Does Pinterest have a role to play in a Corporate world?

Pinterest (www.pinterest.com) is a beautiful social media site that allows users to pin and share imagery with customisable home pages where your pins represent your taste. The site allows imagery to be uploaded and then shared with kudos for repinning of your own content or for amassing a board of popular pins that people then repin. The site is hugely visual and relies more on imagery than text unlike a twitter alternative. As well as the desktop site there is also dedicated native mobile apps that make the experience accessible on the move. The site has only been around since 2010 but has a great deal of exposure and most mainstream companies have a Pinterest account and therefore presence. 

Does Pinterest fit in corporate culture?  Why would this work for a high street bank and what content could they share that makes this a viable tool worth their time and investment?  Sponsorship yields a large quantity of rich imagery that could be used through social media so companies with some mainstream sponsorship can certainly use Pinterest to broaden the reach of this marketing but beyond this?  Some firms such as fashion retailers can use the site as an extension to their advertising promoting new lines and raising interest through the site. For firms not ticking any of these type of use cases the challenge is to use this in a meaningful way not just being a "me too" following the herd. The platform is wonderful and with rich visual content this has a massive part to play but outside this you really need to think hard about how this fits across your overall social engagement strategy. 

Customer contact forms - do these help with the customer experience?

In an age where digital transformation is affecting all avenues of our lives the contact us page on a web page has a distinctly old school feel about it. When web chat and social media monitoring gives instant response to queries is there still a place for a customer query contact form with a fire and forget approach?  These forms are more commonly found on websites for small firms where they have no dedicated IT function for customers to contact them (generally out of hours) with an enquiry. When using this service it is important to consider some basic customer journey principals. 

1) acknowledge receipt of the enquiry immediately with confirmation to the supplied email account

2) have SLAs in place for how quickly you will respond in person to the enquiry 

3) make the form as simple as possible with as many aids to completion as possible

4) if you have other channels of communication available then make these visible for the customer who may wish to ditch the form and contact you another way

5) welcome the interaction and the positive outcome this could mean

Web page forms still have a place especially for smaller firms but make sure you follow the basics in best practice to optimise epic customer experience. 

The 5 golden rules for epic customer experience

1. Keep your customer needs at the front of your priorities

Without your customers your company will fail, even if you are Apple!  Everything should be for the customer and if it isn't making the customer experience better then stop it & do something more valuable. 

2. Listen to your customer to understand them & learn from this

If you are lucky enough to get feedback from your customers then use it and maximise the value of this listening to get insight on how your customers behaviour. This isn't just in the realms of big data but in the customer who highlights a problem finding a parking space. 

3. Treat each customer as an individual

I may enjoy online interactions with your company but my neighbour may prefer to speak to someone in person over the phone. Each customer is unique and you need to strive to ensure the experience feels personalised to them. 

4. Experience is as important as price

The right product at the right price misses the important element of the customer experience. Ensuring the experience of buying or using a service is perfect leads to loyal and repeat customers. 

5. Delivery, delivery, delivery

Do what you say you are going to do, when you say you are going to do it, how you say you will do it. Every aspect of the delivery chain is your responsibility and needs to be optimised towards the customer. 

Windows 8 phones - still need an instruction manual

As a smart phone addict I feel reasonably comfortable navigating my way around whichever device I happen to be using. With smart phones dependent on touch screen interaction the functionality needs to be intuitive. Granted there is often the odd extra function that you might not have realised until peering over the shoulder of a neighbour doing something new on their phone that opens up a new world of control. That said the bulk of usability should be as simple as using a pencil but it has to be said the windows 8 phone this week has me stumped. The home screen has lots of beautiful tiles and I love this different spin on Apples app iconography which I had assumed I could move around. Yep. Holding on one tile allows you to move it around or indeed remove it from this home screen but what if I wanted to add apps not already here?  How to introduce new tiles?  I tried dragging them from the app list. I tried using the settings to adjust the home screen settings but nothing worked. In the end I had to go online to find out how. It turns out I was close but didn't understand the language. In the apps list I needed to hold down on an app as I had been doing but when presented with a drop down list of options the correct next step was to select "pin to  start screen". Why this language?  What does pinning mean unless I am in Pinterest?  And why start screen, why not home screen which feels more familiar?  The functionality is clearly there but the language is confused which leaves people needing a manual.  I'm sorry but this needs to be more obvious. Epic fail in customer experience. 

Ibeacons - has Apple embraced big brother?

GPS tracking means your position can be tracked through your mobile device which creates huge opportunities for navigation and location aware contextual information. Namely I don't where I am but fancy a pint, which pubs near here have a good rating on trip advisor?  Bargain. But move indoors and GPS bombs as it can't locate you so your movements are once more your own private activities isolated from the peering eyes of satellites. 

All that is no longer necessarily true for Apple users who have adopted iOS 7 onto their shiny i-things. Retailers and events companies have the opportunity to GPS pinpoint your location when indoors even when satellites would long since have given up. Ibeacons use low energy blue tooth to map your presence indoors and allow companies to push messaging to you based on your exact location on their premises. Imagine looking at a new jacket but not sure if it really is for you to be messages by the store pointing out the matching hat that you must buy. Scary. How did they know I was here and looking at this. Effectively satellite tracking now follows under the cover of rooftop and into every corner.  Brilliant innovation for sure but you have to see some connection to 1984 and the epic apple advert fighting against big brother. Epic u-turn?