The Challenge of Choice

There’s been a lot written about the so-called “paradox of choice”; that is, the idea that the more choices a consumer has, the less likely he or she may be to actually make a purchase.  A trip down the aisles of any grocery store highlights the fact that here in the US, we are blessed (cursed?) with an astonishing array of choice for even the most mundane items.  During my weekly excursion to the store yesterday, I found myself getting a little frustrated because the store had apparently not had time to restock a lot of the shelves, and a number of items that I usually buy were simply not there.  But, when I took a minute to reflect, as I waited for a shopping cart traffic jam to clear, I realized that we have it pretty darn good.  I mean, when you are getting upset because you can’t find the particular size box of a particular flavor of a particular brand of a certain type of breakfast cereal, you really have to step back and get a grip.

 But I realized something else during the weekly shopping trip.  I’m kind of a task-oriented person, and I typically can’t get out of the store fast enough.  I’ve got the store pretty much memorized, and I try to minimize the time I spend in the store, just focused on checking items off the list.  But there are a lot of people who take the time to browse the selection…choosing between the 10 different types and brands of canned peaches, or the mountain of pasta varieties.  Maybe they shop that way because they are overwhelmed by the choice, maybe they have nothing better to do, or maybe they just enjoy the act of browsing, and looking for something new and different.

And that’s where I think online grocery shopping sites fall down – that serendipitous moment when you discover something totally unexpected.  I once thought I was the perfect candidate for online grocery shopping, because for the most part, I buy the same stuff every week.  Once I established my list, I’d be able to save it on a service like Peapod, and then I’d only have to spent a few minutes every week placing my order, saving nearly 90 minutes a week.  And, for a few weeks, I used the service religiously.  But there were two things that I didn’t like about the experience. 

First, there was the issue of substitutions.  Anytime the store was out of the particular size/flavor/brand of an item, someone at the warehouse would choose a substitute, and many times, the substitute wasn’t really what we wanted.

Second, there was no serendipity.  Once a shopping list was established, it became so easy to just place an order every week with a few clicks, and the same items would arrive, week after week. But while that was very “efficient”, it also meant that we got the same thing, week after week.  Because I wasn’t walking about the store, I didn’t see the bucket of just-made chocolate chip cookies sitting on the table by the bakery, so no cookies.  There’s something powerful about seeing, or more accurately, smelling the bakery products to lend itself to impulse buys.  For that matter, simply walking down the aisles of a grocery store can lend itself to all kinds of impulse buys, which is why I brought home the Rosemary and Olive Oil Triscuits last week.  I suppose one could go searching for impulse buys online, but it’s much easier and much more powerful to actually see and feel the products sitting on a shelf. 

So what does that mean for online grocery shopping sites?  Well, if you’re someone who wants the same thing, week after week, or if you can distill your staples list down to a predictable list, online grocery sites can certainly be a time saver.  But to capture someone like me, a site needs to offer up ways for me to stumble across special treats.  Certainly, sites like eBay and Amazon have the ability to track a customer’s purchases, and make inferences about other products that customer might enjoy.  Maybe such an inference engine could drive the site to pop up items randomly for suggestion, but that still wouldn’t match the sensory experience of a bricks and mortar store. 

I think true foodies are always going to prefer the experience of a store where they can see, smell and feel items displayed for them.  And, to be honest, while I don’t think of myself as a foodie, I can’t see myself doing all my grocery shopping online either.   

Reflections on Service

Seth Godin posted a cool piece the other day about the concept of “all inclusive” in business today, and how it can either be a legitimate way to show customers the love, or a half-hearted effort that really isn’t going to help in the long run.  I just happened to read the post while I was at the car dealer, and I realized that I was experiencing a real world example of that very concept at work.

 While I was out of the office over the holidays, one of my to-do’s for the week was to get oil changes and Massachusetts State Inspections done for both of our vehicles.  Over 2 days, I took my car to a local Chevy dealer, and my wife’s van to a local Honda dealer.  The differences between the two experiences were striking, and I think highlighted Seth’s point.

My experience at the Chevy dealer started out by making an appointment to have the work done, due to the fact that it was the end of the month, and I expected a lot of people would be doing the same thing.  I arrived at the dealership on time, and pulled up to the reception bay, where I waited several minutes for someone to open the door.  I pulled inside, shut the car off, and walked to the service desk, where I waited another several minutes for someone to appear.  Eventually someone did, I gave them my information, and was waved to the waiting room down the hall.  The waiting room was about what you’d expect – a small room, a number of barely comfortable chairs, a tv bolted to the wall, and a table with some Chevy brochures.  In the hallway, was a couple of vending machines, and a “quiet room” next to the vending machine featured a couple more chairs, and a couple of desks with phones and power outlets.  I did plug my laptop in to one of the outlets, and discovered that the truck dealer adjoining the Chevy dealer had an open wifi network, so spent most of my time waiting catching up on reading blog posts.  All in all, not a bad experience…just about what I expected from a car dealer.

