Tell me what I'm getting before you bill me

I bought a gently used car this past summer with the tricked out navigation system and ability to receive satellite radio. I spent about an hour a day in my car on my typical round trip commute and happy with NPR, the radio or my iphone for audio company. One day not too long ago, I noticed while cycling through my audio options that XM radio was enabled. I had not asked to activate it but thought 'Hey, I'm getting something for free!" Had I stumbled into one of those consumer utopian moments when you receive a subscriber based service for free? (Sort of like free HBO!) Don't ask, don't tell and hope that it continues.

I haven't spent much time in a car that receives satellite radio so I had to explore the selection of this service. I didn't have a program guide so the trial error was  hitting the next button and then trying to decide if I liked the current song playing or could interpret something from the name of the station (cryptic  titles like 'The Loft' or 'Willie's Place', the genre (Rock, Hip Hop, Country, etc.) and then the name of the song and artist. Was this station worthy of getting a button assignment on my radio? Very trial and error. I suppose I could have gone to XMradio.com and found the guide but I managed to find a half dozen stations I liked and was content.

So, you see what's coming. I got a bill for the next 3 months of satellite radio service from XM the other day. I had been enjoying a 60 day free trial. I was disappointed. Slightly angry that my 'free' service was just a trial and now the gig was up. I would have savored it more if I knew it had a life span!

So, companies out there who operate off the subscriber or freemium model, follow these guidelines for happier participants and likely a higher sign up rate:

1. Tell people up front! Don't let them stumble into it. Consumers like knowing what they get.
2. Tell them what they are getting and how to get the most from it! I spent a lot of time educating myself on the service and where to find music I liked. And there were likely other stations I would have enjoyed that would have endeared the service even more. 
3. Remind me what I'm getting during the trial period! Check in with me. Am I liking it? Did I try this feature? And create some urgency to sign up.
4. Then, bill me. Offer me something compelling to continue the service. 
5. And don't forget to check on me. Nurture me. Make me consistently happy. This is probably the most important step companies forget. 

It would work. It does work. And I'm back to NPR.

Why are we not shocked?

Today The Wall Street Journal published an article stating that Google preferenced results in Google's favor when it offered a service that matched the visitor's query. For example, if a user searched for a cloud based email service, Google Mail will be listed first. Hello?! Any search engine worth its weight in pixels preferences results in favor of the provider or product margin or affiliate bias--you name it. Why should Google, the most sophisticated search engine on the planet do that differently? And not just do it different, likely better than most.

It is probably no secret that search-based web services --auction sites, online travel sites, sales bots, etc-- all have rules running in the background which push favored results toward the top. In my experience working in online travel agency (OTA), when search results were returned for a flight there is often price parity in the results. OTAs are traditionally compensated most by airlines and hoteliers with minor contributions from purchases and service fees. And airlines, for example, offer OTAs volume incentives for selling X number of flights per route per month and get $Y in compensation. So if there are 4 airlines offering flights from Dallas to Houston at $139, you better believe they are going to list the airline first with the best incentive terms since most customers click on the first result. (Wait until Google launches its own travel site powered by ITA in 2011!)

The article concludes intimating that the EU sees this as suspect antitrust. I don't think there is much of a claim as their are alternatives in the marketplace and that this is a common practice in the online industry. If white hat companies were getting excluded from results, then there are problems. Otherwise, Google is rightfully featuring its services and will continue to reap the harvest of providing the leading search service. Get used to being pushed down the list, folks.

Is this better or is this?

A modern day scenario in desperate need of personalization: I took my wife to the optomitrist this past weekend. We've gone to this doctor/storefront for a number of years because they have a great selection of frames. The process of getting lenses (is this good or is this better?) with one's doctor hasn't substantively changed in decades. Nor has the process of selecting a new eyeglass frame with prescription in hand. Many years ago, I went frame shopping with a girlfriend (way before I met my wife) who couldn't understand why I had to try on so many frames to find the 'perfect' one. She had never worn glasses. I told her that if she had to wear the same shirt everyday, she would spend some time making the selection as well. She nodded, rolled her eyes and wandered away to shop for something else.

So back to trying on eyeglasses... The process starts with just scanning frame candidates, trying them on, and looking in a mirror. Never mind if you are terribly near or far sighted and can't see yourself clearly in a mirror without your prescription glasses. Tedious, at best.

Wouldn't it be great to introduce some modern day personalized technology to this process? Could I upload my straight on head shot to screen with some basic measurements (space between eyes, etc.) and then have the frames appear on my face. I could spin through multiple frames a minute and see how I would look. Then narrow it down to a handful to actually try in front of a mirror to check for fit and proportion. This would be great in a storefront or even better on a website. Somebody make this happen, please!

Where's the 4th dimension?

Most folks consider the 4th dimension to be Time. When we look at the online experience, depth is really metaphorical for an onscreen medium, but by 'depth,' we ask does it have gravitas or substance. By 'time,' I mean--does it make me come back. Does it have stickiness. Is there a retention strategy to make me come back and find it useful and relevant, time after time.

