The "Map My Run" customer experience

Exercising has always had an element of geek about it with specialist shops and clothing for every sport from horse riding to ice hockey. People as they become more immersed in a sport can readily find more excuses for buying more kit while trying to avoid the tragic "all the gear and no idea" label. Running is no exception with particularly long distance running open to the masses as anyone with a pair of trainers has the scope to head out onto their local pavements and pound out some serious mileage. This casual entrance often falling into the kit buying trap in the same way as any other sport. Aside from spanky trainers and extensive Lycra the tech options were more limited in the past as GPS watches with heart monitors were expensive and serious contenders only going that far. That is until the advent of the smart phone. A device that included GPS and mp3's so you can rock out while on your run. Additionally the memory in these devices gives a way to record all those great victories. This unlocked "map my run" to the masses which had previously been more of runners web site to record runs and times and effectively upload this data after the event. Smart phones now mean this is all real time and your efforts are fed in through GPS giving far more accurate records of where runners were performing. This is now a competitive area with many alternatives to map my run giving runners real analysis at no cost. The customer experience is epic and addictive as social media plays a part as you share your running with your friends and compete for the fastest and furthest. Technology augmenting your exercise experience. Feel the burn!  

The Facebook customer experience

Facebook (www.facebook.com) with its 1 billion users is a Goliath in the world of social media with us since it was founded in 2004. The customer experience divides consumer opinion with many fearful of the influence Facebook now has and the motives behind its data usage.  For those addicted to status updates and sharing their life moments it is a part of daily life from dusk to dawn. Facebook works through a secure web site where logged in users connect and share content. In addition to the secure web site is a dedicated mobile application with a limited degree of functionality compared to the desktop site. Facebook has more to do in understanding the customer journey from a mobile as the limited functionally also removes their opportunity to advertise, their primary revenue stream. Arguably a more epic experience. Facebook via a mobile with less function and no advertising, a more epic experience? 

The BT customer experience - still an epic failure

As an ex-BT customer I have experienced the pain of their customer service first hand that lead to it appearing in an article in the telegraph (www.telegraph.co.uk) being named "worst customer service provider". The study by Internet market research firm www.onepoll.com named and shamed BT as the worst offender. My own lack of epic customer experience leading to me cancelling all my BT services many years ago to avoid having to waste time on hold or in calls where I would result in a call for more than thirty minutes without any resolution.  It is a real missed opportunity for BT (www.bt.com) who have some great broadband and television services but support these with useless customer service channels.

My recent return to this customer nightmare was the result of one of my email accounts being a btinternet one. This seemingly causes BT some problem when I have no service with them meaning they notified me that they would be cancelling the account with 4 weeks notice. A trifle harsh but I guess all in the small print I previously ignored. Resolution?  Sign up to premium email account at £1.60 per month to keep your account. With so many email options offering free services the prospect of entering a contract once more with BT filled me with dread but in the short term poses few choices. So sign up online and ignore the realities of dealing with BT. Not that simple. Online form = epic fail. So head for the phone number customer support, after one hour 20 minutes on hold finally get through to spend 40 minutes persuading the customer service rep to let me pay for the service. Not having any account and not being a BT customer clearly a challenge. In the course of this how many times did the words "cancel the whole thing" flag in my mind?  Plenty. Eventually convincing them they could deviate from the call sheet with some OFCOM references and paying for the privilege. Epic fail. When will BT wake up and invest in better customer service that matches up to their products. 

The British pub lunch experience

As the working masses flood back onto the commuter routes after a UK bank holiday weekend normality returns. After a weekend of DIY and family frustrations a high point for many will no doubt have been a proper pub lunch. Blessed with the sunshine on bank holiday Monday the pub lunch ventured into the outdoors as families enjoyed some sunning while musing over their locals menu. With pubs offering everything from a ploughman's (for any foreign readers check Wikipedia)  to a full blown Sunday roast with all the trimmings most tastes should find something to suit their needs. As we have seen some warm weather this year the customer experience also sees the delights of wasps joining you as an unwanted dinner guest while you negotiate a plate of bangers and mash sat at a picnic table. Wasps seeming to fall into one of two types -

1) Angry ninja wasp. Not conforming to any of the usual rules of engagement and ignoring everything but you. Kamikaze dive bombing your face at any opportunity. 

2) Domestic sugar obsessed wasp. Easily distracted by sugar and readily caught or killed by a route one approach to sugar. 

The summer pub lunch aside from the wasps is a delight for all even where the food is somewhat average. No washing up. Beautiful outdoors and a quintessential British experience. Unusually this weekend without the rain dodging moments!  Pub lunch = epic customer experience.  

Amazon email design quality challenges affecting customer experience

Amazon (www.amazon.co.uk) may be a monster in the world of e-commerce offering everything from iPads to surf boards but their email design has fallen well behind in terms of delivering a quality experience. In an earlier blog I wrote about the unexpected gift concept from Amazon which sought to delight (http://goo.gl/2mnKmY) but with their email notification they strive to fail. The emails when read on a mobile device have the most basic design with poor structure and result in the recipient having no desire to open and read the content.  With a boxy design and mismatched colours and fonts it easily gets dismissed. With the company investing so hard in a responsive web site and dedicated native mobile applications to follow this up with the most basic of emails seems a waste. For epic customer experience Amazon need to invest in a better email provision to hold the customer post purchase. 

The Eurocamp family holiday customer experience

Families with school aged kids face the annual ransom by holiday companies to book a summer holiday while the kids are off school. Your standard pricing points spiked for the glorious six weeks of summer while we all try and achieve the same result of a memorable family break. For those who have previously avoided this holiday window the prices can be alarming as a budget holiday can mean spending more than £2000 if looking to venture outside the UK. Forget your Caribbean all inclusive blow out and think more close to home and less luxury.  So short of selling some vital body part what makes a good option worth leaving the comfort of our own castle?  Eurocamp (www.eurocamp.co.uk) offers family holidays that compared to a conventional hotel break offer good value. Eurocamp is essentially the same company as keycamp (www.keycamp.co.uk) although both have their own branding and web sites to confuse matters. The experience and facilities are broadly the same though with a range of static caravan and pre-pitched tents at various European holiday destinations.  The campsites generally being modern with good facilities and British reps awaiting your arrival. If you like freedom to do your own thing it is a good fit for a holiday but don't expect anyone making your bed or clearing the breakfast dishes. It is basic but with kids free to play and safe to do so it does have its merits. Many people are repeat bookers coming back year after year so it is clearly a model that works. For an epic customer experience in the summer holidays you might have the answer. 

The customer experience of smart phones abroad

There are 30.9 million smart phone users currently in the UK (according to a recent survey www.newmediatrendwatch.com). We are addicted to them with the majority of email and social media activity centred on these portable devices. With this addiction comes dependency so the prospect of losing our connected lives comes as a shock to many when they travel abroad. The advise is clear if you use data services abroad you will be charged extra. Often starting from £2 per day assuming you have made some arrangements and spiralling up fast. Best bet for a good experience minus the scary prospect of a huge bill on your return is switch 3G off!  Go old school and bask in the glory of 2G and technical wizardry such as text messaging. To manage costs just piggy back off some free wifi services at local bars and establishments to get your data fix. Epic experience means going native and finding wifi making sure data network settings are OFF!  Your phone should be feeling the love for looking like this.....