Mark Kolier’s Blog

Archive for the ‘Customer Experiences’ Category

Back more than thirty years ago when I went to college in Los Angeles and flew back to New York to visit my family, I recall paying (well actually my parents did) $99 each way to fly from L.A. to New York. It was a really good deal then. Translated into today’s dollars that round trip would cost more than $300 each way or a roundtrip fare of over $600. Anyone that has flown recently is aware that a round trip coast to coast fare for less than $600 can be purchased rather easily.

So even with skyrocketing airline fuel costs, the cost of air travel today continues to be less (inflation adjusted) than what would be expected. Is it possible that airline travel is too cheap? Well maybe in terms of the kind of service you receive flying domestically in the USA. However most people I talk to don’t feel airline travel is inexpensive. People seem to wax nostalgically about the halcyon days of air travel with better meal service, more attractive and attentive flight attendants and smaller crowds. Of course it’s easy to forget that until 1988 people could smoke cigarettes on airplanes – I doubt many people wish to return to that particular practice. Here’s a video of those not-so-good old days – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_caR1bkOEg

Cheap (or cheaper) airline travel has enabled many people who heretofore could not have traveled by air to afford to fly to see family, friends, do business or take a vacation. Would people today be so willing to fly to Las Vegas (just as an example) from New York if the round-trip fare was $1,000 or more?

While it’s true that the level of service on airlines has dropped overall and yet at the same time air travel is being segmented such that the ‘Elite’ traveler continues to receive something reminiscent of the ‘classier’ airline service of the past, while the ‘proletariat’ (low-fare) traveler is taking what amounts to be an air bus – literally. But then the low-fare traveler would not have been able to do that thirty or more years ago. At that time air travel was still considered to be a bit of a luxury. Today, airline travel, if nothing else is…a commodity. And if you agree that airline travel today is a commodity – is that a bad thing?

Here in 2011 people think nothing of hopping on a plane to do whatever strikes their fancy. They can use a myriad of online services to check out the lowest fare and if that’s the driving force they can get to where they are going – perhaps not directly and maybe even with three or more connections, cheaply and for the most part safely. This is not only true in the U.S. but something I’ve noticed when traveling in China and Asia in general. There is not much ‘class’ in airline travel anymore as it’s become a tool for the masses. I think that’s a positive thing and something people overlook more often than not.

People like to complain (I’m among them) and ignore basic facts such as airline travel is cheaper than it’s ever been and airfare costs are not usually the determining factor on whether to fly somewhere – or not.

So the next time you have to fly somewhere and you go for the lowest cost think about that cost being 3 times what you are quoted and ask yourself would you still be doing it?

I could not wait any longer. As a longtime customer (more than ten years) of Blackberry devices I feel I gave them ample time to give me a reason to buy a new device from them as my now ancient BB Storm 2 was dying a slow death day after day. After waiting for over a year for Blackberry to come up with something I might want to buy, I finally gave up and purchased a Motorola RAZR Droid.

Here’s what I will miss from Blackberry. Very little. Email security? Maybe a bit, but that’s more based on Blackberry’s reputation than anything that’s ever happened to me. Syncing with MS Outlook? Yes I will miss the ‘ease’ of hooking up a firewire and syncing all of my desktop MS Outlook data (contacts, calendar etc.) with my mobile device. It won’t be as easy but I have a feeling the adjustment will not be all that troublesome. Will I miss BBM? Not really. Since I have unlimited texting it’s not a big issue and I only had a few ‘BBM’ friends. Most of my other BBM friends have migrated off the Blackberry platform as well. The Motorola RAZR Droid is an impressive piece of technology on the Android platform.

Here’s what I will not miss: the limited amount of apps available on the Blackberry platform. I also won’t miss the seemingly incessant need for my Blackberry phone to be rebooted. Frequently it rebooted itself for no reason at all. Rebooting would take more than five minutes. In support of the Blackberry Storm 2 at least I could replace the battery, but I won’t miss it really since the charge barely lasted 8 hours and I needed to carry multiple batteries at all times. I also won’t miss the slow video transmission or the painfully slow internet browser.

Having a new mobile device is always fun during the honeymoon period. Whether the new phone rapture will last is something to be evaluated over the long haul. I think there are many other Blackberry owners that are right on the edge of giving up on the platform as well. After all, why would you want to ‘commit’ to a two-year contract for a phone on a platform that might not last one year?

Sorry RIM – you took too long to give me a reason to continue being a loyal customer. And that’s too bad – it was good while it lasted. Bye-bye Blackberry.

When I got my Amazon Kindle over the past holiday season I had my first opportunity to use a tablet for any length of time. I liked the smaller compact size – it fit into my briefcase better than an iPad would and is eminently more portable. Recently my wife got an iPad (2 not the new iPad) and I have had my first extended opportunity to see what all the iPad fuss is about. The Kindle Fire is useful but the iPad is cooler to use – it’s just not as conveniently portable. The Kindle is also 40% or (even less) than the price of an iPad.

