Experience Thinking

Amazon has lulled me into being a very obedient, passive customer over the years. It all started with a little service called Amazon Prime.  The real clincher is that Amazon has automated their way into my shopping routine — switching my active shopping to passive shopping for everything from toilet paper to gummy bears.  Prime and one-click shopping are basically purchase consideration killers.

What’s the deal with first class?

What is it about first class—an experience not everyone has had, but everyone wants? I would venture a guess that if you offered someone flying economy the option of a complimentary upgrade, they would take it.  At the very least they would need to rationalize not taking it. Maybe they are traveling with others. Are there other reasons? Fear of being comfortable, having better service, free…

Work Travel Notes: Essential Sites & Apps

If you travel for work, chances are pretty good that you’ve come to rely on some sort of routine. I’m a freelancer and a job requirement is traveling to my clients. My part time jobs include being my own personal assistant and a travel/booking agent. A good year could mean upwards of 40 weeks on the road. My travel usually happens in clusters, several months commuting weekly via plane to another…

Tech Support and the Service Experience

It turns out that I am a hoarder. A digital hoarder. A few years ago, I decided to go paperless. I scanned, converted, organized every bit of paper that I had and saved it to a hard drive. Then I upgraded from a simple external hard drive to a NAS (network attached storage). It was awesome. I could connect to my stuff from my desktop, laptop, tablet or phone. I could have one version of my iTunes…

To use Drop A Hint, you only need the name and email address for both yourself and person you’re sending it to. They get an email that’s simple and straightforward with a link to that product page. Good concept and simple execution but I wanted it to be better. The business of gifting has been around too long to have misses in the digital experience.

If I were to wave an experience wand, here’s what I would change:

A custom message. Allow the sender to enter their own message to be sent to the recipient. Yes, this involves more work but a generic message in a generic email will lead to a generic experience. This execution assumes a singular relationship that the recipient is the one to purchase this. Could another scenario be person one sending to person two for their feedback to purchase for a third person? Even if it’s person one sending to person two, who will make the purchase—the ability to say something to incent person two could make all the difference.

The email. One of my pet peeves is when email doesn’t do its fair share of work. Yes, it’s a communication vehicle but it can also be the sales platform. Why put a link in the email versus a picture of the actual product? Marketers, you can still include a link for tracking. This recipient didn’t ask to get this email so why make them work so hard to shop? Tiffany & Co.’s product photography is quite beautiful and this is a missed opportunity to use it to drive traffic. It’s a terrible underuse of great content.

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Kudos to Tiffany & Co. for supporting the idea of this feature. I’m not sure if it has been around for a while or was launched recently as part of the holiday season. One callout about a bit that is very useful is the personalized banner at the top of the landing page. Once the link in the email is clicked, there’s a zone that messages it was so-and-so’s hint and a call to action to save.

In the end, I did find something to share with someone  but I didn’t use the feature because I couldn’t enter my own message. I think if they had received the generic email from Tiffany & Co. (even though it’s sent from “my email”), I’m not sure it would be opened, understood or valued. So instead I created a tinyURL to the PDP and used my regular email to send it along with my message.

10 years of the W

My nostalgia for the W likely outweighs my current love and appreciation for the hotel brand. This is mainly because I’ve lived out of a suitcase for the better part of the past years and have spent many nights guesting in hotels. Growing up and even into my 20’s, I stayed at two or three star hotels. I remember a girls trip to San Diego where five of us crammed into a single room at a Travelodge…

How Mr. Robot upped my security game

Until Mr. Robot, I kept all my passwords in a password-protected Excel file. More secure than a post-it note but probably not very secure at all. I broke several best practices to password management. Namely, I re-used the same password across many sites. I was good enough not to ever use my birthday or house address but I used simple combinations of words and numbers that I would remember. I…

There are a million resources to help you research what and where to eat. In fact, there’s probably too much information to sift through—between the guides (Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, Wallpaper Guides), online resources (TripAdvisor, Yelp, Instagram, Pinterest), and celebrity chefs (Anthony Bourdain, Guy Fieri). I tend to do a little bit across each of these as I research a destination. I jot down places here and there and ultimately a few make it onto my placemat (my one pager of crib notes). Of course, one of the best ways to learn is to ask people who live there, have visited or who work there (think concierges, bartenders, etc.).

