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by Tamara Adlin |  | | | The magical sentence. "If we don't make people like [fill in the blank] ridiculously happy, we've failed." Yup, that's it. That one sentence. If you can fill in the blank with a very specific reference to a very specific type of person, you have a shot at ecommerce success.
Why is this such a cool sentence? Because it sneakily turns the notion of prioritization of key customers on its head. If you're lucky enough to work at a company that already has a modicum of customer focus, you're probably used to a different sentence, which goes something like: '[this kind of customer] is more important than [this other kind of customer].' Execs are asked to fill in those blanks, and that's really, really hard. And scary. Why? Because it implies that you are devaluing a whole set of 'other kinds of customers' (the ones you are not going to focus on). Well, the fact that it's hard to prioritize customer focus doesn't mean that we don't have to do it. But the magical sentence makes it a lot easier. For example, let's say you sell roller skates online. Are professional roller skaters more important than parents of kids who are just starting to roller skate? What about ex-roller skaters who are going through a sad midlife crisis and trying to capture the 'shoot-the-duck, ladies-choice' Friday nights of the late '70s? If you have to choose between features for these very different types of shoppers, how are you going to do it? Will you build the 'pom-pom picker' tool or the 'pro-am wheel customizer'? How on earth are you to choose? Try the sentence. "If we don't make [Phil InTheBlank] ridiculously happy we've failed." Who is Phil? I Googled 'buy roller skates' and found several stores. As far as I could tell, they were all organized by category. Organizing solely by category is essentially punting on the whole 'customer focus' thing. If Phil is an expert, sure, he can go directly into whatever category and start price shopping (whee! Price shopping!). If Phil is the soon-to-discover-he-is-no-longer-nearly-as-limber-as-he-used-to-be disco-ducker, he has no help at all. I bet someone in each of these companies could pretty easily come up with a Phil for the sentence above. A pretty darned specific Phil. Several Phils, in fact. And I also bet that, faced with these Phils, the execs could pretty easily pick out the one that makes the magic sentence the most true for their companies. And they're not going to need a bunch of data to do it. Once you have that sentence, you have a chance at making Phil really, really happy. Really, really happy Phils reach for their credit cards faster than un-ful-Phils. So, Tamara, what should I do with this information?
Go create that sentence. Ask your execs if they agree with the sentence. Then start saying things like 'if we want to make Phil ridiculously happy, shouldn't we reconsider [nutty ajax-based feature you asked for last week] and maybe do [much more sane, content-based, editorial-voice-creating idea]?' See what happens. And, for heaven's sakes, email tamara@fellswoop.com to tell me all about it. You guys are being suspiciously quiet out there. | About Etail Insights I'm crazy about the ecommerce customer experience, obsessed with the details of what makes customers happy, sad, indifferent, amazed, bored, annoyed, or delighted when they're shopping online. What makes them click, buy, and come back for more? The all-new etail Insights biweekly newsletter is full of tips and reminders about how to keep customers exploring, shopping and spending.  Tamara Adlin
Customer Advocate
Fell Swoop LLC  Tamara Adlin is a founding partner of Fell Swoop., a customer experience consulting company located in Seattle, WA. Prior to forming her company, Tamara created the Customer Experience services team for the Amazon.com Services Group. Add etail@wbresearch.com to your address book to make sure you don't miss a single edition. Your customers (and your bottom line) will thank you.  www.fellswoop.com Join Tamara and fellswoop at:
eTail Phoenix
February 23-26th, 2009
JW Marriott Desert Ridge
Phoenix, AZ
www.eTail2009.com |
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