opinion
create digital parity in ways that actually
produce less friction than asking a
consumer to pull out their phone, log-in,
select the app, and figure out what part of
the app they want. Yes, that’s the state of
customer tolerance for friction.
Common reasons for pilot fails
Infrastructure
WiFi isn’t strong enough, the
Internet isn’t fast enough, electricity
isn’t grounded, the catalogue doesn’t
consider in-store only products, there
aren’t enough images and engaging
interactions. These reasons and more are
important foundations you must invest in
before being able to execute innovative
pilots.
Compromises
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So often an intrapreneuer starts
with a great idea, an amazing user-flow.
And then what happens is through
weeks of debate and compromises, the
final product that launches is really a
shadow of the initial idea, and creates a
use-case that’s so niched its applicability
is very, very small. Beware! Hold to your
principles.
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endless aisle kiosks or an interactive
dressing room mirror, right? 79% of
people waiting in line abandon the line
if the waiting time seems like it’s seven
minutes or longer. Never lose a sale, give
your customers the option to skip the
line and head straight for a self-service
checkout kiosk.
When determining what these
moments of friction or opportunity are
and how to tackle them, don’t try to
boil the ocean. Focus on the top 3-5
customer journeys and apply a weighted
system of analysis based on the volume
of customers or the value of those
customers and go from there.
Mobile isn’t just about phones
Did you know that mobile phones aren’t
actually mobile? Think about it. They aren’t
mobile, humans are mobile, and phones
just happen to be small enough for you
to carry around, so for the majority of the
day your phone is within six feet of you.
When you’re using a mobile device, it’s
yours, it’s personal, your head is down,
and you aren’t interacting with the envi-
ronment around you or other social cues.
When you’re using a retail public com-
puting option, like a touchscreen kiosk, a
digital storefront, or an interactive smart
mirror, your head is up, you’re interact-
ing, listening and looking for social cues.
You’re aware that it’s a shared technology
device, not yours alone. For these rea-
sons, increasing percentages (60% plus)
of shoppers are expecting and desiring
interactive experiences in-store today.
There’s also some more grease when
it comes to mobile. The digital strategy of
reaching customers from 2010 to 2015
was building an awesome native mobile
app. The challenge is this pesky stat that
keeps resurfacing – zero. Zero, is the
amount of new native applications the
average customer downloads a month.
What’s more is when ‘beacons’ was the
idea du jour customers all of a sudden
were slammed with notifications on the
apps they downloaded. So much that
when customers received a second
unsolicited notification within 30 minutes
the chance they deleted the app forever
went up by 300%. So now, increasingly,
brands are realising they need to focus
on digitising their in-store experience to
Associates don’t care
If your technology doesn’t make
your associates feel like absolute heroes,
it’s not going to do well. This means it has
to make them both 10x more effective
and be 10x easier to use. That’s a touch
bar, but many of the most successful
brands out there test their technology
with associates as first-class citizens and
users of the tech along with customers.
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Time Horizon
Perhaps painfully obvious, many
less-sophisticated pilots are expected to
be sure-things and easy wins. Treat the
pilot as a test, and realise that when you
launch, that’s the halfway point and that
the subsequent testing and fine-tuning
will be the difference between success
and failure. n
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