The Last Mile in Retail

Recognizing, understanding and closing the gap of Customer Interaction.

Customer Satisfaction is Overrated

Eighty percent of customers who switch suppliers report that they were "satisfied" with their previous supplier. Obviously, satisfied customers are not the same as loyal advocates. How can you ensure that customers will stick with you–and better yet–recommend you to others?

Ensure "The Last Mile"

No matter how much you've invested in technology, it's what happens during the actual customer interaction that's most important. How can you ensure that your technology investment is not being squandered by well-meaning employees who simply are not able to "go the last mile" and ensure a loyal (and not merely a satisfied) customer?

Get your complimentary copy now!

Birds that are making Games Angry..

I am sure I don’t have to tell you about what is making the established gaming companies ANGRY - Angry Bird. If you don’t know about the bird then don’t worry reading this post…Well Sorry…

In February 2010, Angry Birds was a nominee for the "Best Casual Game" award at the 6th annual International Mobile Gaming Awards in Barcelona, Spain In September 2010, IGNnamed Angry Birds as the fourth best iPhone game of all time.In April 2011, Angry Birds won both the "Best Game App" and "App of the Year" at the UK Appy Awards.At the 15th edition of the Webby Awards, Angry Birds was awarded "Best Game for Handheld Devices".

So we know now that they are good….well the above list of awards suggest that….

Ben Griffin provides facts about the birds that are angry. Perhaps.

1. Angry Birds was made by a team of four people and took eight months to finish because it was such a low priority for the company.
2. The game cost less than £70,000 to make.
3. Angry Birds fans include public figures as diverse as David Cameron, Paul Gascoigne, Kylie Minogue, Conan O’Brien and Jon Hamm, Mad Men’s Don Draper.
4. It has sold more than seven million copies on Apple’s iPhone.
5. An Angry Birds Facebook game is coming in 2011.
6. Rovio Mobile developed more than 50 games, with relatively little success, before finally striking gold with Angry Birds.
7. The Angry Birds beta for Android hit more than one million downloads in three weeks.
8. Twenty different Angry Birds toys will be released early in 2011.
9. Peter Vesterbacka, Rovio's official spokesman, has the job title 'Mighty Eagle’.
10. Speaking of unusual titles, one of Rovio's game testers was nicknamed the 'Rovio Killer' because he was so bad at their games.

So was it easy….I am sure certainly NOT…As per I know that Angry Birds was the 52nd Game that they have developed….so they had 51 attempts which was not so or average success…but then something change with what 52 thing that they developed. So how its different.

Jennifer Bergen provides a great insight on how they are different.

Rovio is releasing a slew of new products beyond what is already a healthy stable of tie-in products, which we’ll highlight below.

1. “Bad Piggies Egg Recipes”

You can now make Angry Birds-inspired recipes, like egg salad sandwiches and egg sushi with the new “Bad Piggies Egg Recipes” cookbook. Clearly, the tables have turned as the pigs are literally cooking the birds’ precious eggs. No, there aren’t any fowl-inspired recipes in here, so you won’t be making any chicken salad. Rovio is promoting it as a book with easy and fuss-free recipes with fun activities mixed in. “Bad Piggies Egg Recipes” is set to ship September 10, but you can pre-order it now.

2. Angry Birds Educational Books

Moving from the kitchen to the classroom, Rovio is planning to publish a line of textbooks for students ages four up to teens. Finnish company Rovio says it’s embracing the Finnish education system which emphasizes play in learning. One of the books will show geometry lessons by launching a bird through the air. We could definitely see some Pythagorean Theorem elements coming into play. Perhaps Rovio should release an educational version of the Angry Birds game where the player must complete a math problem properly to get the bird to fling at the right angle and hit the pig.

3. Official Angry Birds Baby Products

If you want to ingrain the fine art of bird-flinging early on in your child’s development, you may want to purchase an Angry Birds baby blanket, burpie, or baby pouch. Rovio partnered with Swaddle Designs to create the first official Angry Birds baby products. Lynette Damir, CEO and creative director of Swaddle Designs said that the aspect of Angry Birds that resonates with parents is how protective the birds are and how much they love their offspring.

4. Angry Birds Movie

We may also be seeing a feature-length Angry Birds film in the near future as Rovio recently hired David Maisel, the former chairman of Marvel Studios, to advise it on its entertainment strategy. Maisel has apparently been talking to potential writers, directors, and financing partners about the film. We’re fascinated to see how you manage to base a whole 90-minute feature film around this idea.

