Improving Complex Service Systems
Ron Halverson, Founder and President of Halverson Group, will be speaking at IIT's Design Research Conference on how to approach design research to improve complex service systems likes hospitals, universities, hotels, retailers and restaurants.
Studiocode for Service Design Research
Ron Halverson and Malora McIntosh speak at the StudoCode Research Conference on their innovative use of StudioCode and iCoda to perform ethnography and market research.
Wireless Retailer Re-Design
Competition in the wireless phone market is a well-documented story. To maintain their edge, U.S. Cellular sought to study the range of factors affecting customer’s path-to-purchase and in-store shopping experience. We conducted shop alongs and intercepts as our field researcher observed and video tape customers. Following each shop along, in-depth interviews were conducted. The video footage was coded and reviewed by analysts, ethnographers and project leads. Results produced deep insight into three area of importance; information, merchandising and advocacy. Recommendations were provided for enhancing touch points such as online messaging, media advertisements, in-store design, sales associate behavior, phones layout, and plan communications. As a result of all our efforts, the client and agency partner reported a series of “quick wins” and were well positioned to tackle the challenge of performing a system-wide make over.
Call it Research? Call it Insights? No. Call it Strategies.
We’ve run across a multitude of research professionals who opine about the future of marketing research. The prevailing feeling it that the industry must change or it will perish. No longer, they say, are marketers interested in thick research reports that in a quickly evolving marketplace are often out of date by the time they are presented. More importantly, they no longer want a research function that is incapable of taking a seat at the table and sharing responsibly for the decisions that are made. So focused is the research industry on changing its image that it can’t even agree what to call itself. To regard a research company as simply a “research company” now suggests doing business with an anachronism. It would seem much safer to contract with an “insights company.” Isn’t that what everyone now wants? Insights! Wrong again. What companies should be seeking are “breakthrough strategies.” The one’s that come as a result of research, insights, deep understanding, vision, perceptiveness, creativity and the courage to take a stand. In today’s hyper-competitive marketplace, there should be little tolerance for research, or even insights, that are devoid of strategic implications. Stake you claim with companies that see research and insights as a means, not an end. Indeed, the traditional research function is fading fast. And the insights function is just a way of rebranding the same old, same old. A new breed is evolving that sees its role as digging deep into consumer behavior and motivation in order to create strategies that make a difference. Let’s call them Strategists. Let’s put them at the table and see what making a difference really means.
Next Gen QSR Concept Evaluation
McDonald’s developed three prototype test restaurants to address a range of emerging trends. The Halverson Group evaluated a number of areas including new store designs, customer behavior within the new designs, new merchandising elements and operational efficiencies both in the restaurants and the drive though. A mix-method approach was used which included contextual interviews, mobile eye tracking, and video ethnography.Recommendations for improving the many elements of the test restaurants were given. A “customer point-of-view” section was provided that described customer behavior during each stage of their visit and recommendations for improvement. Additionally, a “deep-dive” was performed on key merchandising elements within each stage, such as the kiosk, interrupt panels, side panels, navigation signs and menu boards.
Are brick and mortar stores a dying breed?
Circuit City, Blockbuster, Border’s, Filene’s and the Sharper Image are only a few of the better known retailers that have closed their doors in recent years. The full list is ominous. Check out this Wikipedia listing if you’re up for a big shock. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_department_stores_of_the_United_States) Sure, you can blame it on the natural evolution of things. Or stronger competition. Or the growth of internet shopping. Or constant price battles that force weaker players to fold up their tents. But, really, it’s more complex than that. Do you really care whether your office supplies come from Office Depot, OfficeMax or Staples? Does it matter if your light bulbs come from Home Depot, Lowe’s or Ace Hardware? What difference does it make if you buy your next TV from Best Buy or HHGregg? What’s relevant is that many of today’s retailers are turning a blind eye to the retail disasters or yesterday. They have forgotten how to differentiate themselves. They have become commodities. No, brick and mortar stores aren’t going to die as a relevant shopping channel. But as smartphones become a ubiquitous shopping tool and the internet offers a myriad of place to find it cheaper, customer loyalty will become more and more difficult to achieve. The question that ever retailer should be asking themselves is where to take a stand. Is offering the greatest customer service, like Nordstrom, an answer? Is it making the shopping experience a form of entertainment, like Apple stores, a way to go? Is providing the highest quality products, like Whole Foods, an option? Maybe it’s instigating the perception that being a generic brand is to offer unbeatable value, as Costco has done with its Kirkland brand. Whatever it might be, remaining a relevant retailer means digging deep to find a unique point of difference.
