This Company Is Going To Disrupt Mobile Payments In A BIG Way…
Click to find out… (Hint: The company’s name starts with a P)
A few weeks ago I was on StubHub buying hockey tickets.
I prefer the tickets that have “e-Delivery” because I don’t have to wait or pay for shipping.
I found my tickets, went to pay, and noticed I was being charged $116.20 for the following:
$4.00 for Delivery services? I know it is not a lot of money but it’s the principal. With e-Delivery, I’m the one wasting valuable ink and going to hell for destroying the environment with paper I print on. Why should I pay for that?
It would be like me going to a supermarket, getting to the register, and having the employee tell me I have to pay him to carry home my own groceries.
So what do I do? I hop on to the “Live Chat” functionality and begin to politely & humorously harass the customer service agent, “Taylor B”.
Delivering tickets to my e-mail? LOL
Ultimately, there was nothing Taylor could do to fix this. Taylor did however tip me off to a free loyalty program that would get rid of the fees for my first purchase. I saved the $4, but justice was not fully served…
This all went down on January 9th.
On January 22nd… All StubHub customers receive an e-mail announcing changes they have made to their pricing.
They now only have “all-in” pricing, so you know exactly what you are paying at time of purchase.
On StubHub, you’ll see the final price right when you hit the site. Nothing more will be added to your cost. Not even delivery charges.
Interested in Justin Timberlake tickets that you see listed for $100? Well, $100 is all you’ll pay. On other sites, that same ticket might be listed for $88, but will cost you $104 when it’s all said and done.
Coincidence? I think not…
Thank you Taylor B & StubHub for doing the right thing!
I’d argue that the majority of biz owners don’t appreciate or understand the impact of customer ratings and reviews when it comes to making purchase decisions.
These days, as a proud Amazon Prime customer, my first instinct is to browse the site when I’m in the market for something new.
I search the category of the item of interest (i.e. TV), narrow down the results, and sort by “Average customer reviews”. On Amazon, I’m confident that generally speaking the price is competitive vs. retail, so at that point I try to narrow down the options to those with the best customer ratings.
And… I definitely discriminate based on this. Your product has ❤ stars? Forget it.
Now, rationally speaking, I know that the high or low ratings could be based only on a few reviews, so another important measure is how many reviews it has received. My rule of thumb is that it should have 30+ reviews to feel like the star rating has significance.
At that point, I’m usually left with a few choices and I go in to each and immediately scroll down to read the user reviews. Again, rationally speaking, these are likely to be from the extremes (your haters and your superfans) of the satisfaction scale, given that the majority of people don’t provide reviews.
For whatever reason, I feel more comfortable listening to complete strangers who took the time to share their first hand experience, than reading what the company has to say about itself (or what an incentive-driven sales person would tell me in a store).
I’ve grown to rely on this practice because it has saved me a lot of time and led to me getting the best option when I make a purchase, which makes me feel good when it doesn’t break in a week.
Knowing that I’m not alone in this changing world and that customer feedback is a huge influence on purchase decision, I’m surprised how few companies actually do anything to help themselves. I see this on Yelp, Google Places, and a ton of other user generated review sites.
For the few that are ahead of the curve… they reap what they sow.
I recently was in the market for a bathroom scale. The medical scale in the locker at the gym said I was bordering obesity at a whopping 195lbs. At first, I trusted it because it was medical, but also couldn’t believe I put on 20lbs in a couple months. While out having coffee, I pulled up Amazon on my phone, searched for scales, and one scale came to the top of the list with a PERFECT 5 star rating. It was the Eatsmart Precision Plus Digital Bathroom Scale.
Moving through my flow, this 5 star rating came from 7,839 people. This was the first time I have seen a product with a perfect score and over 1K ratings.
I glanced at the reviews to make sure it wasn’t bogus, added it to my cart and checked out. Again, on my phone. Received it quickly with Prime and it worked flawlessly right out of the box.
How did EatSmart pull off this feet, you ask?
By knowing that consumers do their homework through reviews but are generally too lazy (or forgetful) to write reviews of their own.
Their solution? Include a slip that politely asked for a review, made it personal to helping small business, clearly acknowledged that the I bought it from Amazon.com, and provided the steps on how to leave a review.
They also take it a step further. Looking at the written reviews, some of the customers have initially posted poor reviews about the product. These reviews have been updated by the customers to share how the company listened to their issues, had the company’s senior leadership contact them, and tried to correct the situation.
EatSmart knows how to turn a bad situation into a positive one. They know that those vocal, negative reviewers can be channeled to in the same exact location to become brand advocates.
Anyway, long story short, I hope that businesses take a page out of EatSmart’s book…
Know your customer, encourage the behavior that makes them buy your product in the first place and listen up. You’ll be on your way to more $ soon and hopefully a 5 star rating.
Off to go leave my review for EatSmart.
While prepping for our upcoming trip to Paris, I turned to the all knowing Google and found a cool new feature that surfaces the top points of interest for that city. When you click on the items, a new search opens up so you can find out more about that attraction. Good example of Google 2.0 and how the search engine is starting to take the next step beyond organizing the web’s data to actually guessing what I was really looking for and surfacing the most relevant info to save me hassle.
With Facebook jumping on the hashtag bandwagon… the major platforms (LinkedIn, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest) now all have a feature that was once exclusive to Twitter.
Hashtags play an important purpose of categorizing conversations and connecting people to generate shared experience. The pound symbol was once something strictly associated with landline telephone and now is everywhere you turn. At the largest scale, these shared experiences are: current events, sports, TV shows. Just check your social feeds before, during, and after the Superbowl or Game of Thrones.
