The power of converging ideas

[Part two - I'm on a jag here]

Can organizations see physical environment analysis as a tool for solving business needs, or is this another market test device for a new fast food sandwich? After surveying the how much and what to wrap it in, ok, even the taste of the sandwich itself, did the place it was sold ever factor into the experience?

They knows it when they sees it

If you have a conversation with a neighbor and ask them to give you a personal recommendation for something that had a serious and costly impact on them -
like a hospital procedure or the subsequent hospital stay - they will give you information that points directly to how the hospital/organization is planned, managed and operated.

With just a few questions more, you will find knowledge of things just behind the curtain that makes complete sense of their complaints or praises. They don't have to know why something happened, good or bad. That doesn't really matter to them, because they came to a point where they simply made up their mind that it either compels them to recommend, or repels them and they can't let anyone else suffer their fate. And they're insistent on telling you every dang thing about it - grab a chair neighbor, you gotta hear this.

Their experience really doesn't have to be life-changing. For many people it can be as simple as getting an oil change, or a trip to a new grocery store. As a consumer society we're fully trained by marketing/advertising to look for differences, compare and contrast, and assign value to the things that we spend our time and money on. When convenience is king, time is money and we exercise both, we are in the driver's seat, bubba.

I see this collapsed into a paradigm of the 'friendly neighborhood store'. Many authorities use this analogy. Because of relationships formed and enjoyed with mom and pop proprietors, there's always room for catchup conversation, friendly give and take, flexibility, vigorish, a little something extra because it's going to be returned to you over the long term - where good customer relations live. This particular reality is downright damn difficult when you scale up past a neighborhood store. So, again you gotta find a way to cope, right?

Wal-Mart vs. Starbucks

This isn't to condemn (well ok, maybe just a tad), but to try to explain that we crave 'relationship' and that's so very hard for sellers to create and maintain. Wal-Mart cannot maintain relationships with all its customers, there are just too many people to greet like mom and pop did. Following them around the store to make sales recommendations is pretty much out of the question, and it's creepy, too. Big Box must create 'memorable shopping experiences' in place of relationships. Wal-Mart's hold is not environment, but price.

My parents love the totally overwhelming emotion that washes over them when they shop at Wal-Mart. "It's so big, there are so many things to find - and it’s all really cheap! What a wonderful country!" I know they are members of the Depression generation and humongous choice and cheap prices are exactly what does it for them: it represents the payoff of a better living standard they worked so hard and long for.

Personally, I must beg off - I can't stand to shop there because for me it's consumptive overload. If I weaken and go in for a bottle of shampoo, I'm good for a basketful of crap I don't need. I'm of the Generation of Plenty and this is plenty too much. I’m friendly at the door, but I don't ever see myself creating a relationship with the blue vest folks and neither do they, as long as there are plenty more coming in right behind me.

For a Few Dollars More

For me 3+ dollars worth of coffee in a paper cup can give me quite a luxuriant 'experience.' If I can afford to return often enough each week, I begin to think in terms of relationship with the folks behind the counter. Starbucks has re-created the country store minus the good ol boys and the nasty cowboy coffee on the pot belly stove. Got the scale, got the look, got the sound now, got the comfy chairs, got people like you hangin' out. It's perfectly fine with me to know, yes, I pay for 'cool', but I prefer to buy my ‘coffee experience' there. It just tastes better there, even though I can brew their branded ground coffee at home. Yeah, okay, my home is just not as cool. The environment trumps price here.

As an experiment, I’ve been buying cups of coffee from a little shack by the side of the road some mornings. The price is just slightly below Starbucks, and it is truly a mom and pop; matter of fact, the whole family works there. They use a punch card loyalty program that has already given me the satisfaction of a free cup. They can customize just like Starbucks, and they are set up strictly as a drive-through operation - no comfy chairs, no hang around ambiance. So, I’m trying to see if relationship trumps environment. This is a true test because the environment in my 98 Civic is no match for Starbucks' living room. Smells very...different.

The experiment: If this experience stuff is described, explained, documented, and assigned real business valuation through a sort of organizational MRI, could it help create a framework for rapdily adapting brick-and-mortar reality. We shall see.