Comments on: You Need To Educate Your Customers If You Want To Be Successful http://www.dotdust.com/you-need-to-educate-your-customers-if-you-want-to-be-successful-338.htm An Innovation Weblog Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:55:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: AG http://www.dotdust.com/you-need-to-educate-your-customers-if-you-want-to-be-successful-338.htm#comment-25224 AG Tue, 29 Apr 2008 07:51:31 +0000 http://www.dotdust.com/you-need-to-educate-your-customers-if-you-want-to-be-successful-338.htm#comment-25224 Hi Gregg, Thankyou for your comment! I personally think that the Surface technology may definitely help customers to get their phone fully customized according to their taste. One of the major issues we face as operators is making people happy with their mobile phone. Unfortunately the limited size of the screen and the limited interaction you can design on a mobile device makes customization a real pain for customers. Moreover they are much more confident with a PC like device like Microsoft Surface than with a mobile device. It is, again, a matter of education. Maybe they already use a computer at home and they feel confident with it. A mobile phone is a different story. Every single vendor has its own paradigm regarding User Interface and User Interaction and sometimes it is really hard to figure out how things works on a mobile device. On the other hand I think that Microsoft Surface may help operators to lower costs on their stores even if they may find that a human interaction is always preferred by people. I do not know if this happens in the US but here in Italy people wants to be reassured about what they buy and I think this can be done only by a human being. AT&T go to market strategy is a little bit too conservative, according to my opinion. The iPhone has proven to be a product that sells by itself. So they may want to loosen the conservative strategy a little bit in the future letting their distribution channel sell the product as well. They will probably loose some margin but they will have a capillarity on the territory that they do not have today. (Even if it is true that people is keen to drive 150 miles to get an iPhone) I think that it is a good idea for Microsoft to open retail stores and use their own technology to power the stores. I happened to be in San Francisco a while ago and I visited the Apple Store where I bought my MacBook Pro. I had a great customer experience and I found the store to be one the most beautiful place where a customer can shop. This is the approach the Microsoft should take when thinking about opening retail stores. If you think about what Apple does with his customer it is nothing else that education. Their Genius Bar is there to help customers with problems while they run training classes on their products on a regular basis and for free. That is the way to go. We should learn something there. Hi Gregg,

Thankyou for your comment!

I personally think that the Surface technology may definitely help customers to get their phone fully customized according to their taste. One of the major issues we face as operators is making people happy with their mobile phone. Unfortunately the limited size of the screen and the limited interaction you can design on a mobile device makes customization a real pain for customers.

Moreover they are much more confident with a PC like device like Microsoft Surface than with a mobile device. It is, again, a matter of education. Maybe they already use a computer at home and they feel confident with it. A mobile phone is a different story. Every single vendor has its own paradigm regarding User Interface and User Interaction and sometimes it is really hard to figure out how things works on a mobile device.

On the other hand I think that Microsoft Surface may help operators to lower costs on their stores even if they may find that a human interaction is always preferred by people. I do not know if this happens in the US but here in Italy people wants to be reassured about what they buy and I think this can be done only by a human being.

AT&T go to market strategy is a little bit too conservative, according to my opinion. The iPhone has proven to be a product that sells by itself. So they may want to loosen the conservative strategy a little bit in the future letting their distribution channel sell the product as well. They will probably loose some margin but they will have a capillarity on the territory that they do not have today. (Even if it is true that people is keen to drive 150 miles to get an iPhone)

I think that it is a good idea for Microsoft to open retail stores and use their own technology to power the stores. I happened to be in San Francisco a while ago and I visited the Apple Store where I bought my MacBook Pro. I had a great customer experience and I found the store to be one the most beautiful place where a customer can shop.

This is the approach the Microsoft should take when thinking about opening retail stores. If you think about what Apple does with his customer it is nothing else that education. Their Genius Bar is there to help customers with problems while they run training classes on their products on a regular basis and for free.

