The classic science fiction drama has been all but dead for nearly a decade. Thoughtful, provocative storytelling of another place in time and space is a rarity in today’s U.S. cinema. The last one that comes to mind was Steven Soderbergh’s Solaris, and it was based on the novel by prolific writer Stanislaw Lem. I, Robot was a good attempt, but like so many other modern films of this genre, it was too slick with too much CGI. I won’t even talk about Transformers. I had all but written off the experiences that made me fall in love with sci-fi and propelled my interest in film. Works like The Day the Earth Stood Still (1950). 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes, A Clockwork Orange and later on, Silent Running, Blade Runner and Aliens, fulfilled the wonder and curiosity that was sparked when my sister gave me a copy of The Martian Chronicles for my 9th birthday. I know I’m being a bit harsh, as there are some contenders in A.I. Artificial Intelligence; possibly even The Sixth Sense. But these are exceptions that had to swim upstream against a raging river of special effects and tone deaf dialogue.

I moved on, accepting that yet another thing from my youth had been taken over by a new generation enamored with technology. But then I bought a ticket to Duncan Jones’ Moon. All those memories and hope that we still live in a world where they actually build sets out of raw materials and put actors in front of cameras to, well, act came rushing back. Moon is not a great film. But it is a work of ingenuity and courage and like the early pictures in the genre is more grown up.

Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is approaching the end of his three year contract with Lunar Industries where he lives on the moon and watches over robots mining for Helium-3. That H-3 is then shot back to earth on rockets where it provides 75% of all Earth’s energy needs. His only companion is a robot named GERTY (voice by Kevin Spacey) who is programmed to prepare meals, monitor Sam’s health and keep him safe. In between his astronaut routine, Sam works on a balsa wood model of a city, reads, tends to his plants and watches delayed video broadcasts of his wife and young daughter who are waiting for him back on Earth.

There only a few weeks to go when suddenly he becomes ill. Each day brings more symptoms from coughing up blood to having hallucinations that other people are in the Lunar station with him. While out on routine patrol in his rover he has an accident that renders him unconscious. Suddenly a younger, more energetic man appears, identical in looks to Sam. The new character brings the injured Sam back to base where they carry on an intense relationship, both searching for who the other one is and why they’re there.

At first they are at odds, but soon they join forces and together uncover the shocking truth. In the final scenes compassion and empathy take over, even GERTY joins in, assisting the two Sam’s in successfully carrying out their hastily crafted plan. It’s part revenge, part survival.

Mr. Jones pays detailed homage to the original, brainy sci-fi films. He evokes their pacing and calmness but updates them just enough to make this picture his own. His camera is not afraid to stand still and allow the audience to take in the sparse surroundings.

Mr. Rockwell has an everyman quality that invites speculation that he was probably in dire straits back on earth and that’s why he took up this lonely assignment. His physicality plays a major part in his performance. We watch Sam 1 deteriorate while Sam 2 gains in strength. Mr. Spacey is the calming robotic voice paired with smiley face emoticons that give Sam at least some feedback to help him while trapped in an emotional elevator ride.

Technical aspects are nothing special, but fit well into the visual style of the film. Clint Mansell’s score is solitary, almost muzak-like, but edgy at the same time. I do recommend this picture, but don’t go expecting a Transformer’s ride. Go because you want to slow down and observe film craft that carefully builds a story. You can visit the official Moon web site here.

Images: Sony Pictures Classics

On June 22nd and 23rd, Forrester Research held their first ever Customer Experience Forum at the Grand Hyatt in NYC with this timely theme; The Customer Experience Journey: Keeping Momentum in a Downturn. They work hard at keeping it real and relevant. First let’s get the Wordle thing out of the way. I took eight pages of notes during the event; single spaced and 9 point font. I deposited all eight pages into Wordle and got this map.

