FC NOW: The Fast Company Weblog
September 27, 2005
Conference Recap...
...wherein we save you from awkward networking, bad coffee, and having to deal with the crowds in Times Square. In this edition, Forrester Research's Consumer Forum, a two-day event at New York's Marriott Marquis, which focused on customer-driven innovation and featured reps from Whirlpool, HP, Frog Design, and a whole host of Forrester analysts. I sat in on sessions with Target Vice Chairman Gerald Storch and Apple VP of worldwide product marketing for iPod Greg Joswiak. Here's what you missed:
Target, thank god, won't be installing self check-out kiosks in their stores anytime soon. "Our cashiers are simply faster," Storch said. "And check-out kiosks are poor service." Anyone who's tried to get one of those annoying things at Home Depot to work quickly will breathe a sigh of relief.
Conference speeches, we all know, mean lots of business summaries and slides and stock answers to softball moderator questions. The audience reaction is often just as, if not more, interesting. The sigh from the woman behind me when she saw a slide of the new Nano was deafening in its envy, the crowd laughed in knowing frustration when Target said they weren't adding kiosks, and, judging by the collective gasp in the audience at the sight of Wal-Mart's Vogue fashion ads, no one had heard the news that the Bentonville giant is apparently mulling a purchase of Tommy Hilfiger. (Has any brand ever fallen farther?)
Best interactive marketing idea I missed: I must have been asleep at the wheel last Thanksgiving, because Target's campaign to get people to sign up for a shopping wake-up call on the morning after Thanksgiving--in the voice of Heidi Klum, Darth Vadar, or Cheech--is truly brilliant.
Thank goodness for Josh Bernoff. Since Joswiak wouldn't take questions from the audience (he apparently had only agreed to a one-on-one stage chat), it was up to Forrester digital media analyst Bernoff to ask direct questions. And he did, making Joswiak visibly uncomfortable when he asked about future products such as a video iPod and lessons learned from past Apple mistakes.
Storch's comments about how Target uses its Web site to test out products before offering them in the stores was the most interesting take-away of the day. On its Web site, for example, it offered about a dozen colors and styles of rubber rain boots, while only four made it into the stores.
Apple's Keynote software, which Joswiak used for his presentation, is cool. It puts Powerpoint to shame.
And finally, does everyone at Apple wear rimless glasses and dress in all black? Joswiak was a dead ringer for a full-head-of-hair version of Steve Jobs, clad in a black turtleneck and faded black jeans.
Posted by Jena McGregor at September 27, 2005 4:06 PM | Category: conferences |
6 Comments
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More than any other retail experiment that I can think of in my lifetime, the self-checkout line deserves to take its place in the dust-bin of anti-customer customer service innovation. As a sometimes productivity consultant, I understand the value of efficiency and cost-savings. Self-checkout, however, works more like something out of Ashton Kutcher's "Punked" series or those old hidden camera shows from when I was a kid.
Everytime I'm at Kroger (the largest grocery chain in this area) and the self-checkout automated voice tells me to "place the item back in the bag", I start looking around for Peter Funt!
http://kurtmaddox.tblog.com
http://kurtmaddox.blogspot.com
look, people...how dumb can we get? Use the self check-outs, you will put the cashiers out on the street!! What do you think their purpose is? Look at the airline check in desks. Punch the little TV terminals now and your bag checks automatically come out: hence, the army of customer service people who expedited your check in are now GONE. Remember when flying was actually FUN?? Not now. Food shopping is now an official hassle, "place the food on the table" the HAL 9000 computer tells you, bing..bing, WRONG, repeat..repeat..
Makes me nuts just thinking about it. You got enough stress in your life already without volunteering for more of it.
I am a huge fan of the self-check-in stations at airports. Instead of surly clerks I get a quick way to verify my flight, check my bags and even see if there's a way to get a better seat. It's not that self-check-in is inherently bad, I would argue, but that the current implementation is too close to beta and not ready for primetime.
Aren't we about innovation here? Sometimes things will be a bust. :: shrug :: Whaddya gonna do?
Pretty brief recap - you missed the FROG outfit and any mention of the hotel elevators.
However, as the HP SPONSOR for the conference I found a lot of interesting information. Forrester does a great balancing act and the increasing attendance each year shows people are finding it useful.
Re: Self Check Out
This is not a person vs. self check out debate.
The real point is -
How much time do you want to spend standing
in line and paying for your purchases?
All things being equal, most customers would like to spend the least amount of time paying for their purchases.
Why would someone want to go to a self check out if they could go to a person for the same price and it took the same amount of time?
Going to a real live person is easier. If you go to a real person, you do not have to learn how to use the register, look up prices or, bag your purchases.
If you want to see stores that really understand this, go into a Sunset Foods grocery store. They are located just outside of Chicago. It is a small family owned grocery store chain that other stores could learn a lot from. They get it. Their cashiers should never have to worry about their jobs. (I have nothing to do with these stores – I am just a customer.)
Unfortunately, this is the exception rather then the rule.
Most other stores seem to have a policy of having too few check out registers open. This creates long lines that waste a customer's time. Most often, the self check outs are faster. This may only be due to the fact that they are relatively new and fewer people use them.
This is not the fault of the cashiers. However, it is the manager's / management’s fault.
Short term - the P & L looks better. It appears they are saving money by having less cashiers working.
Long term - people will look for a store that cares about its customers – if there are any in their area. I do not know of any customer that enjoys waiting in line.
His point was less about self checkout than the fact Target sticks to its strategy. Target adopts or rejects ideas relative to their value to the brand and business objectives--as well as user experience. As his comments related specifically to self checkout, he stated that research proves customers prefer fast checkout over anything and that their human checkout process is still fastest. So as tech-cool as self checkout lanes may be, they don't support customer goals, nor Target's. I greatly admire Target's clarity of focus and backbone--not getting distracted by tactical debates, personal whims, or following trends, unless they map back to the core principles of their brand, business, and customer value proposition.
Lastly, as for the Apple guy, it was pretty funny seeing him imitating Steve Job's look, and watching him squirm at the questions. Gotta love Josh for asking the honest questions without regard to a person's perceived stature. As it turned out, the answers were vague and even condescending--more fluff and strut than substance. Just glad the guy is better at actual product development than impersonations.