Digital reaches the Queens Head in East Clandon

The local village pub has been a pillar of the small communities of the UK for centuries with the public house sometimes the only commercial premise in a small hamlet. East clandon is a beautiful pocket of the world in leafy Surrey only a few miles outside Guildford with a modest population of under 300. The local pub here is The Queens Head (www.queensheadeastclandon.co.uk) which is a traditional pub offering food and drink servicing the village and surrounding areas. The mark of how digitalisation is affecting every corner of our lives is quickly evident merely from their website which is not just some holding page with a phone number but a mobile optimised clean customer experience. The digital maturity continues inside with staff using tablets for orders retrieving up to date availability of food and efficient placement of orders. The pub also has a social presence on all the key sites combined with the use of QR codes to make it easy for customers to provide a review on trip advisor (www.tripadvisor.co.uk). All too much when all you want is a quiet pint and some pork scratchings?  Not really as the technology is in play to support the customer and much of this goes unnoticed if your not looking for it. What it means though is the digital reach of this small pub goes well beyond the local vicinity and gives a clear representation of what you can enjoy even if you are new to the area. Digitisation making your pint of bitter even more epic. 

The Yorkshire dales welcomes the Tour de France

The Yorkshire dales ( http://www.yorkshiredales.org.uk ) are a national park in the north of England. The Dales are an area with few major roads or towns but roaming hills and primarily farm land perfect for walking and biking (if you like your hills). The area will play host to the Tour de France (http://letour.yorkshire.com) later this summer and there is Tour merchandise wherever you look already decorating the scenery.  The area is expecting an influx of biking fans with pop up campsites taking over many unused fields in readiness. Between now and the tour, cyclists have the chance to cycle the route and feel the same pain and pleasure of those racing in the event. It is a brilliant opportunity for the area and a unique experience. Fingers crossed the sun shines to really help showcase this beautiful part of the world and be seen by millions as well as the resident sheep who will also be enjoying the spectacle.  Epic experience pedalling its way through the north of England this summer. 

An app is the answer - but what was the question?

Mobile apps are everywhere with every company of every size pushing out some form of mobile app in the true spirit of test and learn. But have we been learning?  Do we continue to create apps that solve great problems that didn't need solving and result in great download figures but disappointing usage rates?  Mobile web now further muddies the water with questions raised as to which is better a mobile app or a mobile web site. Multi-device now throws in a new dimension as consumers are working across multiple platforms using the tools most fit for purpose which could lead to the conclusion that we need lots more apps all tailored to the individual device. 

Mobile apps make most sense when they are dependent on some form of native functionality within the mobile device. Namely dependent upon some form of geo-location or camera or microphone or possibly even just more suited to touch screen interfaces. If the problem you are trying to solve can best be addressed by something using this native functionality then an app is best. Of course the app route may make sense from an authentication perspective as you seek to provide a permanent logged in state for consumers which produces huge levels of stickiness for the app and may not need any native functionality of the device other than it being permanently on and with the consumer. 

Mobile apps moving forwards give us the chance to build on all this with omni channel experiences that nurture multi device where you can understand the customer behaviour and journey as they bounce from web to tablet optimised site to mobile app. Across all of these working simultaneously and in support of each other potentially utilising pairing technology to help ease usability. The app has a great deal still to offer and we need to develop our thinking to maximise the benefits to really transform some complex customer problems. Epic outcomes delivered through app evolution. 

The tragic failings of Evans bike servicing

Evans (www.evanscycles.com) is a middle to high end retailer of bicycles with stores dotted around much of the UK. While not completely high end they cater for more hardcore cyclists than halfords while not maybe meeting all the needs of the cycling purist after true top end parts. That said you would not struggle to spend a couple of thousand pounds in there if you wished. The chain is aligned also to the bike to work schemes so pulling in custom from people using this tax efficient route to bike ownership which gives them plenty of regular customers looking at making the most of this spend. Buying a bike in store is a slick sales experience with price matching and bike fitting all catered for by enthusiastic sales staff. 

So having bought your bike where else would you head when it needs a service after many miles of hard pedalling but back to trusty Evans for a continuation of this are felt from your purchase. Unfortunately this can be where it all falls apart as you can't book anything on line and need to book in store or by phone which is generally not straight forward as answering the phone seems to be the lowest priority for store staff. Having booked in your service you need to select which level of service labelled bronze, silver and gold linked to the degree of work involved. Unfortunately not a reflection on the customer service received. Arriving to deliver your bike it is whisked away on the day of service parked in the back quickly forgotten. Your pride and joy left idle to fend for itself. You find on returning to collect your bike that it has not been looked at in spite of your pre-booking thoroughness but sat still lonely at the back. You then are told to return at a future date when it will be ready. Meanwhile you receive an email stating your repair is complete. Hurrah. But not trusting those slightly grubby mechanics you phone to check if this is the case. After wasting many hours for the phone to be answered you finally find it has not in fact been fixed but was just it being rebooked on the system because the missed the original slot. Magic. 

Returning days later to collect your fixed wheels you find it hasn't been finished and is in fact in bits on the floor - can you come back later and we will chuck in a 10% discount?  Gold service for £90 quickly disintegrates as you have a melt down after countless phone calls, emails and visits still to be messed around. 

The servicing of your bike is doubtless quality but the booking and customer handling is appalling and completely turns you off from doing any further business with them. Not just servicing but buying more bikes. Evans needs to sort this out or withdraw it as a part of the range of services or risk destroying the customer base it is building. 