I always think long and hard about why I should attend a conference. In this climate you’ve got to make everything count, so I create a list of what I want to learn and questions I would like answered. I make it a point to meet at least three new people that I will follow up with after the event. I attended this forum in search of how to make customer experience more of a business driver for my company. I believe a good customer experience leads to additional product sales and loyalty, but in this downturn I need more and more empirical evidence for my senior managers. My approach when attending a conference is to do so as if I am required to give a summary to my CEO when I return.

I’ve been thinking about the forum for a week now. There was so much information presented that it takes a while for it all to settle into my brain. What I have arrived at is the following; customer experience is no longer a deck chairs moment. It’s real. Brands that get it will emerge from this downturn stronger than ever. Those that don’t; well let’s just say I wouldn’t want to be working for them. But their problems will be less about their employees and all about their customers.

The High Hard Ones

• Consumers are in control. Technology advancements in social media have enabled and empowered consumers to crowd source ideas, opinions and advice. The bad news is frustrated consumers want to tell the world. The Good news is that happy consumers want to tell the world.
• Government action focusing on regulation as a result of the recent economic issues is really about improving the customer experience. Specifically it’s about increasing confidence, trust and advocacy in brands and industries. Brands should seize this rare opportunity to align with this inevitable change.
• People want to do business with people, not faceless, nameless organizations. People watch out for people. Companies watch out for shareholders. There needs to be more work done on how to connect these two areas and make it work for all. The corporate tension of today that’s been created by silos simply pushes the pendulum in the other direction. The result is consumers are constantly being whiplashed.
• Businesses still need to turn a profit. Sales, revenues, efficiencies, etc. are alive and well in the C-Suite. Firms demonstrating leadership that can connect customer experience with a social overlay and deliver business results will rule.
• More and more technology is playing an ever growing part on the stages once dominated by classic marketing, advertising and customer service. Integrated, multi-channel approaches are no longer nice to have, they are required.
• Some companies are already doing this. They are winning. Are you one of them?

Day One

Keynote was given by Bruce Temkin; Charting Your Customer Experience Journey. In this very engaging presentation, Bruce brought us back to The Wizard of Oz with references to needing a heart, brains and courage to tackle this challenge.

• Heart – Ensures you are practicing empathy for your customers
• Brains – Makes you think about how to cut costs. Not a haircut exercise, but a thoughtful one that shifts funds appropriately
• Courage – Look for the opportunities but trust in your initiatives

He presented some powerful slides that directly linked customer experience to the bottom line to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars for firms doing in excess of $10Bn. He reinforced his Experience-Based Differentiation model coined a couple of years ago. These require companies to follow these rules.

• Obsess about your customer needs, not product features
• Reinforce brand with every interaction, not just communications
• Treat customer experiences as a competence, not a function

Bruce’s mother was in the audience and he recounted something she taught him as a young boy. If you make promises, keep them. This nicely sketched out his second rule of customer experience.

Reinforce brands with every interaction, not just with communications

He set out a five stages of customer experience maturity that companies will need to follow to arrive at their destination. Each stage has a corresponding focus and culture descriptio

• Interested: Focus is explore opportunity. Culture is raise awareness
• Invested: Focus is fix problems. Culture is get buy-in
• Committed: Focus is redesign processes. Culture is solidify beliefs
• Engaged: Focus is on empowering employees. Culture is align HR systems (soft systems: hire, train, promote)
• Embedded: Focus and Culture are to Sustain customer-centric DNA

He closed with the following advice. Align all your customer experience efforts to business results. Use the voice of the customer to help. Provide clear leadership and governance.

Acxiom and Hearst Publications presented some fascinating concepts called Winning Elections in the Marketing Democracy. They say it’s all power to the people. Everyone can contribute and everyone has a voice.

Acxiom threw TV and other traditional advertising under the bus. I realize that’s popular, but not practical. At least not yet. The take home message was that consumers more and more are saying,

If your marketing is important enough, it will find me.

That’s a focusing fact to remind us we need to ensure there is a social overlay to our advertising and marketing campaigns.

