The customer experience of watch32

Internet TV is available through a number of websites with catch up and on demand services. There are equal numbers of sites offering movie services through the internet with paid subscriptions and indeed for free. Watch32 ( www.watch32.com ) is just such a site with numerous movies available to watch through your browser from old films through to current cinema titles recorded on camcorders complete with people walking in front of screen. The site is very basic and not optimised for mobile but riddled with viruses as every click and Mouse movement results in a pop up and a test for your anti-virus software. The experience is more than you should expect for free but with it comes associated risk of damage to your hardware. Epic in risk for sure. 

What impacts will google selling Motorola have?

With mobile phone numbers now in excess of 7 billion and therefore more than the global population the mobile phone industry is big business with huge numbers attached. Google bought Motorola in 2012 for over $12 billion and this gave them rights to a wealth of patents in mobile manufacture and possibly as important blocked Motorola deploying these to skew the smart phone market. Now less than three years later google is admitting defeat and selling Motorola to Lenovo no doubt having stripped it bare of its valuable patent assets ( http://thenextweb.com/google/2014/01/29/google-confirms-selling-motorola-lenovo-2-91-billion/#!tXqJR ). This rare admission of defeat from google helps protect the android experience through other providers such as samsung who were not pleased to see google threatening to move into manufacture and potentially dominate the android device market. While google looks longingly at Apple for its end to end control on devices it must consider their principles of open source access for the platform which flies in the face of having a production capability such as Motorola. The customer experience of android probably as a result of this sale lives on with less risk as providers rest easier knowing they aren't going head to head with google on manufacture. 

FaceTime for home video conferencing

The realities of a modern workforce are that people are scattered around locations making communication a challenging prospect without racking up travel expenses. The corporate world has long since been users of video conferencing facilities with people accepting pixelated images and losses of sound to conduct meetings across time zones. FaceTime was launched by Apple as an extension to standard iOS with devices using front and rear facing cameras. This new functionality allowed fellow iOS users to video conference each other via wifi creating near cost free visual connections. The service relied on your contact having an iOS device and on reasonable reception to conduct your video calls. It is in many ways 80's sci-fi movies come to life as people connect with loved ones across the globe able to see and hear them reducing the distances between one another. FaceTime. Epic 80's movies video calls in the palm of our hands. 

The experience of having your email account hacked

With email now not only a communication tool but an essential element in authentication for most web sites it is a prized possession that we hold dear permitting us to message home that we will be late for tea and also get logged into our favourite online retailer.  This personalised ID is under constant attack as our email accounts are threatened from continuous hacking attempts to get access to our contacts list and to distribute viral nasties to our unsuspecting address book. Email hacking is booming with hackers getting access through weak security, corrupt emails or dodgy downloads.  These hacked legitimate accounts are then hijacked to send spam to all and sundry using your previously clean account that is now being tarnished with every form of spam from porn to money scams. The customer experience of having your mail hacked is terrible and leaves a strong feeling of having your own private space invaded by a foreign entity. It is far from epic and best avoided through strong security and complex passwords with crazy combinations of letters, numbers and random symbols you are most likely to forget. 

The customer experience of ikea online

Ikea has a clear customer experience planned for all the visitors to its monolithic stores guiding them through the maze of home furnishings in a prescribed order to maximise spend and control the user experience. Ikea also operates online with a website formatted to support all devices with optimised content and a complimentary mobile app that gives digital customers the opportunity to browse the catalogue without having to visit the store. This also saves ikea the overhead costs of having to meet customer need to have the brochure posted creating delivery costs. The web site and application mix a blend of product information with full rooms decorated to present the items in a suggested decor. Much of this drives of replicate the in store experience for the digital customer and give a familiar environment to those using the site. This works well really using omni channel experiences beyond the various digital channels but through digital and in person. Epic joined up thinking. 

