Let's start at the very beginning... a very good place to start .... Every now and then we find lessons in unexpected places. Last Thursday, having the first slow day in several months, I stopped to check a few Facebook messages and noticed this:

From Mary Poppins the Sound of Music, to her appearances on the The Muppet Show, and The Carol Burnett Show and her films, including Victor/Victoria  and even the Princess Diaries... I'd followed her all my life.  Since I also track how businesses use social media, participating sounded like it might prove to be a nice little case study to me... so, I clicked to chat.

The chat was obviously getting off to a slow start. I couldn’t see how many had joined, because they didn’t display this in the chat application.  Incidentally failure to show participant numbers not only violates commonly accepted practices; it’s a poor way to show the formation of a gathering.  There was also Less than one update coming per minute!  GRRR.... I almost left, but I really like Julie Andrews.


So I waited… A full 10 minutes and a mere nine (!!) posts later, part of me wanted to scream and the other part was rooting for the event and hoping things would pick up!  I jumped in and out of the chat window (easy to do because it was so slow, I didn't miss one update).  Leaving the browser window open, I sought some answers elsewhere for my outstanding questions. 

What was Julie Andrews' relationship to Target and why were they doing this chat?  A visit to the Target Fan Page reminded me that Target is promoting the first annual National Princess Week.  The image provided no answers.  It only triggered more questions (Right Click to enlarge).


"Okay, " I thought, "It makes sense to promote this event with the beloved, Academy Award Winning Stage and Cinema Actress, Singer ... and more recently, Queen of the Princess Diaries movies. Got it"  However, I still didn't quite understand:  What was National Princess Week, anyway?  Was it something Target made up to sell princess merchandise?  You'll note that I wasn't the only one who wondered about this.


There was nothing on the Target.com website about it.... Some people also complained that there was no retail-store tie-in for National Princess Week?


Eager to post a question or two, I went back into the slow grinding chat. Unfortunately, Target opted to use a third-party app that required me to log in with either my Facebook or Twitter handle. I am very conservative with apps on Facebook.  I wouldn’t opt-in, because I didn't like the blanket permissions Target's suggested third-party app offered, including posting comments to Facebook on my behalf. Yeah. No thanks!

Seeking an alternative route to ask a question, I visited the #Targetchat Twitter chat hashtag that was being **actively promoted** by Target.   I went as I thought "Really? They're promoting a twitter hashtag for a Facebook chat?  Maybe they've integrated Facebook and Twitter chat in some way... that would be cool.  If not, this is going to be really convoluted."   Convoluted, it was.  I saw less than 10 posts here -- and there was no Twitter-based response from Target (!!) for anything.  Twitter users are usually more tech savvy -- yet I wasn't the only one that was confused:


NEXT, I jumped back into the chat, which continued to grind painfully ahead. I learned nothing surprising. Lots of light questions with simple answers… Her favorite things include tea, roses, poodles, crunchy peanut butter, is proud of her daughters and delighted with her grand children. She has favorite moments, ice cream, etc. She seems enchanting and writes like I would imagine she speaks.  Lovely.

However, I wasn’t really learning anything deeper about Julie Andrews. I also couldn’t help but continue to wonder what her stake in this event was.... AND THEN... 23 minutes in to the 45 minute chat, Dame Andrews mentioned her writing with her daughter and posted a link to her website!  "Huzzah!"  I thought!  "Maybe I can find some answers there!"  I clicked immediately and here’s what I got:


Criminy!  A 500 internal server error message.  I refreshed about five times... and got the error each time.  I jumped back into Tweet Deck and did an @Target #Targetchat tweet, asking them to tell Julie about the problem.  Unfortunately, no one seemed to be moderating the promoted Twitter hashtag, so I have no idea if that comment was shared with Ms. Andrews' team, or not. I got the error for 5-10 minutes.