My visit to the Honda dealer started on a down note.  I didn’t have an appointment, so as I pulled up to the reception bay, I was disappointed to see that not only was the bay full with customer vehicles, but there were at least 8 cars parked outside the bay waiting.  However, a service advisor came out almost immediately to greet me, and let me know how long they expected it was going to take to service my car.  He also gave me a coupon for a free beverage at the dealership cafe (more on that in a minute), and I headed for the waiting room.  The waiting room, which was really integrated into the showroom itself, was a comfortable area with large leather chairs equipped with writing desks, wood paneling, a large flat panel TV on the wall, and several alcoves with computers available for customers.  Down the hall, there was an actual cafe – not vending machines, but a counter staffed with a real person, offering gourmet sandwiches, chips, pastries, coffee and cold drinks.  I sat down in one of the comfy chairs, found a plug and fired up the laptop to take advantage of the wifi that the dealer provides.  When the car was done (about the time the service advisor said it would be), the advisor reminded me that since I bought the car at the dealer, the inspection was free, so I just had to pay for the oil change.  When I got to the car, it had been washed and vacuumed.

 Two dealers, two approaches to service.  It probably bears mentioning that the Chevy dealer is the closest GM dealer to my house, and since I’m not aware of any better dealers, I go there.  However, there is a Honda dealer only 2 miles from my house.  I don’t go there, and drive through 2 towns to get to Honda North, because of the service and the way I’m treated there.  It may have cost them a little extra to build the waiting room, equip it with comfortable chairs and pc’s, build out the cafe and pay someone to staff it.  However, I know that every time I talk to someone who’s looking to buy a Honda, I strongly recommend Honda North to them.  I can’t honestly say that I talk a lot about the Chevy dealer.

Looking ahead to 2008

It’s hard to believe another year has come and gone, but such is life.  Although I’ve never been a big believer in resolutions per se, I do try to take a few moments and try to reassess where things are, and where I’d like them to go in the New Year.  The combination of the New Year, and my rapidly approaching birthday (42 this year), make it as good a time as any to figure out where I want to focus for the next year or so.  I’m thinking about general themes and areas to be aware of and focus on, rather than specific targets, so here we go….

Social Interactions

I’ve never been really good at staying in touch with people, or expanding my circle of friends, colleagues, etc.  Part of it is probably due to some innate shyness, but I think it’s mostly due just to my really not bothering to spend a lot of time on socializing.  This year, I need to spend more time staying connected to my existing friends and family, via emails, and more regular phone calls.  I also need to get out and visit family more, including some of my extended family who I really only see at funerals, it seems.  I also need to expand my circle of professional contacts, in the finance, technology and fire service circles.

Health

I’ve made some good strides over the past year in managing my Crohn’s, though better diet, particularly by focusing on ensuring that I drink at least 60 ounces of water a day.  However, I’m still woefully out of shape, something I’m reminded of everytime I go out on a call with the Fire Dept and actually have to do physical work.  Right now, walking a mile and a half each day to the office and back is about all the exercise I get, and that needs to change, starting this month.

Knowledge and Skills

Discovering blogs and Google Reader has been invaluable as a way to get exposed to new technology, news and ideas.  However, I have done little to build actual skills, like creating Web software, creating a marketing plan, or establish a new business.  To start, I need to define a couple of specific skills to work on this year, and then get working on them.

Career

For the last 15 years, I’ve pretty much relied on opportunities to come to me, and for some reason, they actually have.  Every couple of years, as I start to feel a little stale, something new has come up and taken my career in a new direction.  This year, after 2 years in the same role, I need to be more proactive in figuring out what’s next, and then taking specific steps to get there.  For the 1st quarter, I need to identify a few potential roles I could play next, and identify a plan to evaluate and move in that direction.

Family

After spending the last week and a half with the family for the holidays, I’m really struck about how quickly the kids are growing up.  I really need to make sure that we don’t squander these years.  We’ve done a good job over the last several months, I think, by taking the kids to movies more regularly, and finding new fun things to do as a family as well as “one-off” times like lunch out somewhere.  However, there’s always room for improvement.  In particular, I want to get them a laptop…it’s really amazing to see even 4 year old Billy play games on mine, and I really think they need the exposure.  Our trip to Disney World in April is also going to be a big event, because it will be the first real trip that we’ve all taken together.  I want to be sure that we spend some time in the next few months spending time as a family to figure out what we want to do on the trip, so that everyone has something to look forward to.

Social

Here’s another area that we’ve made some strides in over the last year, but have room for improvement.  We spent New Year’s Eve with a couple of families in the neighborhood, which was a ton of fun.  We need to find more opportunities to hang out with families around town, as well as time out with more couples.  We’ve done sporadic dinners with some of the guys at the Fire Dept and their wives, but we need to try to make those happen more often, as well as dinners with some of “the gang”. 

Well, that’s a start anyhow…what gets written down gets measured, what gets measured gets done. 

Happy 2008, all!!!!