5. Angry Birds Turned Superhero

Speaking of Marvel, to top it all off, we thought we’d throw in a little extra Angry Birds fan action for your afternoon with these awesome Angry Birds superhero mashups. They’re available in both T-shirt and sticker form from a blog called DirtySplashBack. As you can see, all your favorite superheroes are there, and it looks like Wolverine and Nightcrawler were just added today.

We hope you’ve got your Angry Birds merchandise fill for the day. What other Angry Birds products would you like to see? Make sure to check out the Angry Birds store before you comment.

via AllThingsD

How Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy were related…

The two names are certainly not the one that I need to introduce to anyone, but then they say there is not harm in introductions…

Abraham Lincoln the 16th President of the United States. Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809, the second child of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Lincoln (née Hanks), in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm in Hardin County, Kentucky, (now LaRue County).

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy the 35th President of the United States John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in Massachusetts on Tuesday, May 29, 1917, the second son of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., and Rose Fitzgerald; Rose, in turn, was the eldest child of John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, a prominent Boston political figure who was the city's mayor and a three-term member of Congress.

So how two people born at nearly 100 years apart, to a two different families that were in not related to each other, born in two different parts of the countries with a distinct family stature are related.

This is where it gets interesting. Yes, the relation is interesting. While, researching for something I stumble upon something that I thought would put these two eminent personalities born in different time, family, state, etc in relation; of course besides that they both were truly a magnificent person and happen to be THE PRESIDENT of United States.

But there relation defines an interesting mean to the word “Coincident” – How????? here is it…..

• Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
• John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.
• Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1846.
• John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1946.
• Both were particularly concerned about the civil rights
• Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.
• Both President were shot on a Friday
• Both Presidents were shot in the Head

Now it gets really weird…

• Lincoln’s Secretary was named Kennedy
• Kennedy’s Secretary was name Lincoln.
• Both were assassinated by Southerners.
• Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson –
• Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808 while Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

Hmmmmm……

Now this forced to opine that are they “coincidentally related”. Are they?

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Thomas Nies; Never a sales cycle, always a buy cycle

Winston Churchill once said, “I am always willing to learn, however I do not always like to be taught.” I’ve always admired this phrase, but speaking as a salesperson, I feel it can be adapted easily to have more resonance in the field. One might say that we are all eager to buy, but we do not particularly enjoy being sold.

Understanding this fact is important when it comes to understanding our customers and their buying processes. While we may be involved in a “sales cycle,” our prospects are not. They are involved in a buying cycle.

Moreover, since prospects seek to buy, they may resist and perhaps even resent efforts to “sell” them. That’s why sellers must see themselves much more as an assistant purchasing agent rather than a sales agent. I employ the term “servant sellers” at Cincom to convey this role, with the emphasis being on the idea of a servant who seeks to help prospects buy what they value, want and need, rather than as a seller who seeks to sell them only what the seller wants to sell.

We must begin to think in these terms instead of those that are more typically used. Instead of a “sales cycle,” we must begin to think of it as a “buy cycle” or as a colleague of mine at Cincom once helped me to see, we might metaphorically see it as a bicycle.

A bicycle lets you get where you’re going much faster and using much less energy than if you were walking or running. Thinking of customer interactions as “buy cycles” will help a salesperson get to a sale faster than if they were thinking in terms of a “sales cycle” because we are looking at the interaction from their point of view. Instead of selling them, we will help them to buy by being a “servant seller” and identifying the value a product can provide for them.

A bicycle is also a machine that has all of its mechanics completely exposed. Everyone involved in the buy cycle needs to openly communicate with one another. It is helpful to express appreciation and respect, build positive affiliation and association, recognize the autonomy of others and never intrude or impinge upon the other’s desire for each one’s own autonomy. Just like a cycling team competing in events like the Tour de France, there are many different individuals on each “servant selling” team and each has their own job that works toward the goal of a victory. It is a group of different people with different skills and perspectives all interacting to come up with ideas that they might not have individually.

There are many other ideas and analogies that show the similarity between a bicycle and our “buy cycle” if we look more closely.

For example, the wheels on a bicycle are very important—the front wheel provides direction and represents the strategy and vision for the buy cycle. At the same time, the rear wheel is the source of power or fuel that energizes the cycle. The bike becomes much more difficult to ride without either of these wheels. Similarly, strategy and direction have to be present along with energy and action in a corporation if a sale is to be made. 

Each of the closer analogies that can be made can be substantially expanded upon as one digs deeper into the features and functions of a bike. This is why the bicycle is a great tool for us to think about as we work to become better servant sellers in our various buy cycles.

