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luni, 3 februarie 2014

Watch: West Wing Week Turns 200!

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This anniversary episode, hosted by the President, coincided with this year's State of the Union Address. We take you behind the scenes and on the road to speak directly with Americans like you about your lives and your families -- and show how together we can make sure that every American who works and studies hard has a real chance to get ahead.

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6 Principles of Service Design to Help You Reach Your Customers

Posted: 02 Feb 2014 03:12 PM PST

Posted by mariahayhow

Three months ago, in a group interview for a position at Distilled, Rob Ousbey asked, "If I were to do a Google search on "coffee" in Seattle at noon on a Saturday, what would it look like?" Still not sure I gave the best answer, but the rest of the interview must have gone well.

Another coffee quote that has been brewing in my mind (I'll stop now) has to do with service design.
Marc Fontijn, co-founder of the Dutch service design agency 31Volts states, "When you have two coffee shops right next to each other, that each sell the exact same coffee at the exact same price. Service design is what makes you walk into the one and not the other."

Good service design is a series of choreographed tangible and intangible brand experiences that lead users to differentiate and choose between products and services.

I've become increasingly interested in how to pinpoint what makes good service design and how it can enhance businesses and brands. The field is very well explained in This is Service Design Thinking's one-minute video below...

One major principle of service design is meeting users where they are, and what better place than the Internet? For the purposes of this audience and those you serve, let's look at six ways in which service design can be applied to your work online.

Include Users Early and Often

Service design helps weave together experiences with brands, creating an ongoing brand relationship.

Take, for example, Lululemon's "One More Time"campaign, which asks the heylululemon online community members to collectively decide which garments to bring back into production. Lululemon then relays the story of how and why the garment was made in "Sketchpad to Shelf."

The multiple asks for user-participation in "One More Time" allows users to feel like part of the designer and merchant selection process, while the "SketchPad to Shelf" collateral allows users to experience even more of the creation process.

Applied online...
Bounce rate: Check out Michael King's blog segment on user journey exercises. It offers insight into how users interact both on- and offline. Consider developing user journeys to create a more user-centric website design, inserting delightful moments throughout the users' navigation.

Design for Everyone

Service design improves support system infrastructure while empowering all users.

Kiind, a "zero-waste gift campaign platform," allows gift-givers the ability to send and track gift card usage. The service allows gift recipients to either use the gift certificate or donate the dollar amount to charity. The gift-giver is notified of how the recipients used the gift, so they can determine the best gifts to give in the future. The gift-giver is also not charged for any unclaimed gift cards.

Seamless operational design and close attention to user needs allows for all involved parties to have an experience worth their engagement or recommendation.

Applied online...
Conversion rate: Look no further than Paddy Moogan's 18 Tools for CRO. Pinpoint which user testing tools and tactics can identify your users' needs and predict their future behaviors.

Expand Your Brand

The application of service design principles can expand business offerings, defend brand ethos, and re-affirm customer loyalty.

Look to the popular "Dumb Ways to Die" Internet video sensation, which supported a pledge campaign for rail safety and is now expanding into the plush toy market. The idea to push the adorably dead-defined creatures to plush came from fans of the viral video. While there were other offers for product monetization, Metro spokesperson Leah Waymark stated they "narrowed it to what we thought would be most important, and that's the brand integrity [...] Finding a way to engage with people in different ways and keep the conversation alive was foremost."

The focus on maintaining the original piece's brand integrity not only maintains consistency but prolongs the character(s) of the video in a meaningful way. Service design places a large emphasis on the user relationship, not just a single interaction.

Applied online...
Content strategy: Look at Stephanie Chang's breakdown of consumer purchasing involvement outlines how to determine the, "marketability of a product." Note the differences between "think" and "feel" purchases in order to create content catered to your consumers' expectations and level of brand investment.

Use Data Driven Design

The best examples of service design aren't built with data in mind, but by data itself.

Jetpac, a city app guide, taps into Instagram via image analysis algorithms, to determine an area's feel. The data analysis determines people's moods in the photos, using even their facial attributes to curate the "Happiest places in town" or the background colors to compose "Scenic Hikes." The app uses publicly posted photos to vote up specific areas in each city to compose these lists.

The Jetpac app portrays data in a very personable and quirky way, all too relatable for travelers looking to grab a cup of joe while avoiding "Hipster hangouts." The ability to provide a service for people by other locals' input helps to create more personalized and unique experiences.

Applied online...Keyword research: No one says it better than THE Kate Morris, "If you want to know what content to write to rank for terms, ask the people who are searching for that topic what they are looking for, and write that. This changes how we do research, but I think for the better." Check in with your consumers early and often, and build content accordingly.

Meet and Create Expectations

In regards to user expectations for online experiences, good informational design and content should allow the user to understand the information presented to them and offer a logical next step in their decision process. Service design uses the same navigable path, but seeks to provide moments of delight.

Grey Poupon meets its consumers in an online space, but in lieu of begging for Facebook likes their digital campaign judges whether people actually belong in "The Society of Good Taste." The application process is unique to Grey Poupon, with the same British snarkiness seen in their earlier TV marketing campaigns.