Hearst moved away from the restrictive construct of iVillage and created their own online properties. Traffic has flourished and they discovered they have two audiences for the same product. Fewer than 30% of a specific magazine’s site visitors also read he newsstand version, while fewer than 2% of the magazine readers visited the same site online. Creates more overhead to maintain both, but also opens up lots of opportunities to monetize.

C. David Cush, CEO of Virgin America Airlines really delivered on how to execute brand differentiation with his speech, A Good Airline Experience is not an Oxymoron. Having spent many years at American, he gave a simple explanation on why airlines aren’t customer focused. Most airline CEOs come up through either finance or sales and they think about the customer as revenue. He talked about all the things Virgin America is doing on the planes for the customer, such as free wifi on all flights, and customers order food and drinks from their 9″ seat back touch screen, swipes their credit card and a team member brings them their order on a tray. No carts moving up and down aisles.

Customers sometimes Tweet to @virginamerica while in flight and make comments. If something goes wrong, Virgin sends a team member to meet the flight at the gate to address any issues when the customer deplanes. Wow. I wish they flew to Chicago.

When you look at the number of followers to airline Twitter streams here’s how it stacks up.

• JetBlue – 712,234
• Southwext – 109.261
• Virgin – 20,748
• United – 14,339
• Delta – 5,344
• American – 3,535
• U.S.Airways – 1,390

Consumers like brands with personality who are challenging the standard ways and putting the customer first.

The tech showcase had a round-up of the usual suspects, but I did get to interact with a new interactive, touch screen Coke machine. Sapient had it at their booth and apparently it was battle tested during the Beijing Olympics last year. The screen real estate can be sectioned off to show video, or display ads. It can even go social, allowing consumers to write on the screen and share it in a community. It dispenses the new aluminum Coke bottle shaped cans.

An Interactive Coke Dispensing Machine

The day went from analyst speak to big brand case studies to a world class designer. Sohrab Vossoughi, President and Founder of Ziba Design said, Forget Customer Experience – Create Meaning.

He delivered an energetic and compelling case for creating authentic relationships with consumers. He talked about finding your brand’s DNA. That is it’s essence and character, the company culture, it’s authenticity, and finally, base it all on trust. He placed design at the center of creating a great customer experience and defined design as follows:

• All about connection
• The act of connection is the real power of design
• Great designs connect people and connect with people
• It’s centered around meaning and moments
• Great design has meaning
• Great design anticipates and creates great customer experience moments

Design should be used to understand, synthesize, connect, simplify the complex, make meaning and create. He then presented his Umpqua Bank case study, which is a poster child of design for customers.

Day Two

The final day keynote was given by Moria Dorsey of Forrester entitled, The Future of Online Experiences: Prepare Now for Recovery. She took us from ballet to automobiles to the future of the web in about 45 minutes. The Forrester analyst I follow the most is Bruce Temkin, but Moria Dorsey is now a close second if not in a virtual dead heat.

She led off with a history of the automobile and how it has taken 50 years for cars to find their true form and another 100 years to evolve to what we recognize them to be today. The web is essentially in the Model T stage, which means there is a mind numbing amount of change coming our way.

Moria Dorsey divining the future

Ms. Dorsey was pushing us to think about the future and possibilities with her predictions. She boiled down the future online experience as follows.

• Customized by the user
• Aggregated for a broader view
• Relevant at a given moment
• Social will be fully embedded

She spoke about how the capability / mobility gap is closing while at the same time the number of interfaces and devices are multiplying. Consumers are being bombarded by new technology choices from all angles. They want to always be online, they visit social networking sites and more and more prefer richer interactions. These consumer preferences should guide our digital roadmaps. But it’s not all about devices. Cloud computing has ushered in a whole host of new players and interactions. The number of web sites continues to grow, all of this combines to make formidable competition to even the most well established brands.

