Saturday 25 September 2010

Ribot have taught us the art of Simple.

It's mid-afternoon on a Saturday, and my copy of Tweetdeck is on the screen displaying my favourite filtered Twitter feeds. As you can imagine I have a column filtering "tesco iphone app" and I have to admit I'm enjoying the very many positive comments coming from 'the real world'.

The team at Ribot are enjoying it too. Given that they designed and built the Tesco Groceries for iPhone app, their enjoyment at watching this very real feedback is even greater than mine (click here and you'll see what I mean).

Ribot haven't finished with us yet, though. Their mobile expertise is affecting our thinking and what it means to actually make the customer's experience better by simplifying it.

It's a similar story for Tesco Finder - now customers can get directly to the set of products they are looking for and ignore the cacophony of presentation surrounding them. Indeed I'm beginning to identify a new demographic of customer who has avoided big Tesco stores (particularly unfamiliar ones) in the past because they think it would take too long to find what they are looking for, so don't even attempt to visit.

Teso Finder simplifies the journey to the product by enabling the customer to only look out for the navigation landmarks to get there (such as aisle number signs) and avoid the rest of the information hubbub. This new demographic of customer is now entering our doors - and together customers are using the app to find products at their chosen store at the rate of up to 5 requests a second according to Tesco Finder's server logs.

Now a confirmation message has come down from the very top of Tesco that we must start work soon to join Tesco Groceries and Tesco Finder together into a single app.

This means that in our work pipeline is your simple guide to Tesco groceries on your smart phone whether in-store, at-home or out-and-about - because, as Ribot have taught us: simpler mean better.

1 comment:

  1. I realised this was a truly great app when I switched all my shopping [from a rival brand] to Tesco.

    Previously I was just using the cheapest store and put up with their web interface. I kept thinking I should take a look at other sites but never got round to it.

    The Tesco iPhone app alone was enough to get me to move to Tesco and I've not looked back, hesitated or considered going anywhere else for my shopping.

    The difference between a good app and a great app is not just how it feels on your phone or iPad but how it changes your life and habits. This morning I ran out of coffee and, before recycling the jar, I scanned the barcode and it's in my basket for my next delivery - a simple, friction-free action that is so much easier than jotting down a note (or trying to remember) for the next time I'm online.

    ReplyDelete

As this blog grows in readership - and because it carries the Tesco brand - I have had to become more careful about the sort of comments that are acceptable. The good news is that I'm a champion of free speech so please be as praising or as critical as you wish! The only comments I DON'T allow through are:

1. Comments which criticise an individual other than myself, or are critical of an organisation other than Tesco. This is simply because they cannot defend themselves so is unfair and possibly libellous. Comments about some aspect of Tesco being better/worse than another equivalent organisation are allowed as long as you start by saying "in my personal opinion.." or "I think that...". ... followed by a "...because.." and some reasoned argument.

2. Comments which are totally unrelated to the context of the original article. If I have written about a mobile app and you start complaining about the price of potatoes then your comment isn't going stay for long!

3. Advertising / web links / spam.

4. Insulting / obscene messages.


Ok, rules done - now it's your go: