Xperience This!

The first iPad advertisement from March of 2010 presents a primarily consumer-focused marketing effort. The ad shows a man viewing photos, accessing the internet, reading a book, and checking his e-mail – all from the comfort of his couch. Thus far, Facebook-browsing and YouTube-watching have been far more common activities in iPad advertisements than checking corporate e-mail or marking up a business proposal.

Yet the iPad has taken off in businesses, particularly in the financial services and health sectors.[1] Applications such as Pages, Keynote, Numbers, and Documents to Go were some of the top grossing apps in 2010, a strong indication that iPad users are seeking to perform work-related tasks in between completing Angry Birds levels[2]. And with companies such as JP Morgan Chase and Mercedes-Benz fully adopting the device, the iPad is clearly no longer confined to the realm of personal or recreational devices. Why is this happening? More »

An organizational change management (OCM) group I’m part of was having an interesting discussion last week. Someone posed the question, “How do you address change sabotage?” He admittedly chose the word “sabotage” to be provocative, and it got me thinking. Sabotage is much more than just resistance to change. The dictionary definition of sabotage is “destruction of property or obstruction of normal operations.” It’s active, intentional, and does damage. It’s not simply intent or internal ill-will. It’s an effect. There’s a critical difference between a saboteur and a plain-old complainer.

Every organization has some small percentage of complainers: those stalwart curmudgeons who don’t like anything. But what is it that gives that complainer enough power to transform them into a saboteur? To answer that, you have to look at things from your employees’ perspective. More »

A few weeks ago, I was asked by a company marketer – let’s call the company High-End Department Store - to participate in their first attempt at viral marketing activity as a brand influencer for Sam Edelman, a popular shoe designer.  To participate, all I had to do was write interesting blog posts about my experiences wearing a pair of Sam Edelman shoes.  They provided the shoes and a list of “hot spots” for me to go wearing them.  This assignment lasted 2 weeks and culminated in a private shoe party for those in my network, the networks of the other 3 influencers, and some of their “key” clients. 

I volunteered not just because I love shoes and social media, but because I figured I’d learn a thing or two about the burgeoning world of influenced viral marketing. And boy did I learn some things. I decided to write a brief white paper on my experience, Turning the Tables on SM Viral Marketing.  Below I’ve summarized the lessons I learned during my brief time as a product influencer about the do’s and don’ts of running a viral marketing strategy.  More »

I went to my local Duane Reade recently and noticed “Get your flu shot here” signs everywhere but no date or time listed. When I asked, the pharmacy employee responded with, “oh, any time during pharmacy hours, but we’re a bit backed up right now, so 15 minutes.”  

I learned as part of being acquired by Walgreen’s, Duane Reade introduced a flexible vaccination service, allowing customers to get a flu shot any hours that the pharmacy is open (albeit not well advertised). Some large survey by a market research company probably told them that 87% of customers don’t get flu shots because of inconvenient timing.

But who cares why they are doing it! This is great, or so I thought, until I started this seemingly ideal patient experience process. More »

The concept of addressing people’s emotional needs in experience design has been around for quite a few years in the consumer world.  Companies like Apple, Disney and Starbucks have become well known for driving intense customer loyalty by infusing their customers’ experiences with a personality to which their customers can relate or even aspire. Interact with your customers on an emotional level and they won’t just become loyal customers; they’ll become your advocates.  As A.G. Lafley wrote in The Game Changer (2008), “Good design is a catalyst for creating total experiences that transcend functional benefits alone and delight customers. It is a catalyst for moving a business from being technology-centered to one that is customer experience-centered.”

So why not apply this same principle when designing your employee experience? After all, employees are essentially your organization’s internal customers. Often companies will focus their internal efforts on improving performance on processes and new tools/technologies, but that misses a big part of the picture.  Process improvements and new tools won’t have their desired impact on your bottom line if your employees don’t embrace them. Simply announcing such changes won’t ensure your employees are aligned with your business goals; and it certainly won’t turn them into advocates.

Design your employee experiences to make an emotional connection, and you change everything. When designed to delight your employees, new processes become something they follow because they want to, not because they have to. New tools become those things they’ve been asking and waiting for to help them do a better job. More »