All fine, but how does one get ready for this evolving world? Her advice is that brands need advanced techniques to deliver what the customer wants and be able to achieve business results. This can be accomplished by:

• Creating and using multi-channel personas that reflect and include information to help design the experiences you are trying to create
• Conduct virtual ethnographic research to inform scenarios and build a new kind of customer experience map
• Atomize your content and functionality so it can meet the consumer where they are
• Establish an incubation environment to rapid-cycle testing of new ideas with low risk
• Build mad design skills. Think software development, not web page coding.

As we move into the Model-T era of the online space, design and create experiences not simply inside the window, but off the desktop and out to devices.

The main stage closed with Martin A. Nisenholtz, SVP of Digital Operations at The New York Times. He presented a cast study on Building an Online News Experience. His talk was professional and well crafted. Obviously an experienced newspaper man, but clearly one that has made a successful transition to digital media. It wasn’t a classic case study, but it did provide some interesting glimpses of how a brand as strong and old as The New York Times is in the analog world has tried to remake itself for the a new era.

It was a fascinating experience listening to Mr. Nisenholtz, because of his intellectual approach to the problem. They have tried to align customer experience with business model innovation. Advertising is their main source of revenue and although you don’t often see ad takeovers, they do rich media units on their home page. I’m a Mac, I’m a PC from Apple ads were showcased.

Building a new online news experience has been accomplished in their interactive graphic reporting and how they try to balance social web and narrative web. They are viewed as two sides of the same storytelling coin. Mr. Nisenholtz said that beaking news is not their value proposition, but the title bar when you load nytimes.com says Breaking News, World News & Mulitmedia. The content delivers deep analysis and serendipity, and has high appeal to long time readers who have a thirst for knowledge and a desire to get life long learning. They focus more on psychographics than demographics.

Martin Nisenholtz of The New York Times

He did a very nice job of evoking old school journalism and translating it into digital terms. “Report the news without fear or favor” still holds today. It’s integrity, skill and craft that builds a real newspaper. He also hinted as to how their business model might change. He used the term fremmium (might have even coined it) that’s a combination of free and paid content. They don’t treat the models as binary, but try to do both. Mobility might be a good revenue avenue for paid subscriptions because it lacks a proven advertising structure right now.

During the Q&A he was asked about the growing social media tools like Twitter and did he see that as a threat. He very emphatically and I believe rightly so, said that Twitter is a very large feeder to nytimes.com, but it will never replace what’s published in The Times. The audience broke out in applause. Indeed many of us stopped Twittering to join in.

I have strong opinions on what’s happening with newspapers and express them here.

On both flight segments there were some amazing cloud formations. Was able to capture three different ones.

If you’ve never attended a Forrester Forum, I would highly recommend it. But go in looking for answers. Ask the analysts the hard questions and network as much as possible.

Read my post from the Forrester Marketing Forum held in April 2009 here.

Photos: Steve A Furman

Steve Jobs with iPhone - January 2007

Today is the second anniversary of the release of the iPhone. Yes, two whole years ago Steve Jobs changed yet another industry that was not computer related (music and cell phones). Now don’t get all mushy on me and start crying for heaven’s sake. I know, I know, you love your iPhone almost as much as your mother. Almost as much? Really. Does your mother synch your calendar, to do’s, and photos? Does she give you a full browser web experience? Has she provided you with a store that allows you to download thousands of applications you may never use? Can she integrate with Google? I thought not. Time to revisit.

First came the hype. I can’t remember when there was so much anticipation over a product (ok, Cabbage Patch dolls). Despite all the warnings about people waiting in line on that day, I got mine within 30 minutes of entering the Northbrook Court (Illinois) Apple Store on June 29, 2007. There were those who doubted Apple could keep up with demand. But that didn’t seem to be a problem, and when I returned to that same store over the next few days and weeks, I always saw people coming out carrying iPhone bags. No need to recount all the things an iPhone can do. We already know. Since that fateful day they have released two successors; the 3G and 3GS. Others are still trying to catch up with not much success. But I will admit, the Palm Pre has a chance.

This is just a sampling of what I do with my iPhone.

