Work

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

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 ...

The Coca-Cola Company developed a groundbreaking touchscreen soda fountain that offers consumers a choice of 106 difference products and flavors. The fountain held the promise of broadening brand exposure and increasing choice at the point of sale. The challenge, however, was to convince restaurants that it’s a win for them.  Four research methods were employed: data mining, video analytics and customer intercepts.  Additionally, employee interviews provided further insight into the machine’s impact for a number of test restaurants used in the study. Results were able provide a sophisticated description of how ...

Levolor, a leading manufacture of high-end window treatments, was concerned about how their products were being marketed in big box home improvement retail chains. Our goal was to diagnose the scope and scale of the problem and provide a set of recommendations for high impact changes within constrains imposed by the retail chains. The engagement was kicked off with client a workshop to fully understand the situation. A deep dive into web sites, blogs and additional secondary sources broadened the team’s knowledge of window treatment marketplace. Following our background ...

A large regional medical center suffered from low compliance with bedside documentation protocols among nursing staff. Nurses complained the computer carts used to enter patient information were awkward, so they left them outside and completed their documentation upon finishing with the patient. To encourage compliance with bedside documentation, the hospital invested in expensive hand-held computers, which nurses were expected to carry with on their rounds. But upon visiting the ward, administrators were shocked and see the digital devices on the charging stations and the nurses still using the computer ...

With rising complexity in serving customers, McDonald’s executives raised the question of how capable their overall system was in achieving their operational challenges. An intense analysis of existing data as well as numerous in-depth personal interviews with company leaders, HR executives and store managers surfaced a wide number of issues that affected the system. Areas such as the ability of store management and operations to make the right choices for their particular situations, training efficiencies and store technology and design were identified and judged as important for upgrading the ...

Nautica was suffering from slowing traffic at their outlet stores and loss of market share from competitors such as Polo and Tommy Hilfiger.  Our research teams were deployed to particular stores armed with an iPad and surveillance technology designed to enhance the execution of customer intercepts, in-store shop-alongs, ethnographic observation and competitive benchmarking. Six barriers were identified as the cause of diminished in-store traffic.  To overcome and eliminate the barriers a staged roadmap addressing issues, ranging from modifying the brand story to improving product fit was recommended. As a final ...

Toys “R” Us was seeing an erosion of market share from major competitors. To stem the tide, the company tested several new format that combined children’s toys and baby products. On-the-ground research teams tracked the entire shopping experience of over 3000 customers, surveyed 200+ customers, and shadowed and interviewed 50+ employees using advanced video and analytics. Assessment of the new formats that highlighted their strengths and weakness compared to the traditional formats was shown. Recently, the company’s CEO has been praised for fending off competitors and maintaining profitability throughout the consumer slump, ...

Over the past decade, Blinds.com, the web’s leading window treatment and wallpaper retailer, saw tremendous growth through ground breaking web technologies, streamlined operations and calculated acquisitions. But when the housing market suddenly took a nosedive, senior leadership asked, “What’s next?” To provide the client with the most comprehensive understanding of their marketing channels and customers, we pooled customer data generated in-house with data acquired from outside sources. Rigorous data mining and statistical techniques were then applied to the combined data.  Brand profile and geo-demographic segmentation analysis, allowed the client ...

Walgreen’s was looking for a way to more easily update their shelf pricing by using Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs) to replace their traditional plastic labels. The innovative new price tags were designed to permit updating of pricing over a wireless computer network, thus significantly reducing costs and improving speed associated with regular pricing updates. To evaluate their effectiveness, we pre-recruited 48 participants and asked them to complete a range of in-store tasks while wearing mobile eye tracking glasses. Follow-up IPad based interviews were conducted as participants watched a “replay” of their ...

McDonald’s, the world's second largest employer, wished to identify opportunities for improving labor productivity world-wide. The complexity of this task was compounded by the fact that varying metrics are used across countries to evaluate labor efficiency.  Over a period of time, we facilitated an internal team in order to identify where opportunities existed and where common metrics could be efficiently employed. The result is a common language for metrics, prototyping where improvements can be made, field testing changes to employee engagement and recommendations for improvement and ultimate adoption.

