Outside Innovation

Whom Do You Trust as Your Mobile E-Wallet Provider?

Coming Soon: Pay for Everything Using Your Mobile Phone
By Patty Seybold

Starting this fall, e-wallets will become available for our mobile phones. When I use the term “e-wallet,” I’m talking about enabling consumers to pay for things using their mobile phones and to pay each other via mobile phone. No cash, no plastic credit cards, no checks needed. You carry your money, credit cards, debit cards, rewards points, and loyalty cards around with you digitally. At the point of sale, you choose which payment type you want to use: take cash from your checking account, use money you’ve pre-loaded on a stored value “card,” charge it to your phone bill, charge it on a credit card account and pay later, and so on. Like a physical wallet, you can put things into it and take things out of it. And you can carry it around with you wherever you go.

© 2012 Microsoft

Microsoft's Wallet Hub will debut with Windows 8

iPhone-Friendly Networks: Not Verizon vs. AT&T; Customers Need QoS Guarantees!

By Patricia Seybold (with help from Andrew Seybold)

Will iPhone Connectivity Get Better with Verizon?

On January 11, 2011, Verizon announced iPhone 4 availability, ending AT&T’s exclusivity. In the U.S., iPhone users’ customer experience has been marred by connectivity issues. Customers in major metropolitan areas have been complaining that their calls have been dropped, that they can’t always get access, and that streaming video freezes up on the overwhelmed AT&T network.

Comic John Stewart and his sidekick John Oliver did a hilarious segment on the Daily Show to illustrate how bad the AT&T iPhone experience can be.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Verizon iPhone Announcement
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The implication: life will be better with Verizon. But will it, really?

What Can Damage Apple’s Amazing Customer Experience and Brand?

Apple has set the bar for customer experience in so many ways. Let’s begin to count them:

• Product/service design
• Product/service introduction
• Out-of-the-box experience
• Service (iTunes) experience
• User experience
• Brand experience seduction and advocacy
• Retail experience
• Customer service in the store
• Customer service on the phone
• Returns/replacements/exchanges

© 2010 Apple

Recently, I’ve been impressed by the number of stories I’ve head from Apple users about amazing customer service experiences around returns, exchanges, and upgrades with no questions asked—essentially exceeding customers’ expectations. I’ve also heard lots of great stories about Apple’s skill at setting (and exceeding) expectations for deliveries of scarce products.

I’ve also been noticing the difference between the Apple retail experience and magnetism and that of all other stores. For example, in downtown San Francisco, the two-story store is always packed, yet there’s ample room for several dogs to be lying on the floor near their owners, and nobody has to wait too long before they can get their hands on an iPad to try. And the checkout lines are expedited. In sleepy Ardmore, Pennsylvania—in a downtown area that was originally designed to serve rich Main Line women who had nothing to do all day except shop and lunch with their friends—all the department stores and boutiques are now virtually abandoned since that lifestyle was replaced by busy two (+)-career families. The chic shopping section of Ardmore is now a ghost town. But there are two vibrant retail establishments: Trader Joe’s and the Apple Store. You walk down a nearly empty sidewalk to the Apple Store, open the door, and feel like you’ve entered a different universe. It’s teaming with customers and activity. Your immediate thought is, “Buy Apple Stock!”