Invest in Experiences

It is all about experience and what we can learn and use again.

Why Investing in Experiences Rather Than Things Is Good for Your Business
Put down your phone and start living.
By Levi KingCo-founder and CEO, Nav in Inc.

I grew up on a farm in Idaho, raised by loving parents on a budget so tight that I sometimes went to school without socks on rather than wearing the pink hand-me-down ones from my sisters.

Money was never all that important to me until I began making a lot of it and had to figure out how to spend it. Should I take a trip to Hawaii with my wife Rachel and our six amazing daughters, or buy that new Tesla I've had my eye on? A solo adventure in Australia, where I can regroup and recharge and catch up on my reading, or a bigger and better TV?

Time and time again, experiences have proven far more valuable than things. With a little experimentation, I suspect you'll learn the same lesson when it comes to spending money on your business.  ... "

Customer Experience Value Creation

Some basic questions ...

What is Customer Experience Value Creation? Featured Column by CustomerThink Advisor
By Lynn Hunsaker  

  Customer experience value is seldom quantified from the customer’s viewpoint. We explore it through customer journey mapping, customer advisory boards, surveys, user experience testing, and so forth. Even so, we still may not be sizing it up from their perspective.

Customer experience value creation occurs when you empower customers to achieve their goals with greater satisfaction in a win-win approach.

Customer experience value creation is creating mutual value for your whole customer base in any part of the end-to-end customer experience, across the full customer life cycle, spanning customers’ entire dealings with your organization, products, services, channels and affiliations. It’s value as seen by the customer, relative to their alternatives, relative to all the costs they endure, and relative to the outcomes they’re pursuing.  .... "

Towards Machines that Improve with Experience

Consider that experience is different from learning.  It means that there is a structure that can embed learning and apply it to multiple contexts.

Toward Machines that Improve with Experience
New program seeks to develop the foundations for systems that might someday “learn” in much the way biological organisms do ...

Self-driving taxis. Cell phones that react appropriately to spoken requests. Computers that outcompete world-class chess and Go players. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming part and parcel of the technological landscape—not only in the civilian and commercial worlds but also within the Defense Department, where AI is finding application in such arenas as cybersecurity and dynamic logistics planning. .... 

But even the smartest of the current crop of AI systems can’t stack up against adaptive biological intelligence. These high-profile examples of AI all rely on clever programming and extensive training datasets—a framework referred to as Machine Learning (ML)—to accomplish seemingly intelligent tasks. Unless their programming or training sets have specifically accounted for a particular element, situation, or circumstance, these ML systems are stymied, unable to determine what to do. ... " 

Walking the Experience Talk

In Customerthink, good consideration.

What is Walking the Customer Experience Talk? Featured Column by
Lynn Hunsaker  CustomerThink Advisor featured columnist  Top 10 Author: Rank = 5 | Mar 9,  
  
 What does it really mean to “walk the customer experience talk”? Executive sponsorship is certainly essential, yet there’s so much more to it. An ironic byproduct of any customer engagement effort is that it intrinsically sets up expectations — externally and internally. Walking the customer experience talk means you are following through on expectations you’re setting with customers, employees, channel partners and alliances. It actually means the whole company is getting its act together to deliver what it promised to customers.   ... " 

AI is Changing the Retail Industry

How AI is Changing the Retail Industry for Consumers

Rick Delgado   

Artificial Intelligence is an up and coming technology system that is constantly enhancing different aspects of various industries. Some of these new areas where Artificial Intelligence has made a positive impact include traffic lights, healthcare, marketing strategies and commercial security solutions. Artificial Intelligence has recently found its way into the retail world. From conversing with consumers to developing improved management strategies, AI holds a promising future for creating efficient consumer experiences and transforming management systems for retail stores. ... "

Embodied Cognition with Project Intu

Mentioned in today's CSIG talk, furthering the discussion.

“Embodied Cognition with Project Intu” by Grady Booch

Grady Booch, IBM Fellow and IBM’s Chief Scientist for Watson/M, presented “Embodied Cognition with Project Intu” as part of the Cognitive Systems Institute Speaker Series. Please continue the conversation here in this discussion group with Grady who's work can be found here http://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/view.php?person=us-gbooch To see and hear a replay of today's presentation, go to: http://cognitive-science.info/community/weekly-update/ and select the recording next to December 8, 2016 presentation.  .... 