To revitalize the customers experience in their stores, Radio Shack wished to better understand how customers shopped them. Several test stores were chosen and customers pre-recruited to participate in a number of shop-along tasks. Ethnography, eye-tracking glasses and IPad enhanced questioning using video replays were used to aid respondents in explaining their attitudes and behaviors. Several areas surfaced where customer engagement could be enhanced. These included design recommendations for how the stores could be made more convenient to navigate, how in-store signage could be enhanced and how associates could ...

Coca-cola was looking for a deeper understanding of how consumers shop their flavored water (Vitamin Water, Fuze, and Smart Water) on the crowded store shelves as well as specific merchandising recommendtations to improve sales. Using  mobile eye tracking glasses, the shopping experience of a selected sample of customer were recorded. Additionally a “retrospective talk aloud” procedure helped to better understand the customer behavior and motivations. Finally, customers viewed a video of their just completed shopping experience and were questioned on the spot as to the motivation. A detailed assessment of ...

Weak sales had plunged McDonald's stock price down to a 7-year low. Leadership called for a multi-million dollar investment to reverse the trend and regain industry status. Energy was growing around solving customers’ top complaint- inaccuracy of orders received. Many solutions had been proposed, but none were driving the desired results. Using data analytic expertise, Halverson mined over 5 million customer feedback records to better define the customer’s perspective on inaccurate orders. With strong client partnership, Halverson established buy-in to dig deep into the problem to pinpoint the root causes of ...

Lean Cuisine wished to improve their in-store merchandising at Target and other major grocery chains. To do so they developed a number merchandising and end-aisle alternatives designed to have maximum impact in driving customers to their products, and placed them in test stores. Customers were pre-recruited and asked to complete several tasks.  Using mobile eye-tracking devices customer behavior was coded. Further, customers were shown a replay of their eye-tracking and asked to reflect on their thoughts and actions throughout the process. Working in collaboration with the design team, we identify several high-impact ...

Our Lady of the Lake hospital was looking for ways to better serve patients and set out to overhaul their medical informatics system and protocols. Halverson Group was engaged to analyze the medication administration loop (doctor-pharmacist-nurse) as part of an overall effort to reduce medical errors. Approaching the hospital as a patient care service system, we examined staffing, protocols, SOPs, training and technology, among other things. What we uncovered was that errors were often the result of illegible prescriptions—a problem easily solved by implementing the prescription module in the ...

Radio Shack wished to profile the types of customers that shopped their stores. Knowing that demographics alone would not explain shopping attitudes, a study focusing more on psychographic profiles was undertaken. Customers were pre-recruited to test stores were they participated in various shopping tasks. Both mobile eye-camera tracking and personal interviews following the shopping tasks were used to collect data. Results identified the size of five different customer personas. Each shopped Radio Shack with a particularly set of expectations that generally emerged from their comfort and knowledge in ...

Lee Jeans needed to increase the traffic at their premium outlet mall stores. A study was undertaken to identify the factors that caused customers to shop outlet malls in the first place, surface the barriers to shopping Lee stores and evaluate if and how competitive outlet mall stores might be outperforming Lee. In mall intercept interviews were conducted with customers visiting Lee, those passing Lee without going in as well as well shoppers who visited only stores competitive to Lee. Results showed that factors such as the perception that Lee didn’t carry ...

McDonald’s developed a promising new approach for front counter employees to serve customers. The goal of the research was to assess the effectiveness of new system on both customers placing orders and employees filling them. Video and audio analytics were used to capture and code thousands of transactions during a six month trial period at test restaurants. Additionally, personal interviews were conducted with customers and store crews. Results indicated customers they liked the new system and that it reflected positively on McDonald’s in the way customers were served. ...

McDonald’s developed a new burger and wished to gain a deeper insight in customer opinions of the burger, explore associations drawn from the name and identify any potential barriers to trial.  Test stores were used in featuring the new burger and video and audio interviews were conducted with both burger triers and non-triers. Results showed strong acceptance of the product but also indicated areas were operations could improve so that product acceptance could be further enhanced. Recommendations were made as to where marketing and promotional programs could grow trial ...