The TiVo customer experience

Virgin media (www.virginmedia.com) brought a challenge to sky in the UK to deliver satellite television services beyond the terrestrial channels supplied by freeview. Virgin improved its offering by bringing the TiVo box to the uk to deliver its cable television channels. TiVo provides channel guide and record functionality with on demand added in 2013 ( http://epiccustomer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/the-customer-experience-of-virgin-tv.html?m=1 ). The customer experience of TiVo is much improved over many other devices with a simple menu system and some artificial intelligence attempting to recommend shows that may be of interest.  Storage starts at 500gb rising up to 1tb which should be more than enough for the most avid coronation street watcher. That said with enough series links enabled the storage could quickly be utilised especially is recording HD channels. If we are to receive 4K quality channels in the future storage will need to continue to increase well beyond 1tb. TiVo definitely a quality device but epic TV is not yet with us. 

The customer experience of using simplemind+

Mind mapping is a powerful tool for capturing thoughts on a subject in a structured way allowing people to share their thoughts and engage greater numbers on an idea. Traditionally a tool bound by pen and paper it has been opened up by touchscreen technology that lends itself perfectly to this. Realistically smart phones provide too small a medium but tablets and mini tablets are superb for this activity. Where mind map tools had been restricted on conventional computers requiring nimble mouse usage touchscreen puts you in complete control able to drag and reposition with ease while at the same time bringing up a touchscreen keyboard where needed. One good example of this is simplemind+ available for iOS and android which offers a free lite edition or the full package for £2.99 where you can more readily export the content to a PC or equivalent via PDF. The application works extremely intuitively and it becomes quickly obvious how to use it as something like this needs very little menu complexity unlike spreadsheet or equivalent packages. Give it a try and unlock your ideas for the  world in this epic use of mobile devices. 

The customer experience of healthy eating

A new year and a new outlook. Many of us embark on healthy eating regimes with the turn of a new year and the opportunity to put resolutions to good use. Hopefully those of us who started these three weeks ago are still maintaining this and yet to fall off the wagon and into a McDonalds. Healthy eating is not a straight forward activity as you are battered with conflicting advice on what constitutes healthy eating. Less sugar. Less fat. Less salt. All seem straight forward enough but what about replacing some of these with artificial substitutes, should we be avoiding these as well. "Diet" drinks that confuse our bodies - are they really the devil in disguise?  Generally eating less food you enjoy seems the way forward and an enabler for your peers to mock you at every corner as they tuck into their bacon buttie at breakfast while you chomp your way through a bowl of carpet underlay off cuts. Stick at it long enough and the impacts can be epic if you can navigate your way through what works for you. Giving up before you get there unfortunately seems and certainly feels much more likely. 

The customer experience of webchat

Working through a complex web site can be a painful experience as you try to navigate through pages and understand tabs with varying degrees of guidance. The availability of web chat on sites has increased allowing some human interaction to your online journey. Webchat presents itself as a reactive tool to awaiting you to click through to some interactive text chat with a willing operator. Proactive web chat hovers in the background waiting to pounce on you when you look lost or close to leaving a purchase process kicking in a communication channel to keep you online. Both are delivering multi-channel experiences and building on the digital customer flavour. Webchat doesn't end with mere web site integration through as companies need to consider how this impacts on operations and hooks into other information sources to give a joined up experience. Mistakes can be made in simply bolting on an external webchat provider to a website without considering these dimensions. Lots of opportunity for an epic fail. 

The customer experience of entering a half ironman

January brings a flood of good intentions as people give up booze and chocolate and embark upon fitness regimes that from the outset are doomed to fail. It also sparks interest in what can be achieved in the forthcoming new year full of hope and ambition. Endurance athletes look upon the new year as a chance to set some new targets and select which events will shape their year picking off their "A" race. The "A" race is the big one, the one that you build towards with all the others ne'er stepping stones to this pinnacle of effort. For those looking at triathlons the ironman and half ironman events (such as www.cotswold113.com) tempt year after year. Stepping up to these distances brings most out in a sweat at the mere thought of it.  With half ironman faced with a 1.9km swim followed by 90km bike and finished off with a 20km run simple maths leads you to what the full ironman entails by doubling these scary numbers. Entering the event for the first time involved extensive procrastination as you try to get your head around how exercising for 6 or 14 hours respectively might feel?   Nothing helps give you a frame of reference even of having lesser distances in the same field. As a customer you ponder the checkout page and the point of no return for entering knowing that this will start a road of pain and commitment straining work and personal relationships along the way not to mention financial drain to equip you for this. The result could be epic but at the point of entering the feeling is anything but. 

