Expedient MEANS

I set out to do the simple task of certifying my taxpayer identification number at the request of Mellon Investments, and ended up spending nearly an hour over three days and it’s still not done. You can see the earlier posts here and here.

Today I tried again to log into my account. Couldn’t, but noticed they have live chat, so I joined the conversation. A gentleman named Ed came on to help. He was very good at chat, clear and to the point. He was able to take me through a process whereby I could log in. Why I suddenly couldn’t is a mystery.

I’m in and so tried one more time to certify my TIN online as instructed in the mailer. Once again I was locked out, although I used the same credentials submitted at log in. I got this message.

I navigated to the forms section and downloaded the appropriate PDF, which is what the phone agent told me to do the day before. They had two nice controls at the top of the form. One that highlights the fields you need to complete; pretty nice. The other allows you to fill in the form online and print it prefilled, which means you only have to sign and mail. I selected this choice, keyed in the information and hit print. The form came out of my printer completely unreadable. The SSN was filled in, but it wasn’t mine. Who’s was it? Where did mine go?

I reloaded the PDF, printed a blank form, filled it out with an ink pen, addressed an envelope (I’m guessing on where it should be sent), and stamped it to be mailed. Hopefully they will receive and process it. Please let this be over.

Like millions of others, I was browsing the iPhone 2.0 applications on iTunes last Friday. I got my iPhone on June 30th, 2007, the first day it was available. I have been giddy over it ever since, but am comfortably encased in my talk and data plan, and don’t see enough of a benefit to switch to the 3G, at least not at this time. I spend more time on SMS, talking to people (yes you can do that on a phone), managing my calendar and contacts and using the applications than surfing the web. The extra speed would be nice, but not the additional expense.

While on the iTunes applications site I came across the Pandora application. I’m a big fan of Pandora as you can read in a previous post here. I have spent some time setting up stations so I can listen to them through my G5 Mac as well as on my Sonos music system. The Pandora iTunes application is seamlessly integrated with your web settings, and allows you to log in and gain access to all the stations you have set up through your computer. So now I can access the Music Genome Project where ever I go. Love it. The Pandora application is free. Get it, use it. It rules.

Yesterday I wrote about the problems I encountered with the Mellon Investor web site. I was forced to call today to conduct my transaction. Got through to an agent quickly, but she couldn’t help. Couldn’t explain why I go the error message, confirmed my account was not locked, and informed me they were having problems with their Interactive Voice Response System, which is why I didn’t hear the prompt. Her only offered solution was for me to go back to the site, download a paper form, fill it out and mail it in.

So this evening I went back to the site to do this and I was unable to log in. Error messages indicated that either my investor number or PIN were not valid. Triple checked my entries. They are correct. Now I have to call them again tomorrow. I’m too busy for this.

Geeeeeesssssssh.

I received a mailing from Mellon Investment today with a request to identify and certify my taxpayer information. I was provided with two ways to carry out this request; over the phone or through the Internet. I had already set up my account so online was an easy choice. I logged in and followed the instructions. I verified my information and entered my PIN to complete the transaction. I received an error that my PIN was invalid, although it was the same one used to log in not 2 minutes before. Three attempts and I was locked out. So I guess I’ve got to use the phone.

I called the toll free number and listened to a series or prompts, none of which matched the instructions on the mailer. Eventually I got to the “for all other issues press 5,” So I did. I entered my ID number and PIN and was promptly told, “We’re closed.

Lots of things wrong here.

• The mailer lists the phone option first vs. the cheaper online channel.
• If you are going to drive people to the phone as a first choice, you better be on the other end when they call.
• The online certification process was full of financial jargon and unclear.
• The system would not accept my valid PIN.
• No phone hours of operation were printed on the mailer, which is fair since they say the have an Interactive Voice Response system, but the expected prompts never came.

I am an experienced Internet user and work in financial services, and I failed to complete the transaction in both channels. Now I have to take the mailing to work, find time to call, wait in the cue and then conduct the transaction. So frustrating. True, the cross channel game is tougher to master, but it’s not that hard. Get it together Mellon.

I will give them one positive. When I logged off after being shutout they asked for feedback through an online satisfaction survey. Do you think I took it?