One way I’ve found to ensure that I’m eating locally is to book a food tour. I first did this in Vietnam because the primary reason for the trip was the food (thank you Anthony Bourdain). Add in a language barrier and an uncertainty of what was what while eating, the much-discussed-imminent threat of TD and it was a no brainer. I booked a food tour in each main city I visited (Ho Chi Minh, Hoi An and Hanoi). I usually booked it no earlier than a day or two in advance and used sites like TripAdvisor and ultimately Viator to find a local, reputable tour.

I’m just back from Montreal where I took the Mile End Food Tour. Caroline, our guide, was outgoing, informative and seemed to have the right amount of humor to keep a dozen of us entertained for three hours. We had a total of seven stops, six being food stops.

Here’s how much I ate in 3 hours:

Falafel’s okay – My past experience with it is that it can be a bit dry. Well, the first stop proved me wrong as the falafel was delicious. It was fresh and the combination with cornichons, sprouts and slaw in a pita was heavenly. It was so good that I returned the next day for lunch on my own. (tip: take a food tour earlier in your trip so you can re-visit any faves afterward). Place: La Panthère Verte – a local, vegan, organic restaurant.

Chocolate – I’m not necessarily a chocolate lover but hey, everyone can appreciate fancy chocolates. We sampled a brownie in hot chocolate and it was pretty damn tasty. You only need a bite otherwise you’ll be wired for the next week as it’s decadently sweet. The shop was adorable and a great place to visit and pick up any gifts or souvenirs for chocoholics. Place: Chocolats Geneviève Grandbois – a fancy chocolatier.

Montréal bagels – Apparently there’s a bagel war between New York and Montréal. Raised as a New Yorker, I’m not sure it’s a legitimate war. It’s not that one bagel is better than the other—it’s like comparing a slice of Grandma’s pizza to a slice of Sicilian—they are different. NY bagels are meals – you can throw an egg or turkey or cream cheese on it and you’re good to go until your next meal. The Montreal bagel seemed to me more like a dessert or snack bagel. It’s sweeter and smaller than a NY bagel. The sweetness is from the honey put in the mix. They’re open 24/7 to keep the fire at a constant heat to get the perfect bagel. Similar to Philly with cheesesteaks, there’s a showdown between two famous bageliers: St-Viateur and Fairmount. Place: St-Viateur Bagel – making bagels since 1957.

Rialto Theatre – This was a bathroom stop and a chance to see an old movie palace that was modeled (perhaps inspired is a better description) on the Paris Opera House. Today, it’s maintained beautifully and rented out for all sorts of shows – comedy, plays, movies and music.

Take-out Gnocchi – that’s right, gnocchi to go. Imagine a pint size Chinese food container filled with hot fresh gnocchi and a marinara sauce you’ll lick out of the box. Oh, and there’s some parmesan sprinkled on top. If I lived in Mile End, I would be a frequent and loyal customer. Place: Drogheria Fine, a purveyor of authentic Italian pasta sauce.

Charcuterie – I love a plate of charcuterie. There were a few things that made this less than charcuterie heaven. First, it’s towards the end of the tour so we’ve eaten a lot, and a lot of carbs so lethargy is setting in. The store was also very hot. The full sun was beaming through the solar shades and we all were fanning ourselves for some relief. The sample plate was full of meats (ham, salami and a pâté of sorts) along with two types of cheeses. It was missing one of my favorite ingredients – the pickle! They sold jars of them so not sure why none made it onto the plate. The ham had a small sliver of fat that transformed it into a really great bite. This may be a good place to get some stuff for a takeaway snack or lunch. Place: Boucherie Lawrence, a (fancy) butcher shop offering locally and respectfully raised meat.

Does everyone scream for ice cream – Ice cream with a twist of sour cherry sorbet. Similar to chocolate, I’m not a huge fan of ice cream. There are many other ways I’d rather consume my calories and being lactose intolerant does not help. We ended the food tour at a little joint close to Drogheria Fine. The small cup of ice cream was a perfect size and I did my best to focus on the swirl of sorbet, pushing aside all the vanilla ice cream. The concept of this place is French with Vietnamese influence and the name translates to ice cream with auntie #3. Place: Kem Coba, the fine dining of ice cream and sorbet.