Service design thrives upon creating an open dialogue between creators and consumers. Brands that give their users something to talk about and a space to discuss enable a series of more notable brand relationship.

Applied online...
Influencer amplification: Brands that celebrate their users ultimately create influencers, who as Rand states, "need new unique content to share, all the time." Continuing the conversation is ultimately continuing the consumer relationship; brands should build experiences that enable ongoing conversations, to be seen as and support a higher level of service.

Deliver and Delight

Each touch point with a brand be it on or offline should carry equal recognition from the user. Good service design supports and infrastructure of consistent messaging, in a variety of unique ways.

Cards Against Humanity, the self-proclaimed "party game for horrible people," launched "12 Days of Holiday Bullshit," with 100,000 people paying $12/ea for an unknown array of gifts over 12 days. Cards Against Humanity obviously prides itself on witty content and the campaign collateral held its own. The brand messaging is consistent from the order summary email, the FAQ response to complaints regarding late shipments, and a 12-day recap website.

Service design is built to offer the user a seamless series of brand experiences with moments of delight. Cards Against Humanity ensured each piece of collateral was in its brand tone of voice and was delivered in a novel way.

Applied online...
Highly targeted content: Get the full tutorial from Kyra Kuik's post which details how you can build a consistent brand experience, brand identification, and brand trust.

Service design is designing notable experiences in consistently novel ways.

I'm truly excited by the potential of service design as a driver of both good user-centric design and innovation, online. It's great to see the mesh of a seemingly intangible field produce tangible results.

Please leave your thoughts or comments below!

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Seth's Blog : Do you love your customers?

Do you love your customers?

There are two ways people think about this:

We love our customers because they pay us money. (Inherent here is customers = money = love.)
We love our customers, and sometimes there's a transaction.

The second is very different indeed from the first.

In the first case, customers are the means to an end, profit. In the second, the organization exists to serve customers, and profit is both an enabler and a possible side effect.

It's easy to argue that without compensation, there can be no service. Taking that to an extreme, though, working to maximize the short-term value of each transaction rarely scales. If you hoard information, for example, today your prospects will simply click and find it somewhere else. If you seek to charge above average prices for below average products, your customers will discover this, and let the world know. In a free market with plenty of information, it's very hard to succeed merely by loving the money your customers pay you.

I think it's fascinating to note that some of the most successful organizations of our time got there by focusing obsessively on service, viewing compensation as an afterthought or a side effect. As marketing gets more and more expensive, it turns out that caring for people is a useful shortcut to trust, which leads to all the other things that a growing organization seeks.

Your customers can tell.

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duminică, 2 februarie 2014

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Gold and Silver Derivatives in Chart Form: What Market Makers Have Controlling Interests?

Posted: 02 Feb 2014 08:11 PM PST

Here are a few charts from Sharelynx Gold regarding precious metal derivative holdings. The charts are as September 30, the latest data available. Click on any chart for sharper image.

OCC Gold Derivatives All Maturities

OCC Silver, Palladium, Plagtinum Derivatives All Maturities

Aggregate Precious Metal Derivatives

Some will point to these charts as "proof" of manipulation. I suggest it is proof of "possible" manipulation.

Is there manipulation? Of course there is. But there is no evidence to prove it is in one direction only, or that central banks are behind it all, as some maintain.

For further discussion, please see Gold Manipulation: Is it Illegal? Risk Free? What About JP Morgan?

As always, views expressed regarding charts created by other, are mine.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Real Life Obamacare Small Business, Benefit-Shifting Example

Posted: 02 Feb 2014 10:00 AM PST

Here is an interesting video regarding the effects of Obamacare on all the employees at at Simonetta's auto repair shop in Pennsylvania. The video was made by a local TV station.

A couple premiums dropped, but most went up, some by huge amounts. In every case deductibles soared. Every person involved is worse off than before.

Link if video does not play: Employees in Pennsylvania Company Learn of Increased Health Costs Due to Obamacare

Partial Transcript

Jeff and Dave used to have a $1,250 deductible. Since Obamacare went into effect, it's now jumped 60 percent to $2,000. That's nothing compared to Brian, Kristi, and Judy who have kids. they are going to pay twice that, four grand."

"I don't know how President Obama thinks he's helping us because we can't afford this, we can't afford to pay these co-pays, to pay these deductibles on what we're making," says one of the workers.

Another worker adds, "They call it the affordable health plan. There's nothing affordable about it. I can't afford it."

Winners and Losers

Obamacare shifted the winners and losers.

A small number of people gained big (those with no insurance, those with preexisting conditions, and those who get free Medicaid). To pay for that, a large number of people lost, to varying degrees.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Seth's Blog : Groundhog day and the Super Bowl

Groundhog day and the Super Bowl

One way the tribe identifies is through the observance of a holiday, of a group custom, of the thing we all do together that proves we are in sync. People thrive on mass celebration, but as our culture has fragmented, these universal observances are harder to find. We used to watch the same TV shows at the same time, eat the same foods, drive the same car. Given a choice, though, many people take the choice—and so, as the culture fragments, we move away from the center and to the edges.