I was, at this point, rather flabbergasted by the mismanagement of this event.  From this unfortunate problem, to the very poor event moderation, to the chat application Target had selected, to the fragmentation of the experience between Twitter and Facebook, to the arduous and slow discussion going on -- it was all just so poorly executed!   The strategist in me did a forehead slap.

I jumped back into to the Target Facebook page, where I noticed more problems.  First, I noticed someone posting on Target’s wall that the chat application they used by “CoverIt Live” (by Demand Media) wasn’t working. 

Again, no responses from Target Community Managers (Hello?  Does Target even have them?!).  Next, I noticed a mounting number of COMMENTS in two of the Wall Posts about the Julie Andrews Chat. One post (an update to the one I originally saw) had 47 Comments, 1000+ likes and 67 Shares. The original one that drew me in had, at the time, 134 comments, 791 likes and 32 shares.

 
Okay, that sounds good, right?  A decent number of people sharing... commenting?  WRONG…. Here’s what I saw in the comments fields…


As if Chat Application vs. Twitter Chat confusion wasn’t enough – people were trying to use the comments fields within Target's Wall Posts as a kind of Chat Window - and Target wasn't monitoring or moderating any of this feedback to redirect people to the right place, either!!





Further, if you read through them yourself, you’ll see that many not only asked great questions, but others complained their questions hadn’t been answered - or were deleted!


A large number of people in this audience didn’t understand that they needed to click to participate -- or use the chat application.  People came - but they could not participate in the event! It would have been so easy to engage these people.  So much for community management! Fortunately, there was a least one tenacious user:


While the chat slightly improved the last six minutes or so... it never really got going to begin with. Ms. Andrews' answers were polite, positive, light and witty but they had little-to-nothing to do with  "National Princess Day”  -- so I still didn't know what it was all about.  I certainly wasn't alone, as this user graphically points out:


Outside of finding out that her favorite song in Mary Poppins was “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” (spelling), I just wasn't sure what we were accomplishing here.  Jumping back into my other open tab, I refreshed the link to Julie’s website and the site opened for me. FINALLY - 30 minutes into a 45 minute chat, I began to connect some dots.

While I found her site a bit difficult to navigate, getting into it made Target’s promotion with Julia make a lot more sense to me. That's when the true failure of this promotional effort became crystal clear.

• Julie Andrews actually started National Princess Day in collaboration with Disney and Target.
• She has also co-authored a series of books with her daughter, Emma, and has published her own  songs and poetry for children, which are highlighted on the site, along with other recommended books and authors. (The writing did come up during the chat but wasn't eminently clear what books they wrote, what the focus of them were, etc.  One line is even a series of princess books.) 
• Julie and Emma's books, poetry, songs and lullabies are also for sale in Target Stores - and they have Apps, too.  This was not promoted AT ALL during the chat -- I had to do a shopping search on Target to figure this out.  They certainly didn't need to make this a sales chat but highlighting this once would have been quite logical and fitting, considering the context.
• The website has all kinds of fun tips and ways to celebrate National Princess Week, creating memories with your kids and teaching important moral lessons. So many cute ideas... also not mentioned in the chat. 
• Ms. Andrews and her daughter recently released their new book, "The Very Fairy Princess 3: Here comes the Flower Girl" which was mentioned by a user during the chat event -- but to which no links for browsing or purchasing were shared. 
• Julie and Emma also have a Facebook Fan Page, which wasn't promoted or showcased during the event.  Unfortunately, neither the new book OR the Facebook page were promoted during the event.  And the Facebook page itself failed to promote the chat event with Target.

Perhaps worst of all, the positive mission of Julie Andrews and her daughter, Emma, was completely LOST in the confusion… The goals behind the Princess movement have to do with the creation of self-esteem and self-respect within young girls.   Her site also promotes reading to kids and encouraging kids to read. These seem like such an important messages - yet they did not come out during the chat.  No one stepped in to help critics like the ones below understand these simple facts.  It was all terribly unfortunate, indeed.