• Check the weather
• Use the maps to find homes, restaurants, museums, businesses
• Update my  blog
• Check my Facebook page and update my status
• Tweet
• Show people my photos
• Take and share photos
• Start revolutions
• Listen to music on a flight
• Check and send e-mail, including read attachments
• Review my calendar for appointments, or make them
• Seduce women
• Manage my finances
• Tame tigers
• Settle bets
• Browse the web
• Learn what phase the moon is currently in (werewolf warning always on)
• Text my friends
• Quell uprisings
• Watch movies
• Listen to podcasts
• Run governments
• Entertain a bored 5 year old with games

Many complained that the battery was sealed, like an iPod, and it would only last a year. Then you would have to ship your phone back to Apple and pay $99 to have them replace it. Here’s my experience. I use my iPhone everyday, all day, and charge it about every other day. I’m still on the original battery and I’ve noticed no difference in how it holds a charge.

I was a bit peeved with the price reduction a few short months after I bought mine. Apple left early adopters, like me, high and dry. We complained and clawed back half of the price drop in a store credit. That left some scar tissue having been true to the brand for so many years. But time heals all wounds.

For me I don’t see myself getting a new iPhone until I’ve run this one into the ground. Although the video feature is tempting. And when I finally do, I’ll keep it, unlike what I did with all those old Macs I got rid of over the past couple of decades. The Day One iPhone goes in my personal museum.

What is the definition of story? My answer is “conflict.” Great stories unfold against a backdrop of tension and combine reality and fantasy. Pixar Animation Studios has mastered this formula for kids and grown-ups alike. Their latest work, Up, tracks the life of Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner) from the time he was a little boy watching newsreel footage of an explorer he idolized, through his marriage with Ellie (Ellie Docter), and finally on to his life’s adventure of visiting a lost world.

They makers of Up borrowed a very effective device from Wall-E by taking us through a significant portion of the story without dialogue. In Up it was a more straightforward, Hollywood style approach meant to define Carl’s character and show us the arc of his life. He had great dreams of adventure, but acted on them much later than he had planned.

Carl has held onto his home which is now in the center of a high-rise construction site. He won’t give it up, but when circumstances force him to leave, he uses his experience as a balloon salesman to inflate thousands of them with helium and levitate his home high in the air. It’s South America or bust. All is going well until a young scout named Russell (Jordan Nagai), looking for one final merit badge, has stowed away and is now on the same journey.

The usual challenges arise along the way, but also some unexpected ones. Talking dogs, an exotic bird and finally, a nail-biting, unplanned battle that Carl is forced to fight in order to do what’s right as well as accomplish his life long dream.

Pixar pulls on the heartstrings but immediately lets them go with wonderful moments of humor for the parents as well as the kids. It’s full of clever dialogue. Director Pete Docter and co-director Bob Peterson are clearly in command, setting a brisk pace and giving us lots to look at along the way. They weave it all together in predictable ways, but do it so cleverly that you don’t mind not being blown away with some stock turn of events. It’s high adventure, and probably the most grown up story Pixar has turned out yet. Many of their films deal with inevitable events like death, but this one puts people in the center of the story. Wall-E had people, but come on, is that where mankind is going? I didn’t buy it. Up makes it “human real” and immediately relatable for young and old alike. In my view it could be the beginning of a new framework for Pixar. But there is so much pressure to produce box office, they will likely be forced to pursue whatever they think will sell tickets. I understand. We’ll see.

I viewed this film in 3D and really didn’t find it more interesting or exciting. They don’t over trick the viewer, but I found the experience to be not as big or bright as a regular 35MM print, and many of the 3D effects blended into my brain over time. I actually wish I had not seen it in 3D. I’ll be watching with interest to see if 3D is a phase or the future. I explore this further in an earlier post here.

I enthusiastically recommend this picture for all. Providing they are ready for PG films. The official Up web site is full of fun and energy. Be sure and visit here.