The customer experience of visa applications

Travelling to various corners of the globe on business results in some additional steps over and above packing your passport and sun cream with many countries taking a deeper look at who they let in the country. Around the EU these limitations seem foreign to us but step outside this "circle of trust" and you enter a world of questions and forms. The process itself can be daunting with various online steps to follow with letters and photographs required that has generated an industry in its own right as companies have sprung up to help you navigate your way through this unscathed. The websites often feel misaligned with the companies ambitions being very dated and hark back to the dawn of the interweb with crude navigation and customer journeys. The steps often require back to basics printouts with mountains of paperwork compiled to be packaged off to some dark secret office. The questions asked probe deep into your background exploring the lives of you and you family. In a relatively settled period in world affairs it strikes you as somewhat excessive when the purpose of your trip is likely to benefit the local economy. Visa applications. Not an epic experience. 

The customer experience of January traffic

As a paying customer of the UK road network January is not a great month so far and if there was a feedback form to be filled in mine would be pretty negative with harsh comment throughout. Following weeks of floods the pressure on the main commuter road network is at a peak and journeys that should be taking 30 minutes stretch well into one to two hours during the commuter rush. As a customer you feel the full range of emotions stepping through the following wave - 

1st - Disbelief

It cannot possibly be bad again and this is just a blip for something minor. It will get better. 

2nd - Rage 

It can be that bad again as you realise your life is passing before you stuck at the junction while nobody will let you out. 

3rd - Panic 

Wherever you were going you are not going to get there when you hoped and you are going to be late 

4th - Resignation 

Finally admitting defeat you accept your fate and that no matter how many cheeky short cuts and back routes you use it is futile and you are stuck  

The customer experience of mobile gaming

As the new Xbox 1 and Sony PS4 have now arrived and gaming fans go nuts over the newly released favourites other formats continue to thrive with mobile gaming not fading anytime soon. The hardcore gamer may mock the disposable mobile gaming genre but it offers a cheap (often free) quick thrill that has even broken into mainstream movies, the Free Birds movie?  Continuous reference to the original mobile app game giant that has reached millions - Angry Birds. While the graphics on smart phones may not match the processor power of a dedicated games machine on a screen sub 5 inches the thrills are plenty sufficient and the pace of gameplay amazing. Indeed with touch screen gaming the experience can be much more immersive learning from the well established Nintendo DS school of gaming which built the experience on titles such as Warioware. Gaming on a phone is quick and at its heart fun. For distracting me while suffering public transport it goes down as epic in my book. 

The customer experience of a trip to the cinema

A trip to the movies used to be a pretty cheap date with an opportunity to indulge in some treats while gorging yourself on widescreen surround sound loveliness. The price for tickets has spiralled to make a family trip to the pictures leaving little change from a £50 note. Ticket prices have shot up as have refreshments if you elect to quench your thirst and hunger while at the flicks. With drinks at more than £3 you are close to the price of a pint in the pub. The cinema experience is much the same as it has been for the past decade with digital imagery improving quality but in essence the experience is the same. Slightly squashed seats with a compromised view from the persons head in front with careful seating selection to avoid the trauma of sitting near to some noisy family of ten who have a family bag of Doritos to munch through. Assuming your movie selection is worthwhile it still represents an epic experience you cannot recreate at home but choose a stinker and it could feel like a very costly mistake. 