Amping Up Conversion
As a result of the recession and customer confidence, Famous Footwear sales had been falling for six straight months. Rather than waiting for a natural turnaround in the economy, the company wished to identify actionable opportunities for increasing stagnant sales while maintaining the company’s current differentiation strategy. To tackle the problem, we used a combination of four research methodologies, three quantitative and one qualitative, in ten stores across four regions. Ethnographic customer studies were conducted using video/audio analytics and surveys. Also, using a technologically sophisticated video/audio analytics system installed in each test stores. We captured and coded over 20,000 customer experiences and perform and in-depth analysis of over 3,000 customer-employee dialogue exchanges. Results produced nine strategies for increasing conversion which were then tested. Within a year, same store sales were up 15.5% and the conversion rate was up for the first time in nearly a decade.
Designing a High Performance Culture
Activision, video game publisher, was looking to energize its performance culture. The goal was to establish a “common language” about great performance and to improve the quality of the conversations and decisions across the entire organization. We assembled a seasoned team of organizational psychologists to dig deep with company executives to understand their historical barriers to candid performance conversations and decisions and to articulate their desired performance culture. From this work, components of our overall solution were developed that would impact leadership. A competency model was then developed, approaches for enhancing talent selection and development outlined and a rollout and communication plan put in place. Our team then worked closely with influential members of the executive marketing team to ensure successful implementation of the new talent roadmap within the organization.
Even Apple has some room to improve
Walter Issacson’s biography of Steve Jobs reads like a Grissom novel. It’s an intriguing page turner and the perfect chronicle to the most interesting and successful career of our lifetime. Jobs was a perfectionist. No detail was too small for his intimidating scrutiny. He pushed, ranted and swore unmercifully at employees and suppliers until they satisfied what he was after. He was sometimes wrong, though rarely, but he never ever compromised. What he got in return were iconic products and, at the time of his death, the most valuable company on earth. We were most intrigued by the creation of the Apple retail store. How the idea emerged and how it evolved to create a totally new retail experience for customers and a profoundly profitable division for the company. This in spite of a number of board members who thought Jobs as crazy for wanting to open retail stores and for some “experts” who considered Apple stores to be a wildly radical idea that was doomed to failure. Today, we were intrigued by news that Apple has appointed a new head of their retail operations. The piece we saw said, “Apple’s minimalist retail stores, like its gadgets, get generally rave reviews. So while it may be tempting for the company’s newly tapped head of retail not to mess with the formula, judging from complaints posted on consumer message boards, there may still be room for improvement.” It went on to say that most common complaints on online message boards like AppleInsider.com, MacForums.com and Yelp.com seem to be directed toward the store’s staff: a blue-shirted army some customers contend can come across as smug and often arrogant, to the point of alienating customers who aren’t particular tech savvy.” Blogger Joe Manna writes, “The ...
Are you behind the smartphone age curve?
A recent Nielsen study shows that the vast majority of smart phone users are under 45 with ages 25-34 making up the most mobile age group with 62 percent owning smartphones, a 21 percent increase since last year. But don’t be deceived, Jamie Carracher of Edelman, Inc, write, “In 2011, some of the nearly 80 million Baby Boomers in the United States have turned 65 and are now “officially” senior citizens. Need context? Vint Cerf, Google’s chief Internet evangelist and one of the fathers of the Internet, turns 68 in June. The web, often viewed as a realm for just the young, is getting older. Carracher goes on to say, “It’s no secret that senior citizens have typically been slow to use new technologies, including social media. But recent trends show older people are among the fastest-growing demographics online. While overall usage of mobile devices is still relatively small among older people, it’s important to note that usage is growing, and in surprising ways. Older people are gaming on their phones. Around 13% of 55- to 64-year-olds and 5% of people 65 and older play games using a smartphone or standard cellphone. “If it’s good technology, seniors embrace it the same as everyone else,” he said. “The key here is if it is truly ‘good’ and they see a real use for it, whether for entertainment or business or lifestyle. They are smart shoppers who aren’t so much interested in useless ‘bells and whistles’ many products contain.” We’d warn that as a retailer today you are behind the curve if you aren’t study your customer’s behavior in order to provide the kind of engaging smartphone apps that help them shop your stores. But to be a leading edge retailer means that you are also developing engaging apps with older customers in mind as ...