A growing number of consumers are posting comments about a product or experience they’ve had with a brand on a blog or Twitter and expecting the company to come right back that same day with a personalized message and solution. I’ve seen isolated incidents where some consumers return to the network within hours and remark that they have fired that brand for being ignored between lunch and dinner.

I’m concerned that the speed of social will cause consumers to think traditional communication channels are obsolete and have been disconnected from the grid. Big brands have spent millions of dollars staffing call centers and maintaining web sites to provide customer service. They won’t be chucking those investments any time soon. Folks… folks… Let’s get real. A single consumer will always be more agile than a large organization on almost everything. Companies have not promised, nor can they right now, monitor hundreds of millions of conversations and respond as part of their service contract.

As a consumer, if you have a problem with a product or service, there is nothing wrong with expressing your perspective using social media technology. I have done so numerous times in this very space. But you need to ask yourself why are you doing it? What’s your objective when you post out? Is it a test to see how quickly they will find you? Are you informing/warning the community about your experience? Unless you are a key influencer with a big following, posting on a blog is a little like shouting out in a crowded stadium. Almost no one will hear you. Certainly not the pitcher who just gave up that home run.

I’ll bet you can find a web address or 800 number on the packaging coupled with an open invitation to call anytime you have a problem or question. So click on www or pick up the phone. After all you spent time and probably money on the product. What if your issue could be remedied with a 1 minute conversation or e-mail response? Isn’t that a better use of time?

Once you have gone through the channels a company has established to help you and still the issue isn’t resolved, then by all means, have at it in the community. The company deserves it. Firms will get better at monitoring the social graph. It’s a completely new concept and the velocity is overwhelming. It will take some more time.

I’ve been getting The New Yorker magazine in my mailbox for about 13 years. The archivist in me used to save every issue. It was pretty easy, after all why did I buy a big house if I wasn’t going to fill it up? But three years ago I moved, so the recycle bin got a workout. It was bittersweet looking through all those issues and trying to decide which ones would stay and which ones would go.

There are lots of great reasons to read this magazine, but the cover is without question the defining element. It’s the first thing you see when you open your mailbox. The great thing about the cover is you never know what you’re going to get. After the shock of 9/11 was beginning to wane, one of the first thoughts that came to mind was what would The New Yorker put on the cover? When it finally came I was worried it might disappoint. Was I wrong. This was the most amazing magazine cover I had ever seen. Artist Art Spiegelman, who was forced to flee the falling towers with his child and wife in tow produced this masterpiece.

Art Spiegelman's cover art following 9/11

It’s difficult to tell from this digital scan snagged from The New Yorker archive site, but it’s a rendering of the twin towers in black on a black background. Simple, powerful, crystalline, heartbreaking.

After decades of traditionally drawn covers, The New Yorker is enabling convergence by printing Jorge Colombo’s drawing, using a $5 iPhone application, on this week’s issue. Without the fanfare of how it was done, I would bet no one would have even guessed. It’s rich and totally expected. Welcome to the world of convergence.

Jorge Colombo's cover drawn with an iPhone application

Read more and watch a video on how he did it here.

Covers from The New Yorker magazine

Here’s a fascinating video of air traffic across the globe during a 24 hour span condensed down to about 2 minutes. It was taken by an orbiting satellite and includes the day/night footprint gliding across earth. The yellow represents large jet flights from the major carriers. You can see aircraft landing in Europe having left America, and then returning to America from Europe. When you see all the planes in the air you realize what an challenging task it is to keep it all organized. We all like to complain about flying, but the pilots, airlines and air traffic control really do a pretty solid job it keeping us safe.

On September 11, 2001 all air traffic was ordered to land once the government got a grasp of what was happening. This grounding was unprecedented. I remember that I had to get away from the heartbreaking television reports for a while and so went to lunch with a friend. We at an outside table of a small bistro and gazed up at the perfectly clear, blue sky. I live in Chicago, a major airline hub, and are used to seeing planes all the time. But on this afternoon we could not spot one jet or contrail due to the grounding. It added to the eeriness of the day.