The customer experience of job boards emails

As the new year gets its grip on us and working life returns to normal the recruitment business ramps up its communications to try and entice us away from our jobs into new exciting careers. Inboxes are filled with emails promising a brave new world through a new career to those who have become irritated by the commute already in 2014 and eager for a change. The emails in general are a lazy non-targeted affair trying to drive traffic to their websites where you register and explore in more depth what is on offer. The emails offer a degree of tailoring to their recipient but it is a very wide sweep to gather people up putting everyone under an umbrella of IT or HR or whichever discipline you work within. These emails go relatively unnoticed for much of the year but in January you can't help be affected as the volume of them has ramped up and you receive such a large number of them. Recruitment firms need to improve the CRM that is behind these to risk potential customers hitting the dreaded "unsubscribe" link and losing them for the future. 

The customer experience of new running trainers

As we work our way into January the New Years resolutions come alive or quickly are forgotten as the alcohol and chocolate return. Many New Years resolutions would have set ambition health and fitness regimes with gym memberships committed to and personal trainers rubbing their hands with glee as fresh meat sign up for a fitness programme they will not maintain. For some this new found motivation will mean an excuse to buy some new kit and throw money at the problem of getting healthy. The shiny new trainers are extracted from their box looking resplendent with garish colour schemes and branded logos covering square inch of material. These new trainers give you the belief you could run that marathon and maybe a four minute mile is possible. As you run in them your feet realise just how poor your old running shoes were and these are like running on fluffy protective clouds making running a joy. Five miles in and that is soon forgotten as all you can feel is pain and discomfort as sweat cakes your entire body and you long to be home and out of your trainers doing anything but exercise. New trainers. Epic for all beginning their run and soon loathed along with everything else in your gym locker. 

The customer experience of online grocery shopping

A visit to the supermarket features low on many people top ten list of days out. Fortunately the supermarkets have responded to this and developed online grocery shop windows allowing you to complete your weekly good shop from your sofa and await its delivery at a prescribed time. Tescos (www.tesco.com) and Sainsbury's (www.sainsburys.co.uk) lead the way in home delivery food services with advanced web portals that try to ease the customer journey for food shopping. The functionality behind the sites are advanced and builds on the loyalty card systems bringing some value to the consumer by auto populating your favourites in your list. There are obvious filters for searching and complex search tools that allow you to refine your list from the 1000's of proud a available. All this online wizardry does not come for free as the delivery charge imposed aims to recover some of the cost of this but you are paying for convenience with the time saved of not visiting the store. Unlike many other delivery services you are also gifted with delivery slots accurate to a specific hour meaning you need not sit in at home waiting and wondering when your food will appear. Online grocery shopping certainly a luxury but for £6 maybe one worth considering. Epic with a price. 

The customer experience of using the wetsuit centre website

For those who enjoy neoprene based sports they will know the challenges of wetsuit purchasing. As an owner of various wetsuits for numerous water based activities I have tried a number of different channels to get my suits including specialist shops, eBay, friends and even the local paper. Recently I bought a new suit and used the wetsuit centre (  http://www.wetsuitcentre.co.uk ) to buy purely online. I didn't find my way to their site directly from searches and reviews but was so impressed by the knowledge and details in their YouTube ( www.YouTube.com ) videos that it lead me to visit their site. This is a great example of how a small firm is using social media to demonstrate their expertise and build trust and consumer confidence not using some gimmicky twitter competition but putting together valuable video content together that showcases their understanding. Wetsuit centre epic use of social media for customer experience. 

The customer experience of new shoes

As a man a new pair of shoes is not a happy event nor one that I look forward to. I know you can tell a great deal about a person from their shoes ao happy to keep mine clean and in one piece but I will happily stall as long as possible getting new ones. A hole in the bottom needs to get to the point of saturated toes before it deeply worries me but on a regular basis the realities are I will need to buy new shoes. My approach to this is similar to that of any other pain I may face in life with trying to maximise the degree of pain in as short a space of time as possible. With this in mind rather than just a single pair at any given point in time I will get two or three or maybe even four if I know it buys me more time in the future not having to buy shoes again. The customer experience around buying shoes is drifting increasingly to an online experience prepared to return unwanted items if it meets my buying criteria. 