In an earlier post I waxed lyrical about the Flock social browser. I have now officially abandoned Firefox and Safari for Flock. As a Mac user I don’t have an IE option (yet another benefit of using a Mac).

Flock also has an Eco-Edition browser for both Mac and Windows. Of course it’s adorned in a cool green look while providing news feeds, content and media from the best green sources available on the web. Maintaining your cutting edge eco-friendly attitude has never been easier.

Best of all, Flock will donate 10% of its search proceeds to a green charity of choice as voted by the Eco-Edition users at the end of the year. I discover more and more cool things about Flock everyday.

Pangea means entire earth. The supercontinent of 250 million years ago before the land masses separated into today’s configuration. At that time the world was one. Today it’s still one, of course, and we are all of the human race. But we have so far to go when it comes to tolerance, understanding and embracing each other’s differences.

Pangea Day 2008 took a small, but meaningful step towards bringing us together through the international language of film. The idea took flight in 2006 when filmmaker Jehane Noujaim won the TED Prize (Technology, Entertainment Design). She was granted $100,000, and more important, a wish to change the world. Her wish was to create a day in which the world would come together through film.

On the Pangea Day web site they define their mission and purpose as follows:

In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it’s easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that—to help people see themselves in others—through the power of film.

My description for Pangea Day? Sundance with a cause.

May 10th was Pangea Day. Films and speeches were streamed to a worldwide audience. Over 2,000 films were submitted for consideration. The broadcast was a 4 hour wonder for the eyes, ears, heart and mind. Here is one of my favorite films, shot entirely with a Nokia cell phone by Sumit Roy.

Follow this deep link to see all the films one at a time. To see the full show go here. Don’t have 4 hours for the entire show? View a one hour highlight reel here. Find ways you can take action and push this cause even further here. Hollywood, wake up. There is so much more you can do.

When I saw the trailer for Hancock a couple of weeks ago I thought to myself, “This is just another super hero, star vehicle of a movie.” Even though the trailer clearly delivered on communicating the “twist,” that Hancock was kind of a jerk, reluctant to help, and needed to work on his rescue technique, I was not convinced I should put it on my list. My oldest son was heading back east for a couple of weeks, so I thought we could go out to a movie together on his last night. He chose Hancock. I was very glad he did. I thoroughly enjoyed this 92 minutes.

Photo Credit: Columbia Pictures

Will Smith plays Hancock, a human with super human powers, who could use a week or two at charm farm. He’s usually drunk, smelly, a bad dresser and downright nasty. Most of his time is spent asleep, but occasionally he flies around foiling crime, however, he does so without precision. In the opening scene Hancock is out to stop three guys in a white SUV shooting randomly at cars, while on a stretch of the L.A. freeway. In the process he demolishes sections of buildings, freeway signs, countless cars and the freeway itself, finishing off his chore by impaling the vehicle on the spire of the Capitol Records building.

The city is up in arms. Although they like his powers, and the idea of a super hero, they are worn out having to clean up after him. Warrants are out for his arrest, and everyone seems to want him to just go away. The L.A. mayor encourages him to move to NYC.

Will Smith delivers another fine performance. He is funny of course, but his physical athletics make us believe he is a human with super powers. It doesn’t look fake. As he did so well in I Am Legend, Mr. Smith gives us some deeply moving, quiet moments as he wrestles with his thoughts and tries to sort out his past. Mr. Smith is so very strong when the character motivation is personal. Hancock is as personal a role as you can get.

He saves Ray Embrey (played with perfect pitch by Jason Bateman), from being crushed by a train. Hancock tosses Ray’s car up into the air and stops the train with an outstretched arm, causing a derailment; yet another mess for the city. In this turning point scene, the crowd surrounds Hancock amid the debris and takes him to task. “Why didn’t you raise the car and let the train pass? That would have been the best way.” Hancock can’t believe what he’s hearing. Little old ladies and fat men giving him tips on technique. Ray enters and takes over to defuse the crowd, thanking Hancock for saving his life and asks to be flown home.

The story could have easily gone the Hollywood expected route, but writers Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan, took us down a very different path. Ray is an aspiring public relations guy and has been going from company to company pitching his “all heart” cause. Firms would give away their products, like TB drugs, to those who need it most, in exchange for the bump their brands would get being part of the greater good. No one’s biting.