 ... Grady is currently developing a major transmedia project on computing; for more information, visit Computing: The Human Experience.  ... "

Employee Experience Equation

Interesting way to think about this.  The elements of experience. ....

The Employee Experience Equation by Jacob Morgan   
I’m betting BIG on the concept of the employee experience which I believe is the next evolution of HR and people related functions inside of our organizations. We are already seeing employee experience related roles and executive titles emerge and the very concept of Human Resources if morphing into something else (a topic for another post). Everything around people analytics, workplace design, compensation, engagement, well-being, etc is all tied to this concept of creating an environment where people actually want to show up, not where they need to show up. To help explain what the employee experience actually is I created the visual below which shows what I like to call The Employee Experience Equation. This is: culture + technology + physical space = employee experience.  .... " 

Experience versus Innovation

General look in Innovation Excellence.   A simplistic way to look at this is it is a form of 'generate and test'.  With inexperienced youth generating and experienced people testing the ideas.   But things like organization and culture tear that idea up.  And mere efficiency making it harder yet.   More like two states of operative mind that everyone needs.

Unilever Organizing Marketing Team

Sharing and spreading expertise.  An opportunity to gameify?  Contains enough people to perform an internal crowd sourcing.   Process linked to knowledge sharing?

How Unilever spreads expertise across its global marketing team 
Unilever's Keith Weed talks about organizing his 6,000-strong marketing team, and how the company gives its staff the opportunity to work across different categories, countries and brands to build cross-expertise. "[T]o create the right culture, we deliberately move people around. ... Through that, people get to understand what the different roles are and the strengths and expertise different roles play," Weed says .... ' 

Value of Virtual Shopping Experiences

In Cisco Blog:   Note the mention of collaborative experts in store,  AKA a virtual assistant.  Covered much recently here.   Consider carving out the assistant based on potential experiences we are planning to use to achieve some set of goals.   Some are described in the piece and useful for thinking about as test cases.

" ... We are increasingly hearing about the value of improving the shopping experience by adding virtual expertise to the store. As head of Cisco’s Retail & Hospitality practice, I frequently talk to customers who are exploring this concept – though what I mainly hear are questions! While many are interested in the idea, they are still trying figure out whether or not a virtual customer expert is going to add more revenue to their bottom line.

Putting a collaborative expert into the store – virtual or physical – can actually be critical to meeting the needs of the consumer, especially during the purchase of a high-priced product or for a purchase where it is very important to make the right decision. However, very often this level of expertise is not available in the aisle when the consumer is dwelling there. And yet, the presence of such an expert can be extremely important. For example:  (Examples here) ... "     by Anne M. McClelland

Marianos Supermarket Experience

I am used to Jungle Jim's nearby, which does provide experience, but here is yet more.  Compare it to a look at the Apple Store.

Via Steve Frenda, The Path to Purchase Institute:

Mariano's latest... A supermarket experience like I've never seen - ta •Mariano's latest... A supermarket experience like I've never seen - take a 40 photo tour. A treasure hunt and spectacular sense of theater all in one -… - Steve Frenda - Google+

A treasure hunt and spectacular sense of theater all in one - and the crowds - the energy is palpable.

- Fresh Smoothie Bar
- Custom Made Guacamole Bar
- Sushi Bar
- Oyster Bar
- Trail Mix Bar
- Meats Grilled to Order for No Charge
- Wine Bar
- Bakery Goods Beyond Compare with My Personal Favorite... Maple Bacon Long Johns
- etc. etc.

Kudos to Mariano's... I know how do they make it work financially?  ... " 

The Zen of the Apple Store Experience

Agreed, have a number of times visited an Apple store and asked myself, How could a retailer match this?  Its a novel experience, linked to some novel offerings.  Like the Marianos supermarket experience?    But is the tech novelty fading?

