Hidden London - Brentford

London may have a Starbucks opposite a McDonalds on every corner, but you can still find a bit of old London hiding behind the High Street, in this case hiding behind the Beehive pub on Brentford High st. Who needs the Meatwagon when you've got Langley's winkles & cockles?

STOP PRESS: Airline provides decent customer service

Something very strange happened yesterday. I telephoned a large business, an airline to be specific, and a human being answered. Not only that, they answered after just 2 rings, they were polite, helpful and advised on how i could actually save money booking extra luggage on to their airline. I did actually wonder for a split second if i'd called the right number, understandable given that most airlines hide a telephone number in the dark corners of their website, desperate to avoid any irritating customers wasting their staff's time and driving up costs with something as inconvenient as a customer query. So well done Aurigny airlines, that sort of customer service could tip the balance on a short domestic route where there's nothing to choose between two competing airlines. Now if they could just relook at that £4 each way credit card fee...

Tweeting biscuit tins

I came across ‘super mechanical’ this afternoon. Two chaps formerly of MIT in Boston. They invent things like wallets that physically alert you to overspending online, furniture that turns digital communication into physical images and vice versa and their latest product – TWINE – a little battery powered box with sensors and WiFi connectivity that enables your house, or belongings to talk to you, well, send you a pre-determined alert message.

The beauty of this bit of kit is the set up. No coding, or instructional PDFs, just a simple user friendly rules based online app.



 

Use the temperature check to keep tabs on your wine cellar when you’re out for dinner. Or use the vibration sensor to keep guard on the biscuit tin when you’re grazing elsewhere. The uses are endless and at $99 a unit, its well worth a discretionary purchase – you may need to join the queue though. There’s a waiting list and the first products off the line will ship in the spring.

Fish on Shaftesbury Avenue

I walked past this great display of metal work sculptures suspended in an 'aquarium' on friday night on Shaftesbury avenue (Neal St end). You can see more by the Cornwall based artist, Michael Chaikin, here.

The importance of on going dialogue

A recent study in the run up to Christmas in the states by Mr Youth has found that brands are only responding to just over half of brand page posts (61% on Twitter and 55% on Facebook to be exact). It highlights an on-going challenge for brands and their social media presence – once you’ve taken the plunge, how do you maintain it?

In reality, there is no better approach than a ‘community manager’ installed within the brand’s business itself. A third party manager can delay response times (while seeking approvals), feel less authentic and often lead to higher costs but that’s still better than the biggest crime of all - an unresponsive brand. This role can’t just be 10% of someone’s job, in fact it’s more than likely going to turn into a full time one, but direct interaction with the customer will usually prove to be extremely valuable not just in building a stronger relationship and reputation for the brand, but ultimately in driving a higher rate of sales conversion and loyalty.

Whether that’s through improving customer support services through Twitter like DELL, providing real time flight information when the weather has caused chaos like EasyJet or simply answering sales enquiries – indeed the same study found that those brands that did invest in on-going conversations with interested consumers benefited from an impressive conversion rate: 80% of users that received a response went on to purchase.

December queues

As if the High Street wasn’t struggling enough, December brings with it a paradox for stores looking to capitalise on the busiest shopping month of the year. Stores hope to benefit from an influx of shoppers; meanwhile shoppers undergo a harrowing afternoon wrestling for presents in hot, overcrowded stores and then queue for what seems like hours to pay for things. Not really the best advert for the High Street shopping experience – why would a shopper come back? 

Queuing for three times as long isn’t going to endear me to any retailer – a walk past Neal’s Yard yesterday morning illustrated the point – a queue of 20 people at 11am waiting to buy their Christmas cheese, people were even queuing for Christmas booze outside Gerry’s on Old Compton Street!

Almost queuing out of the door at Gerry's

So given that retailers have embraced technology to take the sales transaction online, why not use technology to aid the in store experience as well?

I’d like a queue app. Let me know how long the queues are through the day, so I can time it right and when I’m in store let me know which checkout has the shortest queue. If Gatwick Airport can manage it (eventually), surely the big retailers can. They could even go one step further and use extra shop assistants to take transactions on foot for those waiting in the queue with smaller basket items – a small change that could make the purchase process a lot more efficient, and the whole experience a bit more pleasurable, that way I may be encouraged back again, rather than spending even more money on Amazon next year.

The future looks good for F-commerce

In 2006, Dr Robert Cialdini set out six universal  principles in order to understand the art of influence and persuasion.

Recent studies on the first F-commerce sites to launch worldwide highlights the natural advantage that social networks, particularly Facebook hold in being able to capitalise on these psychological traits. A full info graphic was developed by tabjuice and can be viewed here.

Social Proof: 81% of customers seek reassurance from friends and family members on social networking sites before purchasing products

Authority: 77% of online shoppers use reviews to make purchase decisions

Scarcity: 77% of people like getting exclusive offers that they can redeem via Facebook. We assign more value to products that are less available

Like: 50% of shoppers have made a purchase based on the recommendation of the people they follow (and like) on social networks. We follow those we like and do the things they do

Consistency: Purchases made from the brands we trust reinforce our future shopping patterns, 61% of online shoppers are more likely to be brand loyal

Reciprocity: We have an innate desire to repay favours in order to maintain social fairness, whether those favours are invited or not – and this is the very essence of Facebook, the connect and deals services will encourage this sharing behaviour yet further.