The Green Bead
I once worked for a Corporate Vice President who I saw stoop to pick up a wrapper on a retail floor. He knew that retail is detail and telegraphed it to those around him.
In this aspect, eCommerce is the same as physical retail. When I led global operations for a $1B+ DTC brand, we tracked and measured errors on each page, and ran corrections of errors when quality metrics fell below (a pretty high) standard in any week. As we uncovered and fixed issues with localization, with QA, and with a whole bunch of other stuff, our conversion rates improved, repeat purchases increased, and our Net Promoter Score improved. Not all at once, but over time.
About a year ago I had a conversation with the CMO of a global consumer electronics retailer, who had a management consulting background and was new to ecommerce. He wanted to hear examples of effective ecommerce digital strategies.
I shared with him a framework for prioritizing parts of the customer journey,and gave the example of testing the impact on higher-cost fast delivery on both conversion rates and return rates. Turns out, the cost of fixing our supply chain was well worth the combination of increased conversion rates, reduced return rates, and higher customer LTV.
Doesn't seem too strategic, he said. That's just tactics.
Maybe I could have picked a more rivetting example. Not sure if would have mattered, though. He was looking for rocket science, and all I had was a framework for sweating the details that customers care about.
Execution is strategic.
The other day, I was in a company-owned mobile carrier store in Bellevue, WA trying to get an issue resolved with my family’s brand-new cell service. As I waited at a small table by the window for the next available associate, I saw a lone green bead on the carpeted floor. The kind that belongs on a necklace. As I waited, I saw store associates criss-crossing the store and stepping over that green bead at least ten times without picking it up.
I never did get my cell service issue resolved, and I returned those 4 devices and cancelled our new service.
I could tell you all the things they got wrong with their retail call center training, website functionality, acquisition marketing, CRM, issue ticketing and technical support. [It really was maddening!] But it all boiled down to one thing. The green bead.
In retail, it’s always about the green bead.
This post goes out to all the folks I’ve worked with who pick up those green beads, even when no one’s watching.
