boston2011 upa tom_mccann

Staples Usability

5/27/2011 1

The Customer ExperienceAre in-store and on-line customer shopping experiences really that

different?

Tom McCannDirector, Retail Usability Research

Staples Inc

May 2011

TOC

Presentation Topics• Retail Usability Research team background – (5 mins)

• Staples Customer – (5 mins)

• Customer Experience (CEX) – (10-15 mins)

• Staples Retail (CEX) (video) – (5 - 8 mins)

• Discussion – Comparison of Retail CEX and E-Comm CEX

Boston UPA, May 2011 Slide 2


Staff: 5 Full time researchers , 3 part-time contractors

Educational Backgrounds: M. Psych, M. HF&Erg, M. HF&ID

Typical Research Questions

• How do we make it easier for customers to find products in the store

• How do we make promotional and informational messages more visible

• Are promotions and offers easy to understand

• Is the organization of this category easy for customers to understand

• Are the shelf tag’s providing customers with the right products and pricing information customers need to make a selection decision

• Is this product packaging helping the customer make a better product selection decision

• Are there opportunities to innovate within this product category

Staples Retail Usability Research Team

Staples Retail Usability Research Team

Research Techniques

• In-store, Planogram Lab, in Office/Home, Virtual Planograms

• Observations & Intercepts, Task Completion, Ethnographic Obs, Mobile & Screen Eye Tracking, Online Surveys, Diary & Self Report data collection

Customer Interactions (2010)

• Completed 109 projects

• 2,262 one-on-one research sessions with customers in-store /home /office / lab

• 13,896 participants completed online surveys / virtual planogram tests



Shopping Staples

Retail (1,575 US Stores) Staples.com

- $7.14 Bn sales – FY2010

- 57% store customers purchase for home, 43% purchase for business

- Businesses that shops Staples store typically range from 1-7 employees

- Typically purchase 6 /yr

- $3.08 Bn sales – FY2010

- 20% .Com customers purchase for home, 80% purchase for business

- Businesses that shops Staples.com typically range from 2-19 employees

- Typically purchase 3 /yr

Who is the Staples Customer?


Our customers are predominantly college educated middle aged

females.

62% have a college degree or higher.

73% are over 45 yrs of age.

What is CEX?


CEX is...

• the internal response of an individual to their interactions with an organization's products, people, processes and environments.

• Internal response includes the thoughts, feelings and emotions experienced and the rational, psychological and sensory benefits of the experience.

(Susan Abbott – Abbott Research & Consulting)

CEX is…

• the sum of all experiences a customer has with a supplier of goods or services, over the duration of their relationship with that supplier.

• From awareness, discovery, attraction, interaction, purchase, use, cultivation and advocacy. It can also be used to mean an individual experience over one transaction; the distinction is usually clear in context.

(Wikipedia)

• Customers want their experiences with a company to be useful, easy, and enjoyable.

(Forrester – web site)

Questions about CEX

• How do these descriptions / definitions enable us to observe and measure CEX ?

• How do these descriptions / definitions enable organizations to identify attributes or elements of CEX that can be manipulated to impact a customers experience?

• Are the attributes / elements of CEX valid across all customer / business touch points (e.g. retail, online, catalog, phone, email, circular) ?

• If CEX is uniquely subjective to each individual, how can we be sure that individual CEX

scores or ratings are measuring the same thing ?

• Is the concept of CEX useful ? Does it provide businesses with a valid and actionable business lever? If so, how?


Elements of CEX

Question?

Are there other Elements that need to be considered?


Customer Owned / Controlled Vendor Owned / Controlled

Physical Environment

Attributes of the Product / Offering

Business Processes

People / Support

Goal

Emotional attachment to that goal

Relevant Knowledge /Skill

Personal Constraints –physical/intellectual abilities and sensitivities, time, etc

Value ? Voice / Attitude ?

Elements of CEX

Question?

Are some elements more important than others ?

Is there a natural hierarchy of CEX elements ?


Assuming these Elements…..

Customer Owned / Controlled Vendor Owned / Controlled



Business Processes

People / Support

Goal



Personal Constraints –physical/intellectual abilities and sensitivities, time, etc

Value ? Voice / Attitude ?

CEX Element Hierarchy



More important

Less important


Business Processes

People / Support

Goal



Personal Constraints

Dra

g El

emen

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nto

hie

rarc

hy

arro

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Value ?

Voice / Attitude ?

How does eye-tracking work?

• Eye tracking detects where a person’s fovea fixate and the movements in between fixations. The fovea is a small spot on the retina that is responsible for fine, detailed vision.

• Outside the fovea, visual acuity decreases greatly, our eyes constantly move in rapid bursts called saccades, with brief stops called fixations.

• It is during the fixations that we take in visual information (via our fovea), We use the parafovea – the area outside of the fovea – and peripheral vision to determine where to fixate next.

• Visual stimulus processing is estimated to require fixations of a minimum of 50 to 100 milliseconds but is subject to a number of variables that can substantially increase this duration (e.g. ambient light, visual acuity, complexity of stimulus, etc).1

1. Salthouse, T., and Ellis, C., American Journal of Psychology, 1980, Vol 93 No 2 pp 207-234

Mobile Eye ® eye tracking glasses.

Show the Video!


Discuss CEX

In-Store v Online


Elem

ent

Hie

rarc

hy

goes

her

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Business Processes

People / Support

Goal



Personal Constraints

Value ?

Voice / Attitude ?

Thank You!


[email protected]

boston2011 upa tom_mccann

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