In the 50 minutes that transpired, there were less than 1.5 comments per MINUTE. There were gaps of 2-3 minutes between posts, and outside of Julie and Target’s comments, there were only 36 unique active participants (active chatters who posted questions).  I have no idea how many inactive participants, or “lurkers” there were because this view was blocked by the chat application administrator. However, in parallel to the chat, there seemed to be hundreds posting on the Facebook wall and comments fields – all quite lost and unattended by Target.

This isn’t Julie Andrew's fault, at all. In fact, I’d say she was the spoonful of sugar that made it tolerable for me to hang in there for more than 2 minutes. I find her practically perfect in every way - to the point that I'm a bit intimidated to issue any criticism. less it be misconstrued by Ms. Andrews or her daughter. I don't mean to be ungracious, here.

Unfortunately for Ms. Andrews, due to Target's mishandling of this situation, they were unsuccessful in effectively promoting National Princess Week, her mission to help build self-esteem in young girls and to get children to read, or to make participants aware of products and materials that could make the celebration even better.  Further, the audience was unable to make those new, fresh, positive associations to Ms. Andrews, Target or Disney that should have been easy to make!  A missed opportunity, really.

I'm not saying this from a high horse... in this confusing era of apps and social tools -- we're all learning at some extent -- especially as these channels converge and complicate communication.  However, I expect that a giant like Target would have done the basics much better. I expected they would know better, and I hope they learn from the event instead of shuffling it under a reasonably priced Princess rug. 

The fact that I stayed on to write a post about this on a perfectly great beach day is a testament to the weak nature of this promotion.  It was such a good case study in "what not to do" for online event management, I may even write a follow-up post that highlights what can be done to make your online event a smashing success - online and offline.  But not on a day off...or when I have clients to serve!  ;-)  Back to the real work.

Forrester just released their Customer Experience Index for 2008. The study surveyed 4,500 people and asked them to rank 114 companies across 12 industries.

At a high level, the results were relatively sad: Only 11% of companies garnered a rating of "excellent", and 38% percent of firms were rated as “poor” or “very poor.”

This is pretty interesting in a day and age where Harris Research and Forrester say that between 82% and 85% of executives agree that customer experience is critical to competitive advantage and may well be the next competitive battleground over the next three years.

This lackluster performance also suggests an opportunity -- especially if I am correct in repeating a Harvard Business Review claim that a 5% decrease in customer attrition can increase profits by 25%. (Note: I saw that figure and wrote it down and am looking for the specific citation)

What's missing? Well, more than one person or post can cover, but consider this:

If you ask any large company to give you a site map of their website, most could provide one with ease. However, if you asked them to show you a cross-channel experience map that illustrates the "brand journey" for a key customer segment, they'd probably look at you with confusion.

Why does that matter? Well, it could mean a few things. No map may indicate there is no unified or accurate understanding of the actual customer experience that is being delivered. No map may mean there is no truly integrated plan to proactively manage customer experiences across channels. No map may also indicate an inability to unite the vision of leadership with all other "agents of experience" (staff, agencies, third parties, partners, etc.) to drive coordinated execution.

Just consider the incredible channel proliferation we've faced over the past two decades alone. It's enough to make one's head swim. The way we go to market, the way customers shop and the way we all communicate has shifted entirely. As we have attempted to adapt to this raging amount of change, the truth is this: our customer experiences simply evolved over time. Most were never strategically conceived for the environment we live in today...

For the most part, most of today's customer experiences can be likened to a structure that was built one room at a time: The floor plan is a confusing and in places, nonsensical. The many ad-hoc renovations have made the foundation uneven and unstable. Visitors (customers) do their best to navigate the rooms...and sometimes we knock holes in walls to make it easier... but the truth is there are a lot of pitfalls along the way. However, unlike the mansion with only a few doors to the outside -- in real life, our customers can leave easily, whenever they want.