Twitter’s brand link to the hashtag is for sure the strongest, but it is not the only place where we turn to discuss the world’s happenings as they unravel. 65M+ social interactions occurred surrounding this year’s Oscars on Facebook. The difference there is that these conversations have limited public visibility depending on a user’s privacy settings.
The intro of hashtags to Facebook won’t change the issue of privacy restrictions but will definitely help organize conversations with your friends and connect you to those with open profiles via Graph Search.
My gut is saying that this new feature will start to cannibalize the volume of conversation happening on Twitter. Twitter is a great platform and will still play an important role in the social ecosystem given its open nature; however Facebook’s edge with the number of users and the fact that those users are typically more comfortable with the platform than people are with Twitter will start to eat away at Twitter’s dominance for events. Overtime, this will be a real challenge for Twitter to stay relevant.
Time will tell but once hashtags are rolled out Facebook-wide, there will be new wave of people using hashtags for the first time who never ventured onto Twitter.
It will also eventually be an opportunity for Facebook to develop a monetization strategy around conversations; which would give Twitter’s ad suite some strong competition around real-time events. Brands using hashtags as part of their integrated marketing efforts (Like Bud’s #MakeItPlatinum) will reap the benefits of being able to increasingly measure and participate in conversations happening on Facebook.
I’m interested to see how this plays out for both sides. #GoodLuck
Last week, my trusty laptop had its first problem after 4 years. The back light on the LCD burnt out. It was pretty much useless unless you plugged it into the TV or another monitor. So much for portable…
In the past, if you had an issue with electronics, you had a few options:
1) take it to a repair specialist and be at their mercy with pricing
2) try to figure it out yourself [if you could find the parts] with little guidance on how to DIY
3) chuck it and buy a new one
Today, a quick Google search for parts reveals many online stores that specialize in specific hardware components, usually priced well. These retailers have also invested time into preparing easy step by step guides for the average Joe to follow, tons of resources on YouTube, HowTo.com, and personal blogs.
I came across LaptopScreen.com and located the replacement screen for my laptop. They also had great instructions on exactly how to use their product. I ordered the screen after price comparing and got it a couple days later.
I have taken apart and built PCs before but never had the need (or confidence) to try a monitor. I took a shot with it this morning and after 30 mins of following the instructions… my laptop was back and better than ever.
I realized and appreciated that with any new project, we are so much better off today by being able to share what we know with others. Not to sound cheesy, but the web has empowered us to feel inspired by others around the world to try new things offline that we wouldn’t necessarily before, and ultimately build new skills to progress in our lives.
This isn’t just for electronics but everything from cooking to home repair to Yelp reviews about restaurants. We can easily turn to Google and search for “How to…” for pretty much anything we are curious to learn about and try.
I definitely have a new fond appreciation for the people who take the time to openly share their knowledge for the rest of the world. I’ll be thinking of what I can enlighten you all with…
For events, social media now plays a big role in the planning process. How do you encourage the attendees to share their experience in real time with each other and the outside world? One way is through real time activity feeds on displays inside the venue, showcasing all the buzz surrounding the event.
Working on the TIME100 event, we helped develop a massive 20 ft by 16 ft “social media wall”, featuring the #TIME100 feeds from Twitter and from Instagram.
The display turned heads of the guests in attendance and captured the live activity from the red carpet and throughout the night.
This month, T-Mobile announced it would be changing its business model. They’re becoming totally contract-free, with a simple low rate for talk, text and web.
The new rates are by far the lowest of the big four US carriers (Verizon, ATT, Sprint). For $70 per month, you get unlimited data, voice and messaging – no strings attached.
Sounds great right?
Actually, there is a big trade off to leave the contracts. Without a fixed term, the carriers can’t subsidize the cost of your phone. This is an arrangement we’re now all comfortable with. This is what makes the latest and greatest devices relatively affordable at renewal time.
And… smartphones are not cheap. T-Mobile’s new 32GB Apple iPhone 5 retails for $679.99 before taxes, a number much harder to stomach than $199.
If you can’t pay all upfront, there still is an option to split it up. T-Mobile will allow you to put some money down toward the phone of your choice, however, now you explicitly pay a monthly fee for the phone.
In the case of the iPhone 5, you would pay $199 upfront and make monthly payments of $20 per month for 24 months, resulting in the total cost of the $679.99. Not exactly sure how you can walk away from your plan if you’re half way through paying for a phone, but that is another story.
Freedom from your contract will cost you about $240 more for your phone and service over the 2 years.
Knowing this, I’d gladly lock in to a contract for 2 years and even pay the premium for unlimited.
I was planning on renewing with T-Mobile in May for the new Samsung Galaxy S4 but this has me rethinking the idea.
Share your thoughts in the comments about the tradeoff between being locked into a contract and being responsible for the cost of devices
I’ve always wondered what it was like for my parents to witness the major changes in technology throughout the decades. They’ve told me about TV going from boring black & white to color. I’ve also listened to countless stories about how the school computer took up an entire room and had to be programmed with punch cards. It’s hard to appreciate these advancements (the “after”) without experiencing the “before”, since I’ve only known color TV and computers that can fit on a desk.
Today, it hit me after seeing this picture:
I haven’t been around on Earth all that long… but I do remember the days of PCs only being large towers with bulky CRT monitors and a ball mouse. In the last 20 years, I’ve seen more and more power squeezed into smaller and smaller devices.
My Android today is more powerful than the Macintosh Performa 6400 I was bragging to my friends at school about in ‘93. It also has more features to cover my needs from music to photography to games… and it even makes phone calls! The crazy part is that somehow this magical device is available 1/4 the price of what my dad paid for our Mac (in ‘93 dollars). I imagine that 20 years from now, I will be even more amazed by what we come up with.
di-JY-tal 
Written
on June 1, 2014