That is the way to go.

We should learn something there.

]]> By: Gregg Kail http://www.dotdust.com/you-need-to-educate-your-customers-if-you-want-to-be-successful-338.htm#comment-25055 Gregg Kail Mon, 28 Apr 2008 05:17:02 +0000 http://www.dotdust.com/you-need-to-educate-your-customers-if-you-want-to-be-successful-338.htm#comment-25055 What is your opinion of Microsoft's initiative of Surface technology that is a touch-based display being implemented in selected AT&T Mobility stores in the USA. The touch-screen table enables the customer to interact with live demonstrations and customize handsets by “dropping” in features. AT&T has a product line of handsets covering five operating systems besides Windows Mobile. AT&T is attempting to increase feature sales and reduce service costs. The question is whether the customer acquires any educational value and enhances their mobile lifestyle. AT&T is competing with Verizon Wireless for demonstration stores with AT&T calling their design as Experience Stores and Verizon as Evolution Stores. The issue for the US market is that almost 80% of wireless distribution is agent-managed stores instead of operator-owned locations. For example, AT&T has only 1,800 operator-owned stores but over 20,000 points of distribution. The agent stores are operator-branded, but tend to be sales-focused rather than support and service the customer. The iPhone was a distribution test in that it was only launched in the 1,800 AT&T operator-owned stores and 120 Apple stores in the US market. Because of the revenue sharing with Apple, AT&T did not want to reduce the margin by paying agent stores to sell the iPhone. Apple's brand had the power to create demand for the iPhone that eanbled the limited distribution to be highly successful. And the large volume of online ordering reduced the need for physical store sites, but created the unlocking problem and over 20% lost activations to AT&T. And an additional question is about Microsoft's interest in opening retail stores. Does Microsoft gain traction for its Windows Mobile with the presence of Surface technology in mobile stores? What is your opinion of Microsoft’s initiative of Surface technology that is a touch-based display being implemented in selected AT&T Mobility stores in the USA. The touch-screen table enables the customer to interact with live demonstrations and customize handsets by “dropping” in features. AT&T has a product line of handsets covering five operating systems besides Windows Mobile. AT&T is attempting to increase feature sales and reduce service costs. The question is whether the customer acquires any educational value and enhances their mobile lifestyle. AT&T is competing with Verizon Wireless for demonstration stores with AT&T calling their design as Experience Stores and Verizon as Evolution Stores. The issue for the US market is that almost 80% of wireless distribution is agent-managed stores instead of operator-owned locations. For example, AT&T has only 1,800 operator-owned stores but over 20,000 points of distribution. The agent stores are operator-branded, but tend to be sales-focused rather than support and service the customer. The iPhone was a distribution test in that it was only launched in the 1,800 AT&T operator-owned stores and 120 Apple stores in the US market. Because of the revenue sharing with Apple, AT&T did not want to reduce the margin by paying agent stores to sell the iPhone. Apple’s brand had the power to create demand for the iPhone that eanbled the limited distribution to be highly successful. And the large volume of online ordering reduced the need for physical store sites, but created the unlocking problem and over 20% lost activations to AT&T. And an additional question is about Microsoft’s interest in opening retail stores. Does Microsoft gain traction for its Windows Mobile with the presence of Surface technology in mobile stores?

]]> By: Simon http://www.dotdust.com/you-need-to-educate-your-customers-if-you-want-to-be-successful-338.htm#comment-22942 Simon Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:16:55 +0000 http://www.dotdust.com/you-need-to-educate-your-customers-if-you-want-to-be-successful-338.htm#comment-22942 I do my day job in the insurance industry and that is all we seem to do by educating our customers. Trouble is the education is always what they can do and what they can't, spose abit like technology :) I do my day job in the insurance industry and that is all we seem to do by educating our customers. Trouble is the education is always what they can do and what they can’t, spose abit like technology :)

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