Brand Kaizen

Kaizen is a Japanese word for "improvement".  As a principle, it means a constant and never ending quest for learning and improvement.  It has been applied to industries from automotive to computers.

I work in the wireless industry, which, over the past decade as evolved into a consumer juggernaut.  But I have noticed over the several years I have been here something disturbing: that people absolutely, unequivocally hate interacting with us.  Even when it is time for an new phone.  Its like they wake up that morning and say in a stoic and somber tone "Alright, it's upgrade time".  Then they lace up their boots and head off into the combat zone.  Upon arriving at the shiny retail location, they open the door and brace themselves for retail battle.

Now they are in the store and are "greeted" by a computer that they input their information and it spits out a wait time.  30 minutes later, amid the torrent of kids playing Angry Birds on the iPad displays and emo rock playing in the background (both making the custys want to end it all).

Sure, the story is exaggerated.  Sure, all retailers are similar.  Aren't they?  Maybe, but doesn't mean there isn't room for HUGE improvement.

Here are just a few areas of kaizen for my industry:

Communication:  Air spots on the local news showing what incredible things smartphones can do.  Then, at the end of the spot, pointing viewers to a blog post, newsletter, facebook page, twitter, opt-in email with different apps and functions to make life easier.

Customer Support:  Have advanced sales training where your sales people can opt-in for tech training. This so that when a customer comes into a store you don't just stare at them blankly.  You will actually have answers.


Interaction: After the customer interacts with your brand from the spot on the news, you would have a tremendous amount of information about that customer that you could use to be proactive and recommend  solutions based on their interests (ie: in their facebook profile it mentions they like exercise so you could send them an email with the top 5 exercise apps).


There are a 100 more improvements I could mention but what do you all think?  What would you recommend for improving the wireless industry?