What can we do about this? Well, Forrester has some good recommendations, and I tend to agree with these. In addition to things like employing "Voice of the Customer" programs, leveraging data mining and BI tools and making customer experience a top priority, I'll add my thought that companies need to start with more fully understanding the true customer experience that is being delivered today.

To do this, I'm a proponent of employing interaction design principles to visually map out the customer experiences we deliver. . "Customer experience maps" are visual diagrams that illustrate the customer journey across channels, including the key linkages, programs, services and critical engagement intersections, where customers decide they'll leave you or love you. By engaging in proactive customer experience mapping companies can better understand the true customer experience, identify the pitfalls that damage relationships and fix what's broken. As they do this, they can begin to more proactively manage the experience, correct operational barriers that damage loyalty and better position themselves as listeners and customer advocates.

Getting back to Forrester's Report, Here are the top 25 performers:

1. Barnes & Noble
2. USAA (credit cards)
3. Borders
4. Amazon.com
5. Hampton Inn/Suites
6. BJ’s Wholesale Club
7. Sam’s Club
8. A credit union (bank)
9. Kohl’s
10. Marriott Hotels & Resorts
11. JCPenney
12. Target
13. Old Navy
14. Holiday Inn Express
15. eBay
16. Southwest Airlines
17. Macy’s
18. Apple
19. Costco Wholesale
20. Toys “R” Us
21. USAA (insurance)
22. CVS
23. Holiday Inn
24. Lowe’s
25. Staples

It's worth mentioning that a lot of the companies at the bottom are within industries that are facing financial hardship (e.g. Financial Services industries, Airlines), although not exclusively. It's easy to see how today's market factors can weigh in to customer experience viewing this report...

However, the good news is that even in a down economy, 58% of customers say they'll pay MORE for a better experience (Forrester also). It's time to get tactical on improving customer experience!

Giving a hat tip to Evelyn So Evelyn So for the link to Forrester's free complimentary research report. Enjoy!

Guess where I am: Here's a hint. It's a restaurant you have probably visited at least once in your life.

I walk in to the sound of water running down glass panels. There is a sculpture of a crane on one side - a coi fish on the other. The room is light and airy with colors in earth tones and accents of red. Bamboo plants grace the scene. I am intrigued by textured walls patterned to resemble the ocean and the asymmetrical tiling. The seating is leather and lounge like. It's comfortable and very Zen.

If you guessed a sushi restaurant, sorry! Thank you for playing.

Nope, believe it or not, I'm in McDonald's in Hacienda Heights, California. Just one of several restaurants in the chain who are rethinking brick and mortar experience and putting the Chinese art of Feng Shui in practice. You can read about this here.

I am a big supporter of brand reinvention...and this is an interesting twist on the Mc Donald's I grew up with. I can't wait to see how this plays out over time.

I understand they've even adjusted door placement to block out evil spirits! Nevertheless, I can't help but wonder what magic they may be doing to block the artery clogging fat and cholesterol found in their food? Alas, until this happens, McDonald's will be unable to lure me as a customer.

In the day of third-place thinking... it will be interesting to see how this drives increased revenue in the future - and whether this trend continues.

September 30, 2007 - For those of you who don’t know, I’m expecting our first baby (featured right) in two weeks. I’m feeling a bit like a stuffed goose, and hurrying trying to tie up loose ends before our son arrives.

I haven’t written much as I've been dealing with insomnia, fatigue and juggling multiple projects. Of course, the queue of ideas and thoughts is full…and I’ve had no time to get anything out in the form of an article. ...Maybe post-baby? Don’t laugh - I'm enjoying my denial and convinced I have the ability to multi-task!

As my schedule is finally calming down, I did a little shopping this week. This morning I was chomping at the bit to air my feelings on some experience pitfalls I witnessed. So, on behalf of all expectant and new mommies, I offer the following:

Brick and Mortar Stores like Macy’s, Kohl’s, JC Penney and even Gymboree boutiques – Hear our cry! If your aisles are too narrow for women shopping with a large belly to fit through without knocking stuff off the racks --- OR for women pushing a stroller with a grabby infant, you are losing sales! Get a clue – create space for us and you’ll create space for sales!

Grocery Stores It confounds me as to why you offer only a single "token" "new and expecting mother" parking space!? I mean, it's a nice gesture, but do you really think that there will be only one of us, out of the 250 others parking in your lot? Perhaps it would be good for us to be granted temporary handicap badges when we're 7 months pregnant, which will expire on baby's one year birth date so we can use the litany of handicap spaces. While that's not likely to happen, couldn't you offer 2-3 pregnant and expecting mommy spaces for us? Especially in freezing cold and icy climates!!

Children’s Place –We got a fat gift certificate to use for baby clothes only to find out that Children’s Place doesn’t take them online. What’s worse, my local store didn't have my online items in stock and couldn't order them for some reason. The online customer service people told me the best thing to do was to purchase the items with another method of payment, wait for shipment, then drive to the store, return the item and repurchase it on the gift card. Classic experience hurdle: Make me pay for shipping, then drive to the mall to take care of this when I may deliver any day. Silly! Catch up with the times – most online stores take gift cards today, and harried mommies (AND expectant moms) can’t always make it to the mall .

Gymboree – I picked out a few cute outfits online today, while I was in the middle of shopping at the Children’s Place. Not 15 minutes after I got off the phone with Children’s Place, I went back to my shopping cart on Gymboree, and my visit had timed out (expired) – and so did my shopping cart! As a result, I lost the special sale purchases I’d so carefully looked for. Web statistics reflect that many online shoppers multitask when browsing online…and it’s time for Gymboree to catch on to this trend! Shopping carts should dynamically represent inventory available (so if I come back, and my product is no longer in stock, it tells me apologetically). They should also time out after a LONG period of time (varies from 12-24 hours usually, although Gap and Old Navy seem to last for about a week). You lost my sale on principle alone!

Target – In general I have problems with the online experience at Target.com, which I may do a future “Experience File” on. In short, the entire online store forces the consumer to hit back buttons repeatedly, because there is consistent “loss of state” as people select various categories and shop by type or brand. The site would also benefit from some Web 2.0 features that could make the experience much more streamlined for individuals adding items to cart or a registry list, among other things. While I shop Target online a lot, my professional opinion is that the site has severe experience limitations imposed by its catalog provider that push the user experience behind the times - by at least three years.

Specific to mommy stuff at Target– I have been a user of Target Gift registries (wedding registry AND baby registry within 18 months) and I’ve been frustrated! Why can't I prioritize the items I select for my guests? Further, I can’t add notes to items for the benefit of my fellow shoppers. Also, when I update my registry in the store using the hand scanner, photos of the items I select NEVER show up online (even if there’s an online version of it). This makes the shopping experience difficult for others, as well as they must rely on SKU numbers. Take the target lists experience to the next level, and consider the context of the users participating in gift registries! Improve this experience and improve sales!

Amazon.com Generally the best experience overall, although I do believe the site could benefit from some more dynamic Web 2.0 features that make adding items to a registry and viewing related items a better experience. When a user adds items to lists, pages load with "other recommendations" which are often not useful. This requires the user to do a lot of “back buttoning" to get to a desired place. Other than that, my gripe is with the Amazon/Target registry situation. I just don’t understand why, when Amazon features the Target gift registry, there is no synchronization between items on my Amazon registry and my Target registry. Either make the Target and Amazon gift registries integrated, or keep them separate! Having partial integration is just confusing.

I won't even go into the challenges I experienced while trying to find maternity pants that do not fall down ... or the joys of finding "belly bands" to keep your pants up! That seems endemic to the plight of the maternally challenged woman today. I will say KUDOS, however, to Gap and Old Navy for offering GREAT maternity clothing with a wide range of sizes and fast delivery! It has been a godsend!

Well, I’m sure there’s more to say, but this is enough for one day’s shopping. I’m off to have yet another sonogram! More soon!