The perfect customer experience for women?
For a little over a month now, I have been observing the new "Women's World" at Media Markt. Not entirely voluntarily, but the store I visit has placed this "world" right in front of the checkouts, so you have to pass it either way - regardless of gender.
In its May 22, 2012 issue, Der Standard already reported on it: Media Markt: "Women's World" triggers mixed feelings. A local inspection in Vienna 15: customers are divided.
Fine, you might think: the topic has been covered and everything has been said. But I would like to add a few thoughts, from a service designer's perspective. My first impression latched onto the slogan: "Women's World - especially for women... and men who want to do something good for women!" (sic)
Thanks, you anglicisms in a modern German language mix - this is what we get. Woman or women, singular or plural, world or corner, whatever. At least the translation is delivered with the slogan.
What I really heard was: "... and men who want to do something good for women!" "Yes, that could be true," I thought. The men at Media Markt want to do something good for women. With the Women's World - not a new magazine, but rather the equivalent of a women-only parking space in the Media Markt landscape.
I thought: well meant, somewhat suboptimal in execution, "men, after all," women might say. But then I read this reaction to the Standard article.
According to Media Markt: "Women's World is a concept that was developed together with female customers and Media Markt in several workshops, fitting the season under the motto 'Wellness & health'." (sic)
Aha. So women are involved in the development of their world. As it should be. Why are the other women not happy, then? Or the men who want to do something good for women?
I am going to assume that the female participants in the concept team were not simply wives, girlfriends, sisters, etc. of Media Markt men. I would not rule it out 100%, though - based on my own experience. I was not there, unfortunately, so I will not judge.
What I do want is to recommend an article by USA Today from December 2006 (!) to all readers and perhaps also to the "men at Media Markt" who want to do something good for women (link: https://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2006-12-20-best-buy-usat_x.htm) - simply as something to think about.
The article is about Best Buy and how the "Best Buy men" wanted to discover their feminine side for their female customers, specifically for a persona - Jill (a busy suburban mom). They have revealed her, and I am sure there are also Rose, Liz, Mary and Michelle. They used personas, archetypal profiles of potential customer types. That is what service designers do, too.
But the Best Buy men are Americans - so it is "go big or go home" - and they came up with the idea of creating a kind of women-crowdsourcing movement.
It is called WOLF (Women's Leadership Forum) - great, these meaningful acronyms. "WOLF was created on the business case and hypothesis that if Best Buy wants to be a great place for women to shop, we first have to be a great place for women to work." (sic) Not a bad approach, Best Buy men.
"WOLF is committed to being a strategic partner in helping Best Buy grow. Our focus is on making Best Buy a great place for women to work and shop: increasing females in the talent pipeline and increasing female market share for the company." True - and it makes sense.
So, dear men at Media Markt: if you want to do something good for women - meaning to stage a perfect customer experience for them - there is also a Harvard Business case on this topic from the Best Buy men (link: https://hbr.org/product/best-buy-co-inc-customer-centricity/an/506055-PDF-ENG?N=4294958507&Ntt=best%2520buy).