The train incident has given Ray a fresh idea. A public relations makeover for Hancock. After much convincing, there is an agreement and some hilarious scenes of Hancock in prison, working off his time. The thought was, once crime rose, the city officials would free him to fly once again.

Photo Credit: Columbia Pictures

Ray is married to Mary (Charlize Theron), presumably a stay at home mom raising Aaron, Ray’s son from a previous marriage. Ms. Theron is out of her ugly prosthetic masks of past films and back looking absolutely stunning in the warm glow of the southern California sun. Ms. Theron has earned the respect of the acting world and applies it with just the right touch here. From the outset Mary seems mis-placed in this middle class suburban cul-de-sac, and we wonder why she is married to Ray. Her secret is soon revealed, and it’s delicious. I won’t divulge it here (total spoiler), but it makes the film, propelling the story on a completely new arc.

It’s as if there are two films going on here, and director Peter Berg weaves them together with comic relief as well as dramatic substance. Highly recommended for fans of action films looking for something more to think about. This one should do well at the box office. Visit the official Hancock site here. It is not as easy to navigate as most, but still some cool stuff.

Customer Expectations During the Online Application Process

This post closes out my series on the Forrester Finance Forum held in New York City on June 23rd and 24th, 2008. You can read part one here and part two here. I always walk away from a Forrester Forum with a rich list of insights. If I were to stop and try to characterize one benefit that attending a Forrester Forums gives me, its energize me to challenge the status quo.

Photo Credit: Steve A Furman

Brad Strothkamp, principal analyst at Forrester, presented Mastering Web Sales by Focusing on Shoppers’ Expectations on the second day. The stats are interesting and compelling. 40MM consumers applied for a financial service product online in 2007, and 50% of them were applying online for the first time. That’s significant, because most of us who design online applications do so with deep knowledge of financial products and how the systems work. We are also keenly aware of what we want as a business, which influences how applications are designed and coded. We are too close and too knowledgable. Consumers are seeing our application designs for the first time. Brad’s presentation caused me to step back.

He talked about how there are many missed opportunities, and if we got even a little bit better, we would be richly rewarded. His stats say that consumers appear to be happier applying by phone or in person vs. the web, despite all the work and time that has been put into creating online applications. We in financial services want everyone to apply online, but of course the reality is not everyone will. Consistent and systematic improvement is the goal.

I have seen a statistic from Jupiter Research that states, 50% of consumers who start an online financial services application have no intention of completing it. They are there to shop or learn more about products. I didn’t see this referenced in Brad’s presentation. I wonder if Forrester has come across this, if it was taken into account, and what they would say about it. Forrester takes questions on 3 x 5 cards that are passed to analysts during the talks. Questions are then asked in the room at the end of each session. I submitted this question, but it wasn’t asked.

Consumers have a set of expectations they carry across all channels. Clarity, anonymity (only give as much personal information as is absolutely necessary) and speed. But they hold the web to a higher standard. Convenience (can I do it all online?) and the desire to not be pressured score high with prospects. The online process must of course be simple, secure and transparent throughout. And consumers want a safety valve if things go wrong, meaning human assistance immediately. Firms need to balance having a lower cost for taking the online application with offering human help in case it’s needed. This is a maximize sales at the lowest cost problem that needs to be explored through testing.

Brad spent his time on human reported behavior as well as presenting some good and not so good real life examples that drove the point home. He did not touch on application form design, but design is critical to getting someone to the finish line. There are oh so many ways to design a form, but there are clear best practices. Here is a short slide show that offers some. Coupling Brad’s insights with web form best practices would be a winner.

I was a little surprised Brad didn’t address a growing trend on the part of consumers to consult the social sphere of information before completing a transaction. Clearly his focus was on the application process, but there is a very complex set of interactions now at play immediately prior to and perhaps even during this moment of truth. That would be the social community. Consumers trust companies less and their peers more. The traditional marketing funnel is losing power. I’ve heard Forrester talk about this, but was it wasn’t brought out here, probably due to keeping the talk focused.

