Blogs

Walgreen’s “Urban Concept Store,” represents the best of the best in customer experience.

Go Daddy is the web’s top registrar, providing over 50 million customers with website domains around the world. For the first time we witnessed the full power of social media as a real-time, live forum to express discontent. We can draw several lessons from the events between October 26 (the introduction of SOPA to the US House of Representatives) and December 29th (the day of an online activist scheduled boycott of GoDaddy). SOPA is a bill that would permit the U.S.

The psychology of waiting in lines bears interesting fruit. As a manager, even if you take logical steps to reduce customer wait time—it may not matter. So if practical, objective measures to reduce wait time don’t matter, then what does? How the wait is experienced.

The mobile customer experience is the next edge in web-based retail sales, and its set to outpace both tablets and laptops. If you’re reading on your Smartphone, then chances are you already recognize the powerful waves the mobile experience is making in the retail industry. By 2012, it’s predicted that mobile shopping will account for $163 billion in sales worldwide. What this means is that in three years, nearly 24% of retailers will have annual sales of 15% or greater coming from their mobile channel (Source: ABI Research, 2010).

Empathy is the ability to understand the feelings, thoughts and experiences of another person, and it is a common research topic because of its importance in human interaction. In his popular blog “The Squeaky Wheel,” Dr. Guy Winch observes a tendency among clinical psychologists to over-focus on a relative presence or absence of empathy. Dr.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The U.S. Constitution enshrines happiness as an inalienable right – for a reason. Autonomy, or the feeling that your life – its activities and habits – are self-chosen and self-endorsed, is a greater predictor of happiness than any other objective measure including wealth, attractiveness, and popularity.

American journalist Katie Couric is known as “America’s Sweetheart,” thanks to the co-anchor role she served for 15 years on The Today Show. Yet even Ms. Couric, a woman known for her warm, affable personality admits that “you can’t please everyone, and you can’t make everyone like you.”

 In a recent blog post, I shared my interest in the connection between gender and customer experience with you. In the past week, I came across an intriguing study published in Journal of Consumer Research (August 2011).

Since the early 1990s, e-commerce has skyrocketed. The success of digital retailers like Amazon and eBay has proven that virtually any product or service is “sellable” online. The soaring popularity of “Cyber Monday,” the digital counterpart of “Black Friday,” is a case in point. In fact, in 2010 Cyber Monday sales totaled more than a billion dollars – the first-ever online shopping day to break through the billion-dollar ceiling.

Henry Ford, the famed American entrepreneur, had a surprising recipe for success. Ford, known for his irony, once said that his customers could buy any color of car they wanted as long as it was black. Today the reverse is true, but it can hurt your organization. Offering too many choices can actually reduce your sales.