So, looking at the OMMA list of Web Award Finalists in their September edition, it was curious that there we no (or at least explicit) sites that had a prolonged usefulness. Most seemed to be a 'one and done' type of experience--albeit a beautiful and rich experience. It would be great to have a category in addition to Beverage, Automotive, Blogger(?!), and Financial Services which sought out rich experiences that served as an enduring resource and not just a one time, ooh-ahh experience.

Salesmen emulating salesmen

One of the cliches about online personalization is that the customer experience on your website should emulate your best salesman. This is a salesman who has met you, gotten to know you, and can, through explicit questions and inferences, tailor his or her message to you.  It is this promise that some personalization companies give to prospective clients.

As anyone who has attended a conference will attest, you talk to a lot of vendors who are eager to do business with you. I work for a Fortune 100 company so I was prime meat. So we talked--some short and some longer conversations; exchanges business cards; and I assumed there were be a follow up.

Lots of types of followup ensued. Some were quick, others taking 2 to 3 weeks. Some were personal emails; others were generic emails which were quickly trashed.  Some requests to talk or meet were so dogged, I felt like was being stalked. If this were an online relationship, I'm leaving the site and never coming back.

Here's my quick guidelines for after conference follow up. These work well for any online relationship too:

1) Get to know me. The best opportunity is the initial conversation. Ask the right quesitons and remember it.
2) Follow up. Not too fast and not too slow. And don't stalk me or we are through.
3) Offer me something of value. Why should I talk to you again? What do you have that is relevant to me?
4) Come prepared. OK, I will meet with you. When I do, let's not rehash what I already told you or someone else from your company.
5) Ask permission to nurture the relationship. Unlike a typical transactional relationship online, getting your solutiono inside my company will take time. Let's discuss how our relationship will go. I'm open and honest. If there isn't a future, it's only honest of me to say so. Let's not waste each other's time.

If you followed these guidelines while talking to me offline or online, we might have a long term relationship.

Credibility of User Review Writers

Up till recently, one could post a review powered Bazaar Voice or PowerReviews or the like to a product with a blurb and an ID like 'Dan W. Austin, Texas' And that was that. One didn't know Dan's trustworthiness any more than anyone else. Maybe because he was authentic, grammatically correct, a good speller or explicitly gave a clue to his identity that lent him credibility or trustworthiness. For example, dropping the line 'I've tried them all and...' or 'As a medical professional, I appreciate...' or the like.

So it was with some curiosity that I read a short article in Internet Retailer this month about porting Facebook info into a user reviewer's signature. See article.  The tool, from consumer ratings and reviews vendor PowerReviews Inc., enables willing shoppers to integrate their Facebook profile content, such as gender and age, into their reviews and their reviewer profiles on e-commerce sites. 

So Facebook is offering to push info to another site in addition to the pull it typically does. And, ever the opportunist, Facebook will ask if you would like to publish the user review on your Facebook page.

Would you be more likely to read a review posted by a doctor, professor or other esteemed professional? Or be biased toward a younger or older poster? One who lives in New York City or one who lives in Wyoming? One is intrigued with how far this could go and whether more than demographic information would be used.

Maybe the review would be signed like this: ".... I wholeheartedly recommend this product" -- Dan W., Austin, TX, age: 52, Computer Programmer, likes pepperoni pizza, Siberian Huskies and photography.

The article states early adopters as Diapers.com, Campmor and Abe’s of Maine but I was unable to see a treatment on these sites. Might be too new.

How much information would you amend to your review? Would it sway you the next time you read a review?  Hmmmm

Trading Privacy for Personalization

I've enjoyed the recent series of posts by IDEO on Fast Company's design site. Their recent article entitled "Why Would Trade Away Your Online Privacy? 6 Case Studies" is a terrific explanation of the trade-off with some relevant examples of companies doing this well. Personalization at most any level requires the input of some information (often provided as behavior at the least, and explicitly provided data at the most) and then we hope there is value in return. Think of a astute sales person who you have done business with over time. And that relationship, whether virtual or personal, establishes trust. To borrow IDEO's succinct explanation:

As people share more, their expectations are evolving from archiving services to personalized services that adapt to them, and even anticipatory services that nudge them in positive ways. This has resulted in services that capture people's history, filter their information, and turn it into tailored recommendations, options, alerts, and connections.

And then provides 4 tenants of trading data for personalization:

1. Make people feel safe
2. Support the moment of decision
3. Nudge, don't push
4. Don't be obtrusive

This list could be lifted from a recent Sales 101 training brochure but is well articulated for use in the online world. Sounds so basic but so difficult to execute, particularly in the online world. The article proceeds to give some great examples of new apps or sites that utilize these tenets to craft a more personalization user experience--mint.com, flickr, Netflix, FoodFlex, and Zumelife.