I am seeing a lot of evidence that consumers research on company sites, then pause their shopping to consult the social sphere of information. Who else has this product? What are they saying about it? If it passes the test, a consumer will possibly return to the company site and proceed through the sales funnel.

Once they come back to the site, the basic requirement seems to be speed, as 46% of consumers expect to complete the application in 10 minutes or less. People want to do everything fast, even when it comes to complicated or critical financial transactions. And of course FI’s want it to happen fast as well. Convenience is not a feature of the channel, it’s an assumption, and more importantly, 57% of consumers expect to be using the product in 24 hours or less. Instant gratification for an instant society.

Financial services products have become very much a commodity over the last few years, which makes it more difficult for firms to find meaningful differentiators. Each company copies the other as competition for the credit worthy or wealthy has become fierce. We all chase the same customers for the most part, which elevates the application process to an extremely significant moment of truth.

One thing that is critical to remember to get dead on right is the product page. Although consumers say they want speed, they want the right product even more. This is where your product page comes in. It’s got to work hard and deliver on the key features of your product and why it’s better. No one is applying for anything without looking at the product page. Get it right.

Looking forward to the Forrester Consumer Forum in the fall.

Social community sites are popping up all over the web. If you’re active on several of them, like me, you are constantly navigating back and forth to see what’s going on, comment, blog, etc. It’s constant clicking and page loading. Having all this inside a browser would be a cool idea wouldn’t it. Well it’s here. At least the first generation. A new browser from Flock has been designed to be the first social web browser.

It’s ready for Mac, Windows and Linux. Simply download for free and in a few fast clicks all your bookmarks, etc. are seamlessly ported over to the Flock browser. I have been using it exclusively on my Mac G5 running Leopard and it’s wicked fast. A close cousin to Firefox in look and feel, using the basic tabs structure. But it also has connective design tissue to the Mac Safari browser with its iconic design.

Flock has taken the browser up several notches with many interesting features. Here are a few of my favorites.

My World - A place where all your social activity is collected onto one web page and is a click away.

People Sidebar - Once you log into your social sites with the Flock browser it is possible to open a sidebar that displays a micro social site (facebook, You Tube, twitter, flickr, etc.) or all your sites at once. From here you can upload photos, update your status see messages, notifications and more depending on the site.

Media Stream - With a simple click you can view your photos or videos in a stream that appears directly below the toolbar. You can also see your friends photos and videos. Click the photo or video and be immediately taken to the web page. This is way cool.

There are many more tricks that make browsing much easier and more fun than that stuffy IE you may still be using. If you are not socially inclined then you probably don’t need to learn another browser, but if you are part of the online community, give Flock a try and let me know what you think.

Is Net Promoter Score the Holy Grail?

Second in a three part series of observations from the annual Forrester Finance Forum, How to Deliver Great Customer Experiences, held in New York June 23rd and 24th. Go here to read part one.

Photo Credit: Steve A Furman

Bill Doyle, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester, was very clear and consistent in his refrain about creating great customer experiences, “Easy to say, hard to do.” This simple phrase is at once a mantra and a warning. In financial services mahogany suites around the world the following response to creating great customer experiences can frequently be heard, “We already do that.” This is where the warning makes its entrance. Unless your firm has a customer experience executive that is fully engaged and integrated across the firm and understands that customer experience is everyone’s job, then you probably have a ways to go.

Ask those quick responders how they know. What are their metrics? Do they have them for each channel? Do they have them when customers are using multiple channels for the same transaction? Are the channels weighted? What is the weighting? Do they understand which channels are used by which customer segments? Ask them to show you their benchmarks. Are the benchmarks moving in lock-step with business results? And my personal favorite, where’s the customer experience roadmap that shows customer value, channel usage, level of interactivity, all correlated to likelihood to recommend?

One of the biggest challenges is getting people to understand and share a common vocabulary about customer experience. The next is to recognize it when they see it. Obstacles to delivering great experiences are not new.