  Falafel pita at La Panthère Verte

Chocolates at Chocolats Geneviève Grandbois

Montréal bagels at St-Viateur

Fresh gnocchi + marinara at Drogheria Fine sauce

Charcuterie at Boucherie Lawrence

Another great reason to take a food tour is the chance to meet other travelers. I ended up going to the lookout at Mont Royal with a few Aussies and then ran into a couple from Louisiana the next day at the Musée des beaux-arts. So, take a food tour next time you hit the road for a taste of what the locals eat and love.

Recommended food tours:

Ho Chi Minh City: Street Food Man

Hoi An: Hoi An Food Tour

Hanoi: Awesome Travel

Montréal: Mile End Food Tasting

Fresh local produce without the gardening

Fresh humungous clove of garlic

Back in the days when I had the metabolism of a young smoker, my grocery shopping occurred mainly in the middle aisles. I rarely shopped the perimeter—you know where they keep all the fresh, healthy stuff. Fast forward to an older metabolism that no longer benefits from the smoker’s need to eat less and I’ve found that the pounds pack on when you shop and eat…

Ever hear a song that you know but it somehow seems different? The cover song is one my favorite music things. A cover is when a song is performed by someone other than the original artist. The notion that one thing can be interpreted and performed in different ways is fascinating. Music is such a personal experience and the cover takes it to a different level of creative expression. It’s part…

How walking made me a better driver

I learned how to drive on Long Island. Despite the many years I’ve spent away from LI, I personify some of the negative stereotypes. I drive fast-er than the speed limit, rarely come to a complete 1-2-3 second stop and hold on to the notion that only the fastest drivers should occupy the left lane. After moving away from LI, I realized that there’s really no great rush to get anywhere. Everyone…

On the PDP, the product detail page, there’s a callout to “find your size” below the size options. A daughter window opens with a quick step-by-step guide. It presumes your category and country based what it should already know based on your browsing, so less information for me to input. You enter your height, weight and the clincher—what type of fit you prefer. Then it will tell you what size is most likely your fit. There are additional, optional prompts for body size/shape such as belly shape, hip shape, age, and bra size. This section is easy because the shape of belly and hips are visual selections and limited to 3 and well, most women know their age and bra size.  If you fill out the additional information, you get results that confirms your size and the next size up/down with return rate % of each size according to same values you entered. Aside from the ease and helpfulness of this tool, there’s a nice big button to add the size to your bag.

If you want more confirmation about size selection, scrolling down the PDP will display ratings and reviews with specific ratings for fit, sleeve length and chest size (on a Goldilocks scale of feels too small, just right, or too big).

On this shopping trip, I learned about their Clothes The Loop recycling program. The upside is that you can recycle any brand, not limited to TNF products. Your good deed earns $10 off your next $100 purchase. The only downside is all returns must be made to a store or outlet store, no mail-ins.

I must be obsessed with finding the right size and fit because I reviewed other retailers a few months ago here.

Ritz on the Fritz

I’ve stayed at the Ritz-Carlton, the luxury hotel of Marriott International twice in the past year.  The Ritz-Carlton promotes itself as an enduring symbol of sophistication, style and legendary service.  I have mixed reviews on all three attributes.

The Ritz paints two pictures for me – one of opulence and sophistication and the other of really old, stuffy white people. It’s the hotel Mr.…

Live with purpose. Live by priority. Live for Productivity (Success, continued)

Here is the much delayed part two of my review of The One Thing (The surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results) by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan. Part three of the book is dense with actionable concepts. I’m sharing a few that resonated with me.

So, how do you know what your one thing is. This is the toughest part for me. There are so many things that interest me. There are other…

My Dream Brand Really Exists

What happens when you absolutely love a product but the service is subpar? And they are the only retailer that makes/sells this particular product? Hello luxury candy retailer, Sugarfina.

First, the great experience. I was introduced to Sugarfina as a gift from a friend, Jen (who happens to be an amazing gift giver) as a going away gift. The candy is ridiculously good (I’m known to visit the…

Have you ever waited and waited for a delivery only to get an email that the retailer cannot fulfill your order? I have a few times and I’ll be honest, it stings every time. My most recent run in with this type of experience fail was with Mark & Graham. I bought a gift which included a serving tray and a pitcher. I received the tray without any problem. Around the time I should have received the…