What the biggest security breach in the history of the internet could mean for customers

Internet security has been the joint concern of the consumer and businesses since private information began to be stored through web pages. Over the years hackers have found ever more advanced techniques to get around security protocols and get access to web information using this to gain company and individual insights. The latest breach is potentially the most significant breach we have seen as the underlying security certificate system that we have depended upon is the problem itself. OpenSSL certificates are used by 2/3 of the web servers in production today and had widely been considered to be the standard for security on the internet. This process meant companies could install this certification approach safe in the knowledge it was "bulletproof". Unfortunately this week it has come to light that for the past two years this system has been flawed and open to access from hackers who know the hole and gain access in an untraceable way, this has been dubbed "heartbleed". So what for the poor consumer?  We are being advised to change our passwords, but is there really any point as until the OpenSSL Certificates are patched by the companies the hole will still exist. Watch this space and watch your internet space for any suspicious activity as for the next few months we could be in unchartered territory with the web showing some frailty. Epic customer experiences need some sense of security. 

Netflix bringing the big screen into your living room

Video streaming has moved out of the realms of illegal file sharing and into mainstream business as monthly subscription services continue to appear. Netflix has been one of the original players and working to get their software installed as a standard within numerous bits of kit from TVs to set top boxes. The service allows you to browse through various movies and TV series watching at your leisure and in as volumous quantities as your eye balls can consume. There are corresponding smart phone apps to receive the service pulling content into your phone and tablets or indeed accessing direct from your laptop via your browser. The service includes some advanced data analytics that attempt to profile your streaming choices by using your ratings and viewing behaviour to select content you might like. The library of content is vast and Netflix faces the same challenge as other providers in how to simply allow users to gain access to this without becoming lost in the wealth of choice. The list of content is not instant so don't expect to see your favourite blockbuster movie available a week after it closed at your local cinema but Netflix has tried to counter this with some premium TV content to soften the blow. For the money you have to say this us epic and no comparison to the DVD store on your corner charging you £5 for an overnight rental. Streaming certainly the future. 

Videostar mobile app - creating the next Stephen Spielberg!

Mobile apps come in many different forms and have varied lifespans as people use them as a trial and error style not anchored by the historical issues of expensive software costs. Videostar is a mobile app (http://videostarapp.com) for iOS devices and if you have kids of the "selfie" era they will love it. In the time it takes to make a roast dinner they can have created a pop video using only an iPod touch with editing and effects that would shame most studios in the 90's. Now empowering the teenage generation to discover movie making in its simplest form and awaken an appetite for future careers. The power of these apps is staggering as you sequence in video footage timed to match the musical changes while enhancing the basic visuals with filters and effects. More complex video editing software seems now redundant. Move over Spielberg the kids are coming for you. Epic in every sense. 

The Skype customer experience

Skype (www.skype.com) is a Microsoft owned product the uses voice over ip technology to deliver free voice and messaging services. Essentially this enabled phone, video and text messaging services without cost when connected to wifi so for devices without phone capabilities such as the iPod touch it converts them into a fully fledged communication device. Within the Skype Eco-system you can set up approved networks of people so only contact with approved individuals is possible allowing you to set it as a safe environment for grand kids to keep their grandparents updated on the latest activities at school. Skype is very much in the same space as WhatsApp which Facebook recently paid over the odds for but has been left somewhat unloved by Microsoft maybe once again missing some real opportunities for growth and market share. While not epic for a free service Skype is extremely useful and you have to suspect could have been even more epic with some more investment. 

Munich airport empty due to strikes by Lufthansa

Using Munich airport this week is an absolute dream for customers assuming you are using another airline than Lufthansa (www.lufthansa.com). With the principle Munich airline on strike it leaves the bulk of the airport unused and deserted with capacity running at a hugely reduced volume. While this spells misery for all booked with Lufthansa it brings to joy to anyone using and alternative airline as they have the run of the airport and security. For every cloud!  With the strike due to carry on until the close of tomorrow thousands of travellers will be caught up in this and other carriers will benefit from this reduced competition. For those still able to travel the experience may be more epic than expected while for those stranded miles from home it could be a long wait until Saturday. 

The mighty Big Data transforming customer experiences

Big data is on the agenda for nearly all major business's desperate to identify a killer application for this and understand the business case behind spending money on this. What is it though?  Just more data warehouses with a sexier front end and whizzy reports?  Something so crazy in its value that a team of data scientists needs to guard the value secretly without releasing it to the executive? The classic definition is "high velocity, high volume and high variety". But this does little to explain it. 

Big data allows firms to combine data sets to answer live business issues quicker and more effectively than ever before. And we are not just considering classic data sets here with common data models. Big data allows unstructured data to come into the mix, information such as textual data evident in social media postings as an example to utilise sentiment context to your data. This powerful revolution means business exec can throw a question at their teams and expect an answer in weeks not months. 

This is all working in an open source environment where the technology is being exchanged in forums with the minds behind this working through these emerging technology issues. This is certainly epic and for the customer the shift in experience will be huge but likely unnoticed. Will you spot the personalised web site based on your last twitter post about wanting  a ski holiday?  Will you notice the email from your mobile phone operator that is tailored to your address and made more fluffy because they now know you have a dog?  It will be epic but you might not notice!