Top woes of buying new shoes 

1) New shoes hurt. I know my shoe size but no amount of trying to seems to make any difference. New ones are like strapping on two iron maidens to my feet. 

2) I want shoes that look smart and "almost" trendy but certainly not like I am getting ready to go to school or have borrowed my Dads. This is a tricky line to straddle. Too trendy and you look like your trying too hard and too dull and you look like you have stepped back in time and preparing for your first day at school.

3) When did shoes start costing over £100?  I am a man and shoes should cost less than £50 unless they are coming with a free suit that I have previously missed in the promotion.  

4) Trying on shoes is a ridiculous affair. Walk up and down a shop floor. Have some disinterested teenager squeeze the sides to check for fitting.  All pointless and painful. Give me a pair of size 9's and if they don't fit be prepared for a lawsuit should be the way forward. 

5) I miss my old shoes. The ones that fit. The ones that made my feet look a normal size and complimented my wardrobe. 

6) The shoe shops are filled with a multitude of styles and types of shoes. Good luck finding a plain black pair for work without crystal heels and cross stitching. 

7) People will notice your new shoes and no doubt make some comment. This is not helping me forget about the mind numbing pain I am in from my new shoes and had managed to briefly forget about. 

New shoes. Epic fail. 

The customer experience of buying a mobile phone

Mobile phone complexity has mushroomed over the past decade as "smart" has shifted from just email access to a world of internet and application centric usage. No longer is it straight forward to understand the differences and pick which colour cover for your Nokia 3310 but you now have more to understand and choose from. And what if your choice is less?  What if you don't want all the functionality of a modern smart phone but only want a simple phone to make calls?  Crazy!  Where can you go for impartial advice and help with your buying process?  In terms of customer experience I see a gap in the market where customers want help but don't want the aggressive sales banter from a high street phone shop. People trust the John Lewis model of shopping where you can go and get trusted advice and buy with confidence across a range of suppliers. Where is this for mobile phones?  If you know you want an iPhone the Apple store will help you in every possible dimension but what if you want a choice and the likes of Apple or Samsung or HTC don't hit the mark with one phone to rule all phones. We need a shop for mobile phones that spans networks and device suppliers that gives a more John Lewis experience not a target driven bunch of sales hyenas hungry for your sale. Mobile phone shopping. Epic fail. 

The customer experience of a trip to your local Halfords

Halfords has been an established high street brand and online supplier ( www.halfords.com ) of automotive and bicycle parts for decades. Hard to believe but it is a business that is over a century old and currently weathering the storm of recession. The stores range from vast warehouse retail park monoliths to high street conventional storefronts with the range of products available dependent upon store size. As well as a new bike pump you can also get a number of basic car maintenance tasks dealt with which makes it a real spectrum of employees as you need your retail sales staff alongside your mechanic guru who knows how to strip the dash on a hybrid to install a new stereo. In store it is easy to feel lost as they operate with minimum staff so finding help may not be straight forward and with such a range of products retreating to the internet may feel a better option. As many large retailers have disappeared it is good to see halfords surviving, if you want to see and feel many of the products they sell there are few alternatives which would otherwise leave you at the mercy of the internet blind to the real look and feel of your purchase. It may not be epic but we are better for it. 

The customer experience of ASOS as a multi-device user

Having braved the sales shopping experience and realised the frustration of not finding what I wanted and fighting with the masses over last seasons damaged goods I retired to the safety of the sofa to assess the online sales. The ASOS ( www.asos.com ) website has been a pioneer in e-commerce and is now meeting the needs of the multi-device shopper who wants to browse while on the go and return to look through their favourites and consider the items placed in their shopping basket. The experience across devices is fluid with a portal flavour as you are logged in and therefore able to pick up your shopping journey from your phone, tablet or computer. As I switched between phone and tablet my basket remained up to date and I was able to add and remove items from my choice of device without compromise. ASOS even allows a suite of payment options including the likes of PayPal to complete your experience. No wading through last seasons cast offs having battled for the last car space, just a straight forward shopping trip without the blood, sweat and tears. Epic.