Halloween and the Super Bowl are the new secular holidays, the group-mania events that prove we're able to stay in sync. Every year, signed up for it or not, each of us is expected to survive the relentless hype. We see almost a month's worth of never-ending media about the Super Bowl—business articles, travel articles, legal articles, cooking articles—a huge onslaught of content-free noise.

And every year, the commercials disappoint, while the game includes eleven minutes of action over the course of four hours of not so much.

And yet we do it again and again. Because the corporate hoopla is beside the real point, which is a chance for all of us to talk about the same thing at the same time. This is part of what it means to belong.

While the Super Bowl is a large-scale example of this happening across a huge swath of people, these occurences happen often in much smaller tribes as well. The buzz about Fashion Week or CES or the latest from Sundance are micro varieties of the same desire to be in sync. Your customers and your employees want to feel what it feels to do what other people are doing. Not everyone, just the people they identify with.

It's easy to be persuaded that this event is somehow about the game, or the coverage or the hype, but it's not. Like Groundhog day, it's a pointless thing we do over and over again, because hanging out with people you care about (even if it's just to eat junk food and talk about how bad the commercials are) is almost always worth doing.

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sâmbătă, 1 februarie 2014

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Argentina Central Bank Bans Imports Due to Lack of Dollars; Argentina to Apply "Iron Fist" to Those Who Raise Prices

Posted: 01 Feb 2014 07:21 PM PST

As reserves run dry, demand for dollars soars in emerging market countries, prompting inane economic actions.

Via google translation from Libre Mercardo, please consider Argentina Cerntral Bank Bans Imports Due to Lack of Dollars.

The fourth day of falling reserves has the Argentine central reeling. This Wednesday reserves fell by 180 million and this month reserves declined by $2 billion. Due to demand and the low level of foreign exchange reserves, the central bank has stopped payment of imports, according to Argentine newspaper La Nacion.

"Almost all the customers who went to the bank did so to hoard dollars," claimed the cashier of a national bank to the southern newspaper.

"Today almost no imports were approved import" confided the head of the table of a major bank in the nation.

Argentina to Apply "Iron Fist" to Those Who Raise Prices

Via translation from El Economista, please consider Argentina Threatens to "Get Tough" on Businesses that Raise Prices.

Economic war has moved to Argentina. The Argentine government said it will apply an "iron fist" against the shops and businesses that raise prices following the sharp devaluation of the local currency last week, hoping to avoid tripping high inflation in the country.

Argentina has one of the highest inflation rates in the world, which in 2013 was around 25% according to private estimates.

Prices of products with imported components such as appliances and vehicles rose immediately after the devaluation. Moody's expects a devaluation of the Argentine peso 50% in 2014.

Before the devaluation, the Government launched a plan to fix maximum prices on about a hundred products sold in supermarkets. But the incentive is limited and includes products that are hard to find on the shelves.

Simple Rules

Fix prices too low and there will be no supply. Stores will not sell at a loss. Set prices too high and sellers will come out of the woodwork.

For an example of the latter, please see China Abandons Disastrous Cotton Stockpiling Program; Lessons Not Learned; What About Stockpiling Money?

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Barcelona to Fine Owners of Empty Homes 100,000 Euros

Posted: 01 Feb 2014 11:11 AM PST

Via translation from Libre Mercado, the city council of Barcelona, Spain proposes €100,000 Fine on Owners of Empty Homes.

The City Council will fine owners of empty homes up to 100,000 euros. The proposal by the City Council commits the government to detect unused homes, starting with the banks.

The statement also reflects the Council's commitment to initiate disciplinary proceedings which could end up with three fines "of up to 100,000 euros" if homes remain empty. The municipality of Barcelona draw "Inspection Programs to detect, check and effects pointing this statement, in order to guarantee the right to housing of the population and to address the housing emergency."

With this measure, Barcelona joins other municipalities that have already approved the proposal of the PAH as Gerona, Tarrassa or Santa Coloma de Gramenet.

Scramble For Renters On

To get around this idiotic law, banks and other landlords will either have to tear down houses or quickly dump them at distressed prices. Both of those things will compound the difficulties of already stressed banks.

Alternatively, banks, other landlords, and owners of vacations homes will enter a mad scramble to find renters, at any price, to get around the occupancy restriction. An avoidance maneuver of that kind would stress rent prices and rental landlords.

Clearly, this is another one of those too stupid to make up ideas.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Restoring Opportunity for All

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Weekly Address: Restoring Opportunity for All

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luni, 3 februarie 2014

Watch: West Wing Week Turns 200!

6 Principles of Service Design to Help You Reach Your Customers

6 Principles of Service Design to Help You Reach Your Customers

Seth's Blog : Do you love your customers?

Do you love your customers?

More Recent Articles

duminică, 2 februarie 2014

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Seth's Blog : Groundhog day and the Super Bowl

Groundhog day and the Super Bowl

More Recent Articles

sâmbătă, 1 februarie 2014

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Restoring Opportunity for All

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