Apple stands alone in controlling the in-store experience
In The ZEN of Retail Tech  By Evan Schuman

Would-be copiers have to understand that Apple's circumstances actually fit the word 'unique'   ...  When it comes to redefining the brick-and-mortar shopping experience, no major retailer even approaches what Apple has done with the Apple Store. The Apple Store had real mobile payments long before anyone else, as well as in-aisle payments, long before anyone else.... " 

Ferrari Augmented Reality POS

Good example via Metaio:  Expanding showroom experience.  " ... Ferrari Australia commissioned developer ZSPACE to create an awesome showroom companion that overlays cinematic 3D animations right onto the vehicles themselves. Not only are the visuals extremely impressive – what is going on “under the hood” of the application is also at the cutting edge. By Making use of Metaio’s proprietary 3D tracking technology, the application render Hollywood-style visual effects onto the real-world vehicle in real-time. ,,, " 

Rebooting the Retail Beacon for Experience

In Retailwire: A look at beacons and their purpose. from SXSW.  Certainly you don't want them to assault you,  or erode your privacy.  Now how can they serve you?  A panel discussion.  " ... A key theme to the panel was how technologies such as beacons have extraordinarily powerful potential for morphing the retail experience, but that the industry should not consider beacons as tools to "take back control" of the shopper experience. Rather, we should be thinking about how to make their experience better with them. ... "

Digital Assurance: Seamless Customer Experience

In K@W:  A term and approach I had not heard of, but it does make sense,

" ...  digital technologies envelop all spheres of business operations, the need for assurance of near-flawless performance in user experience and security has taken center stage. The practice of digital assurance aims to meet that demand, and has elevated the testing function to being a critical piece in the design and development process for digital services. Wipro’s head of testing services, Kumudha Sridharan, and Wharton professor Shawndra Hill discuss the latest challenges in this Future of Industry series white paper, produced by Knowledge@Wharton and sponsored by Wipro Technologies. ... " 

Experiential Products

Experience and material goods.

" ... Past studies have found that people get more enjoyment and satisfaction from the purchase of experiential adventures or events — eating out, going to a concert, traveling, etc. — than from material purchases such as apparel or jewelry. But a new study finds a host of experiential products can provide the same feeling of well-being as life experiences.

The study from the University of Michigan and San Francisco State University examined consumers' reactions to "experiential" products — purchases that combine material items and life experiences. These were defined as purchases people make "to have in order to do" and include video games, sports equipment, books or musical instruments. ... " 

Complexity of IOT and Experience Design

In Radar:  Some excellent points made here.  " ... The Internet of Things (IoT) is challenging designers to rethink their craft. I recently sat down with Claire Rowland, independent designer and author of the forthcoming book Designing Connected Products to talk about the changing design landscape. During our interview, Rowland brought up three points that resonated with me. .. .. "   Everything should be thought of in terms of experience design.  This explores the dimensions in the Internet of Things (IOT) .

Managing Customer Experience

An impressive writeup about how companies like McDonald's are attempting to manage customer experience.  Can it really be optimized, as they say, when people are involved?

" ... McDonald's customer experience management (CEM) is a good example of what companies can strive to achieve. SAS Customer Intelligence expert John Bala says McDonald's special sauce, so to speak, is that the customer experience is always at the center of its business, and the company keeps it there using an analytically-driven optimization process.... " 

" ... "Preference research, consisting of both qualitative and quantitative studies, can help organizations gain insights on customer shopping, pricing, product usage, and service support preferences," KPMG suggests.
"This critical first step is not about creating a new segmentation scheme." Instead, the focus needs to be on a number of of customer-centric variables, such as gaining insights regarding (1) how prospects hear about new products; (2) the factors that influence where they shop and for what; (3) onboarding needs and expectations when prospects turn into customers; (4) how customers and prospects like to get help when issues arise; and (5) the perceived value at specific price points, and how these relate to market trends and competitive offerings ... "

Knowledge Management for Expertise Location

Thinking broadly, all data use and leverage is about knowledge management.  This article surveys what companies are doing in particular for expertise location with knowledge management tools.  We tried that, with partial success.  I hear it is going better, but I still think it not taken seriously enough.

Saffron Associative Experience Management

I just received a note announcing Saffron Technologies forthcoming book: Making Memories, Applying Neuron-inspired Associative Memories to National, Business and Consumer Intelligence by Manuel Aparicio IV

You can register and get a free copy of the Prolog and Part One and reserve a free copy of the ebook.

In the enterprise we closely examined the application of associative memories for enterprise experience storage and retrieval applications. I have met with Saffron several times and am impressed with this rare and complete application of this leading edge work.

" .. Making Memories tells a story about the science, technology and business of Saffron's new approach to capturing and reasoning from the "memories" of your data. It's what Saffron calls "Experience Management." ... These sections will give you a strong sense of what Making Memories is about: How an old idea -- human thought processes and how they work -- is being applied to create a completely new arena of data analytics for business that surpasses the need for rules and statistics.
We believe the book is very timely given today's data management challenges ... "