• Silos (yes, still siloed)
• Department goals not aligned (often not even shared)
• Consumers use multiple channels (well, you made them available, what did you think was going to happen?)
• Technology infrastructure is not designed to allow data to flow freely across channels (no comment)
• Business strategy changes (need to close the quarter)
• External forces create surprise (economy, consumer confidence)

These are massive problems that cannot be easily solved. Forrester poured the forum foundation by demonstrating that a great customer experience does indeed drive positive business results. Fred Reichheld, founder of Bain & Company and author of The Loyalty Effect and Loyalty Rules spoke about his groundbreaking Net Promoter Score framework, in a talk entitled Winning the Loyalty of Financial Services Consumers.

Photo Credit: Fred Reichheld by Steve A Furman

For 30 years, Mr. Reichheld has studied customer loyalty and has arrived at a simple, highly supported hypothesis that loyalty transforms economics. He has a loyalty chain slide to help companies understand the components of loyalty.

Slide: Fred Reichheld

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures customer satisfaction. They are questions asked via phone or online after an engagement with the company. Customers that turn in scores 9-10 are bucketed as promoters. Scores 7-8 are categorized as passives. Detractors weighed in between 0 and 6. Throw out the number of passives, subtract your detractors from your promoters and you’ve got your NPS.

Slide: Fred Reichheld

Mr. Reichheld was informative, engaging and humorous. He told a personal experience he had with a rental car company. On a recent trip he returned the car 45 minutes late. The check-in attendant regrettably informed him that he would have to add half of a daily rate to the bill. Then there was the gasoline fee at three times retail price (that’s something like $12 per gallon). Mr. Reichheld protested, but to no avail. The attendant responded that he should have purchased the protection plan. “Protection plan,” said Fred. “Is this a rental car business or organized crime?” The attendant had the nerve to ask for a top 2 box satisfaction score. We’ve all been there.

Apple was referenced as a regular user of NPS. I made a purchase at my local Apple store yesterday. They hate cash registers and so my purchase was done in the middle of the store by a clerk tapping on a wireless device. My receipt was emailed to me. Here’s the email that has a link to the online satisfaction survey (also a great way to collect email addresses).

Here’s the entry page to the survey web site.

When a 10 comes in the employee of the Apple store is celebrated. When a detractor score comes in the store manager makes an outbound call to find out why. I was a promoter in this instance, but made a very detailed suggestion about store layout. In my opinion, the side shelving units are too close to the walls and there is not enough room to inspect the products and have someone walk behind you. The current floor plan hides a significant amount of SKUs. I provided them a detailed description of how they should reconfigure the layout into a series of V shapes. It would be visually more interesting and direct customers to walk in an interlacing fashion through the store. They could also improve their signage. I know I’m a pain, but I spent 9 years as the general manager of a retail bookstore chain. Retail is customer experience design.

Forrester analysts are sharp, and always make it look easy. Maybe too easy. But inside corporate America it needs nurturing and a fact-based approach. Of course getting NPS deployed needs support from the very top; everything does. Just prior to Fred, Walt Bettinger II, President and COO of Charles Schwab & Co. presented. He employed NPS and made some tough decisions to try and get their business back on track. Walt was pitch perfect in his delivery and obviously was the guy Schwab needed to pull this off. It seems to have worked, but they were in crisis. What if your business is not in crisis? What if you hear everyone around you say, “We already deliver a great customer experience?” It’s much tougher. Forrester should tackle that topic next.

In closing remarks, Fred offered some thoughts on how to get champions for adoption.

• Explain that it’s your reputation on the line. It’s your name. Ask, “What do you want to be known for?”
• NPS is still somewhat soft, but is gaining traction. Lots of case studies and blog entries can be found at netpromoter.com.
• It is more psychological and sociological in nature, but these are converging with business facts thanks to the rise of social media.
• You can’t improve your entire book of business with NPS. Look at profitability (vertical) and NPS (horizontal) together. Like everything, prioritize what you work on.
• B2B firms have adopted NPS at a faster rate than B2C.
• It requires a rethinking of the entire channel relationship with your customers.

My take is that Fred’s really on to something. After all here’s a brilliant man who has put 30 years of his life into one thing. Improving customer experience requires more than one strategy, and this one appears to be close to the tipping point. The meteoric growth of the online social community just might push it over.

P.S. The photo of the New York Times building (first photo above) was taken from a taxi. I immediately had a spontaneous urge to scale the building. Fortunately my agency partners were with me and kept me in the cab. Thanks Heather and Frank.