Author - Thomas M. Nies is the founder and CEO of Cincom Systems, Inc. Since its founding in 1968, Cincom has matured into one of the largest international, independent software companies in the world. Cincom’s client base spans communications, financial services, education, government, manufacturing, retail, healthcare and insurance. Learn more about Nies at http://tomnies.cincom.com/about/

Ok, Now this was NEW to me…

It always intrigues me see technology that I potentially could not have imagined coming to life. Well….less to say that there are many things that I couldn’t have imagined… Coming back….Well I try to keep myself posted on what happening in the technology space but then - every now an d then stumble upon things that alludes me to think – Did I could have thought about that.

Sharing one such interesting innovation that I came across recently – 3D printing. Wikipedia explains it – as a form of additive manufacturing technology where a three dimensional object is created by laying down successive layers of material.  3D printers offer product developers the ability to print parts and assemblies made of several materials with different mechanical and physical properties in a single build process. Advanced 3D printing technologies yield models that can serve as product prototypes.

Since 2003 there has been large growth in the sale of 3D printers. Additionally, the cost of 3D printers has declined. The technology also finds use in the jewelry, footwear, industrial design, architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), automotive, aerospace, dental and medical industries, education, GIS, civil engineers, etc.

Standard applications include design visualization, prototyping/CAD, metal casting, architecture, education, geospatial, healthcare and entertainment/retail. Other applications would include reconstructing fossils in paleontology, replicating ancient and priceless artifacts in archaeology, reconstructing bones and body parts in forensic pathology and reconstructing heavily damaged evidence acquired from crime scene investigations.

So much to the text, watch the video now J

3D Printing in Action

Have a Good Day!

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Crap Detection

Today while scanning few tweets came across a word – “Crap Detection”. A word I discovered courtesy - Howard Rheingold. "Crap detection," as Hemingway called it half a century ago, is more important than ever before, now that the automation of crapcasting has generated its own word: "spamming."

Doug Toft provides an operational definition of crap through which he suggest that we utter crap when we string together:

• Words that—upon close examination—have no meaning
• Assertions that—upon close examination—violate logic
• Arguments that—upon close examination—have little or no supporting evidence
• Sentences that—upon close examination—are unnecessarily ugly

Neil Postman’s classic essay Bullshit and the Art of Crap-Detection contains a handy taxonomy of forms of bullshit, and some useful “laws” such as: Almost nothing is about what you think it is about–including you.{” Kindly excuse me the use of word Bull%#*^}. In his work he argues that how people or information disseminators puts Pomposity, Fanaticism, Inanity and Superstition to best of use to attract crowd towards them. He further opines that each person’s crap-detector is embedded in their value system; if you want to teach the art of crap-detecting, you must help them become aware of their values.

 

With the emergence of information availability through the means of online space and more so due to Social Media, Crap Detection seems to be gaining on the relevancy meters of individuals than ever before. We as information seekers needs to determine what’s quality/healthy information vs the Crap.

 

Howard Rheingold in his article opines "Unless a great many people learn the basics of online crap detection and begin applying their critical faculties en masse and very soon, I fear for the future of the Internet as a useful source of credible news, medical advice, financial information, educational resources, scholarly and scientific research". He further emphasize the need to know about information online is how to detect crap, a technical term I use for information tainted by ignorance, inept communication, or deliberate deception."

 

In the below video Howard explains the importance and process of crap detection.

 

Crap Detection by Howard Rheingold

The important of crap detections in today's world is becoming more imperative than ever due to the overwhelming quantity of data or information available, which lead us to lack or misconceive or mis-representative knowledge. Equally, this is more important concerning Child Safety through adequate teaching young ones to distinguish between healthy or unhealthy information.   

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The Last Mile– Recognizing, Understanding, and Closing the Gap in Customer Interactions

Customer Satisfaction Is Overrated

Eighty percent of customers who switch suppliers report that they were "satisfied" with their previous supplier. Obviously, satisfied customers are not the same as loyal advocates. How can you ensure that customers will stick with you and better yet recommend you to others?

Ensure "The Last Mile"

No matter how much you've invested in technology, it's what happens during the actual customer interaction that's most important. How can you ensure that your technology investment is not being squandered by well-meaning employees who simply are not able to "go the last mile" and ensure a loyal (and not merely a satisfied) customer?

Get your complimentary copy now! CLICK HERE

Blogger Labels: Last,Mile,Customer,Interactions,Satisfaction,customers,suppliers,supplier,Ensure,technology,interaction,investment,employees.