Just Another Customer

Microawareness: Perfecting the Customer Experience

I am looking forward to smart stores that can finally provided the optimal customer experience

This weekend, I had to run to the local home improvement store to pick up a few items for home – a new trash can, trash bags, air filters and a grill cover. I decided to go to Lowe’s rather than Home Depot because 1) our local Lowe’s is newer and better and 2) it was closer to some other errands I had to run. The decision to change stores was not as clear cut as it should have been as I knew that finding the items on the aforementioned list would take additional time at Lowe’s.

I could not have been more correct. All in all, and even after bringing myself to ask for help, it probably took an extra 20 minutes for me to track down everything I needed. I don’t really find this acceptable anymore and have a few ideas about how this could be remedied.

• In-store dedicated “Twitter”applications with hashtags - Why couldn’t large box stores provide free wifi with a dedicated microblogging system that recognized a list of hashtags for common items and would spit back relevant information?
• Text messages -  I don’t use text messages that often but I know for many people they are essential. How about a text system similar to the twitter idea above?
• iTarget, iWalmart, etc. applications - Why don’t the big box stores develop iPhone or other smart phone applications for clients that allowed for in-store applications?
• A “store-aware” iPhone application - Even better than a store-specific application, how about a generic app that recognizes a wide variety of stores.
• Carts hooked into an RFID system - How about carts with search tied to RFID databases and inventory?

There may be some very good technical reasons why these may be difficult to achieve, however the upside seems huge. Imagine if Target had a dedicated mobile app that could not only help people find what they wanted but also could deliver targeted ads and discounts. The buzz alone for something like this would be worth the effort. Let’s hope we see something like this soon.