When Apple announced the features of the new iPad on March 7 there were not any dramatic changes – just more speed, supposedly much better graphics quality and a few other various enhancements. By the end of last week I began to hear of the new device that Apple has in the works, a sort of mini iPad. I am going to term it the ‘iPadlet’ for now. This is because at 7-8 inches or so it is close to the size of a Kindle Fire – so more portable, and it will be priced close to the current cost of an Amazon Kindle Fire.

Could that be game over for Amazon, could the Fire be put to rest? My thought is, if Amazon is not going to offer improvements to its first generation Kindle Fire, then quite possibly. But that’s very unlikely. Jeff Bezos is one smart guy and like the late Steve Jobs knows that when it comes to the creation of a device, the journey can be its own reward. Certainly the Amazon Kindle Fire’s price would be reduced to below that of an ‘iPadlet’ (a $100 tablet computer – one for everyone!). But racing to the bottom is hardly a game-winning strategy. The Kindle Fire was a good start but it won’t be long before people are asking Mr. Bezos – ok good start but what’s next?

For now having both the Kindle Fire and an iPad is a great situation. At home having the iPad is great – handy, always ready to go and easy to use. The Kindle Fire is what I take out and around – books, newspapers, email, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are all easy to use on the go (although the inability to buy wireless service is a pain as wi-fi is sorely lacking when commuting by train to New York.

An iPadlet could be just the answer for me. How about you – are you married to the ten inch screen of the iPad or if there were a smaller and less expensive Apple tablet would you jump in and buy another?

Or your first?

It’s generally accepted that for most people, home and work are the first two places. For retail establishments like Starbucks and McDonalds (to name just two), the battle to become the most popular 3rd place is never-ending.

I’ve expressed my ambivalence toward Starbucks in past posts. The willingness of people to spend US $4.00 for a cappuccino never ceases to amaze me. Over the weekend I stayed at a Courtyard by Marriott and the brand has been refurbished to include a nice café in the lobby anchored by Starbucks. People were queued up much of the day (I came in and out of the hotel multiple times during the day) waiting to buy their beloved Starbucks.

What amazed me is that thirty feet away the hotel offered ‘free’ regular and decaffeinated coffee (it was good coffee too) that people spurned in favor of paid Starbucks. Talk about your brand acolytes – since when did paid beat free when it comes to something like coffee? Starbucks is ingrained deep into the mindsets of not only Americans but people all over the world. In fact whether you are in North America, Europe or Asia the Starbucks brand is omnipresent and consistent. I’ve not been to South America or Australia but am willing to bet it’s no different in those places.

Yesterday I had a meeting at a Starbucks in New York City since it was more convenient for my associates to meet us near Penn Station. We chose Starbucks because it had free Wi-Fi and we knew there would be tables to sit at and show our presentation. Most of the other people there had laptops or iPads or some other tablet and were busy meeting and working. I noticed that this particular Starbucks had covered up all of the electrical outlets so that people could not recharge their computers (or phones for that matter). I don’t remember having noticed that before but it was obviously done with the intent of limiting the amount of time people could both use the Wi-Fi as well as linger in this 3rd place. There was no limit to how long you had access to the Wi-Fi – something I have experienced in other Starbucks where the user is kicked off after a preset time and has to log-back on.

McDonald’s also offers free Wi-fi (as do many establishments today) but the feeling of sitting in a McDonald’s is discernibly different than at Starbucks. There’s a collective energy in Starbucks that is not easy to replicate.

I will never be a huge Starbucks customer or fan but I respect what the brand represents and how – for better or for worse – it has become the world’s 3rd place.

Do you agree or disagree?

Have you ever gone to the Target.com website? I had a couple of Target gift cards from the holidays and there’s no Target store all that close to where I live. So I finally decided to try to use the gift cards online. I had money to burn and could not find anything to spend it on. Maybe that’s the point people have told me. It’s as if Target wants you to go into the store, and by having a less than great user experience to buy something on its website you will be forced to go into the store.

As I’ve noted in prior posts, like many men in know, I am not much of a shopper and am more of a buyer. I go into a store to buy what I need and get out. I act the same way online.

Target is a good operation. The occasions that I’ve been in their store have been positive experiences.
That’s in stark contrast to what I found online. The online selection was skimpy at best and the few things that might have been worth considering were out of stock. I was looking for slippers for instance – the selection was awful. I looked for clothing and again was disappointed. I had heard about Jason Wu as a featured designer for Target. On the Target website every Jason Wu item was out of stock. After about 15 minutes of futile searching I finally gave up.

Let’s assume that I am not the target Target.com shopper (sorry I just had to). So maybe I am being overly critical of their online platform but somehow I don’t really believe that. Could their business model really be to have people not want to shop online at all and compel them to go into the store?

Unredeemed gift cards are a big profit center for big box retailers as more than 30% of gift cards go unredeemed. The more I think about it the more I have to admit that the lousy website experience provided by Target (and probably other big box retailers) is completely intentional.

Have you had similar experiences with Target.com or other big box retailers? Did it frustrate you like it did me?