The following is an animation of all planes landing on September 11, 2001. Click the image to open it in another browser window to see animation.

Click image to see animation

This photo below shows a midwestern shot of an empty sky, save three jet contrails. They are Air Force One and two fighter jet escorts.

Images, Videos and Gifs: U.S. Government, NASA

The completion of the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago adds an additional 264,000 square feet of gallery space to this already impressive museum. It’s now the second largest in the country, trailing only The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. I had the good fortune of being at the AIC on Wednesday, May 13th giving a talk on Customer Experience, so I took advantage of the opportunity to tour the new Modern Wing. As a museum member I was allowed in on a self-guided tour ahead of the opening on May 16th.

Designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, the wing has it’s own entrance on Monroe street, placing it squarely in the cross hairs of the The Great Lawn, raking down from the Jay Pritzker Pavilion of Millennium Park (designed by Frank Gehry). From this view you can’t see a trace of the familiar Beaux Arts building that’s been in residence on Michigan Avenue for more than 130 years. It feels as if you may even be in a different city as you approach the glass rectangles and massive cantilevered grid roof. Perhaps Los Angeles, sans palm trees. The design has a transformative power filling one with anticipation of what’s to come.

The Foyer looking to the Monroe St. entrance

The main foyer is narrow and deep like a pure white slot canyon. The offset, light oak floor planks deliver you into the space like a moving sidewalk. Your eye is drawn up to the sky pouring in through the stainless steel and glass grid ceiling. The stairs off to one side float up and into the more approachable squarish gallery boxes that array the museum’s stunning collection. A wonderful geometric compliment to the extreme main hallway.

You are however swarmed by the sameness, almost monotony of the structure; white, chrome and glass. But the space overall is workmanlike and the design is kind and courteous to the artist. Once you are inside any of the galleries, the building clears out of the way and allows the art to take center stage. It’s early days, and so, the curators still have work to do. But overall, the experience is splendid.

View of the Modern ceiling

The museum’s collection is expansive and inspiring. Modigliani, Picasso, Johns, Pollack, Warhol, etc., they’re all here to be rediscovered under the eye of the Modern. It works best if  you go immediately to the third floor and wind your way down. At first you see classic galleries. As you descend you slowly begin to notice variations on how the space is shaped. One section contains 30 shadow boxes by Joseph Cornell, appropriately lined up in their own cubbies. At the north end of each floor is that constant view of Millennium Park where city goers gather and mingle among evening concerts in the warm Midwest summer nights. Taken together it’s an oasis of culture and reflection. Both are welcome in these tough times.

Once you are back at ground level an architecture gallery second to none (sorry Met) awaits you. Chicago is after all the home of the skyscraper, our payback for enduring the Great Fire. And so, this gallery is filled with elegant drawings and detailed models tracking the growth of structures and modern design of all types. Photography and video galleries round out the first floor. If you still have enough energy to take in more, you can exit the Modern foyer opposite of where you entered and violà, the rest of the Art Institute awaits.

On my tour I followed a senior gentleman with his daughter for a short while. He was in constant awe and I caught a sound bite as he gazed out of the third floor northern facing window. He said, “It sure is a modern world.” A fitting comment.

Chicago is a city of dreamers and doers. The Modern Wing has found a home.

Photos: Steve A Furman. To see more Modern Wing photos go here.

This is an expanded version of a presentation I gave at the Customer Experience Summit on May 13, 2009 at The Art Institute of Chicago. The event was hosted by TeaLeaf and OpinionLab.

Feedback, Voice of the Customer, whatever you want to call it is not new. It was born with that first comment or letter to Customer Service, store manager or the President of the company expressing outrage or praise over a recent experience. Today most large firms have formal processes in place for collecting feedback across numerous channels. Collecting information is easy, organizing it is harder and making changes based on feedback sometimes requires Congress to act. We are seeing Voice of the customer getting more attention these days for a number of reasons.

