage facing the street once per year? Would you set/merchandise the store and never make a single improvement for months on end? Of course not, because you want to adapt to your customers changing needs, new trends, and optimize your retail setting for the best experience.
Marketing organizations fall prey to waterfall approaches to updating websites and this generally is a result of an annual budgeting process. Since you'd never leave a retail store untouched for weeks or months on end, why should your online visitors suffer this mistreatment with your site?
It doesn't matter if you sell online or not, your website is a storefront, not a campaign. As such, maintaining a website is a process, not an event.
Blog by Eric Long
I'm an experienced online marketer, information architect, digital strategist, and social media enthusiast. I'm passionate about providing outstanding cross-channel experiences for considered purchases (with a focus on mass customization).
About Eric Long
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