Tomorrow’s World
In “Constructing the µniverse”, I had introduced Arun and Jeni. Arun is a consumer, and Jeni is a marketing manager at A1 Books. Let’s look at the impact the PxL program will have on their lives. We will assume Arun is one of the Rest customers of A1 Books and Jeni has outsourced to Progency the work of ‘energising’ Arun and making him transact. Let’s look at a few days in Arun’s life as he goes from a dormant customer to doing a purchase on A1 Books’ website.
Arun opens his Gmail inbox on his mobile and sees something interesting amongst the dozens of emails that stream in through the day. He notices the µ in the Subject of the email – he has not seen that before. And an interesting Subject line: “Open this for a never before email experience.” It is from A1 Books – a brand he has not interacted with in a long time because he was tired of seeing posters telling him to clickthrough for great deals. He opens the A1 Books email – and is it different! There is a Search box right at the top – he hasn’t seen that before in an email. There is a quiz about books – how can he resist that. He starts with that, answering the three questions that come one after another right in the email. And he notices the µ count increase as he answers correctly. Quite an experience – answering a quiz right inside the email.
Arun scrolls down further. There is a list of ten bestsellers with an “Add to Cart” option for each book. He likes a couple and adds them to the cart – which is being created as he watches right inside the email. He then notices something interesting – the list of books has changed – they are now recommendations based on the two items he has added to cart. Wow, this is cool, thinks Arun. He adds another book to his cart, and then remembers the title of a book a friend had recommended to him. He scrolls up to the search box, types in the name, and gets the book info right below – once again, all in the email. He adds it to the cart, which has now expanded to four books.
This is so exciting, feels Arun. He can search, browse, play, add to cart – all inside the email, without having to clickthrough to the website or open the app. And what is even more thrilling is how the email evolves as he does his cart additions – he starts to think of it as a “living email”.
He then decides it is time to checkout – it’s the first time in many years he will be buying something from A1 Books. He sees two options – go to the website to checkout or pay inside the email. He takes up the second option – he wants to see what all can be done within the email. Right below his cart, a form opens up for him to enter his address which he does. He is then asked for his credit card details which he enters (a message assures him of the security). And he is done! A message tells him that he will receive another email which will let him track the delivery right inside the email once again.
A few days later, Arun gets an email from A1 Books telling him about the delivery of his books, with a request for rating the service (in return for 20 µ). It also asks him for his preferences in books – all he has to do is to just tap on the categories he likes. Three taps, and he is done! So quick, so frictionless. He is delighted with the entire experience.
Jeni, the marketing manager at A1 Books, gets an alert that yet another customer has moved from the “dormant” category to “active.” She hopes Arun will become a Best customer soon! It has just been a few weeks since she went live with the Progency and Email Shops for the Rest Customers and she is already seeing a sharp spike in revenues from customers who hadn’t come to A1 Books in months or even years. She is already planning her own use of Email Shops for her Best Customers.