• Increasing use of the Internet by consumers
• Renewed focus on digital marketing in this economic downturn
• Explosive growth of social networking

As someone responsible for the online customer experience of a large site, I am very interested in customer feedback. We get bits of it through usability testing prior to launching features and functionality, but those events are spaced out over the course of the year and part of a specific feature of function of the site. It’s critical to monitor what customers are saying about their experience on your site on a more regular basis, like daily.

If it’s your site on the screen this young woman is confused about on her laptop then you very much need to know what she’s thinking.

Is your site on this laptop?

Your Customer is talking, so listen

You should be collecting customer voices from multiple channels across the company. This feedback falls in one of two classes:

• Internal Voices
  • Ratings and comments submitted on the site
  • Inbound e-mails
  • Call center discussions
  • Mail / executive letters
  • Surveys / research
• External Voices
  • Blogs
  • Video sharing networks
  • Twitter streams
  • Media sites

Within all that feedback are rich clues you can mine to improve the customer experience. But if you are a large company this will mean an overwhelming amount of data and pose collection and processing challenges. You must leverage technology to help you make sense of all this feedback and weed out the noise. There are dozens of firms that can help with this. Which one you choose will depend on your objectives.

Practice Active Listening

We’ve all heard about active listening through a psychology class, team building exercise or during one of those individual development discussions you’ve had with your manager. It’s half of effective communication. The SIER hierarchy of Active Listening was developed in the mid 1980’s by communications researchers Steil, Watson & Barker. They were responding to data that told them humans immediately forget 50% of what their are told and an additional 25% after two days.

SIER hierarchy of Active Listening

By practicing active listening on your customer feedback you will be taking important first steps to improving your customer experience. I’m thinking about going so far as to changing the term customer feedback to active listening for my team. Here are techniques we use:

• Collect Voice of the Customer on
  • Most visited pages
  • Highest business value pages
  • Most complex interactions
  • Customer service sections
  • Sensitive areas (pricing, policy, etc.)
• Track and compare site sub-sections
  • Aggregate scores can be a false friend
• Look for commonality in feedback across channels
• Categorize feedback and link directly to a measured business value
• Take action on changes you can make within your role
• Recommend enhancements your partners can champion

This establishes a series of filters and brings into focus the most meaningful customer feedback. By meaningful I mean important to the customer and valuable to the business. You must demonstrate an intersection of customer feedback and business value. Without that no one will take you seriously and you will end up frustrated. But that’s only the beginning. From there you need to create a process that works in your organization with an end goal of actually making changes to your site, or marketing practices, even policy. Here is a simple, but very effective model.

You must speak your business partner’s language and invite them into the customer circle. By speaking their language I mean connecting customer feedback to what matters to your partner including the associated business value. If you run your web site you should know exactly how much money you save or revenue you create (or both) with each and every log in. Customer comments are easily rationalized away and marginalized without this monetary value attached to it. The The steps in the process are:

• Collect: Leverage technology, automate communications and practice active listening
• Connect: Link feedback to the customer experience (moments of truth) and monetize
• Inform: Convene regular cross-functional meetings, report findings and make recommendations
• Act: Translate recommendations into projects with associated business value

It will be tough going at first, which is why you need a process that ties back to business value. Once you make changes you will need to collect the feedback to demonstrate progress, again with business value attached. That reporting coupled with the tracked business results will take you places you never thought you could go. Your customers will thank you and you will be rewarded by the business.

Photo Credit: js-az.com

If you are not familiar with TED you should remedy that immediately. TED stands for technology, entertainment and design. It began in 1984 as an annual conference to bring the brightest minds from these three arenas together. It has mushroomed from there. The site is filled with videos of talks and a community. Check it out.

I was browsing the talks and saw this one by Shai Agassi. Mr. Agassi led the software powerhouse SAP but resigned in 2007 to commit himself to helping the world break it’s fossil fuel habit. He speaks about how it’s definitely possible to bring an electric car to the world. Fascinating viewing.