You Can’t Really See What They See Until You…
Put yourself into your customer’s shoes.
Use your online forms; try to complete an order; call customer service; shop your store anonymously; eat your own food.
If you’ll be recognized by staff, just put on a mental “disguise,” telling yourself that you are a customer; looking, walking, touching where they would.
Experience your business they way they do.
Can you do it?
Is it easy? Can your Mom do it?
What does it smell like, look like, sound like?
Is it a delight?
Is it remarkable?
Get another Perspective by asking a customer.
Take notes. Make changes. Wait one month. Repeat.
What happens to your powers of observation when you walk through your business “disguised” as a customer?
What are the customer’s priorities? Are they yours?
On Monday, what part of your Experience is more obvious to your customers in the summer, that you may not notice at all? Let’s walk a special mile.
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
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9 August 2008, 10:02 am
The Mom Test.
Heh. Depends how old your Mom is, I think. She might not understand the point of your Web Page or on-line forms.
I’m not being facetious, either. For us 30-40 somethings, our parents are old enough, that they start transitioning from mainstream customers into technophobic seniors.
For example, my Mom was recently driving with me in her new Honda CRV. She asked me to turn on the air conditioning and set the temperature. She couldn’t figure it out herself.
I pointed out that Mom, you’ve only HAD this vehicle for what…six months? You dont’ know how to set the TEMPERATURE? And besides, theres an Instruction Manual you can read any time.
Yes, I know, she said, but I can’t be bothered with those things.
It’s not like she wasn’t unable to figure it out…she WOULDN’T. There was a stubborn mental block there.
You often find this with seniors when they deal with new things.
Something to take into account, when you try to target them as an audience.
Friar’s last blog post…Travels with the Bear: Where the buffalo roam (or fly).
9 August 2008, 4:47 pm
Friar,
Ah, yes, but that’s okay if she doesn’t “get it.” (Ooh, you don’t want to imagine how technophobic my mother is. Puts my “I can’t plug in a VCR” to shame.)
It’s not that we want to target Mom, but that we want an honest opinion of ease of use. (Click through, if you haven’t it’s one of my favorite posts.)
You’d be surprised. The same Mom that can’t be bothered (are we related?) with technology for her own sake, will gladly slog through anything you ask if it will help her brilliant kid out.
Not quite the same thing, but doesn’t your mother slog through weeds and muck to fish with you?
She’d do the same for your blog if you needed to check on ease of use, or your store, if you had one (“Dear, the staff you have at Friar’s Deep Art Gallery are a bit snooty”). Moms are pretty keen that way.
Note to Friar’s Mom: tell the Friar to get an email subscription box!!! His buddy Kelly does NOT do RSS.
Regards,
Kelly
9 August 2008, 8:16 pm
Oh, my Mom reads my Blog. And she’s my harshest critic. She regularly provides me with editorial comments. About what to write, what NOT to write. Or HOW to write.
Sigh. Won’t even get into it here…
Oh well. Moms will be Moms.
PS. I don’t know how to do email subscriptions (Can you DO that on WordPress?). I barely even know what RSS is.
Friar’s last blog post…Travels with the Bear: Where the buffalo roam (or fly).
9 August 2008, 9:40 pm
Friar,
Yes, you can do it. Would I beg you periodically if you couldn’t?
If your RSS is through FeedBurner, go to this link:
http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/publishers/fbemail
and read the paragraph that’s titled “How does it work?”
After you activate it, it will give you a little piece of code to put into your template. I don’t know how WP .com templates work, but it should be pretty simple.
You can do it with FeedBlitz, too, in about the same way. I switched from FeedBlitz to FeedBurner almost instantly at the old TypePad blog. Hated them. FeedBurner works much better, IMHO. Of course I didn’t have a large bunch of subscribers when I made that change (the blog was only a couple of weeks old), which you do.
So whichever one you use for RSS, you stick with them for the email subs, that way all your stats are in one place.
I will probably never have to worry about my Mom reading this blog, for reasons amply discussed on everyone else’s blogs. Moms will be Moms… so true.
Until later,
Kelly