The Information experience

Information Outlook, Oct, 1997 by Diane Senese

Do some of our defining traditions look tired? Answer yes and two come to mind: good service and professionalism. The service that we provide for our corporate customers has to be impeccable. Creative online searching, custom problem-solving, tailored information delivery: all of these invaluable contributions, once an information horizon, are now the minimum expectation. That is how far technology has upped the ante. So is the "good service" model still an appropriate vision, or is it as safe and restraining as a seatbelt? Think of user surveys, long considered an essential evaluative tool and a linchpin of the good service model. Do they put you to sleep, too? Neighborhood dry cleaning establishments conduct satisfaction surveys now. They proudly announce successful results - more power to them - but if the service model is this mainstream, it is time for us to move on to something better. In no way can we let our services slip, of course. Just as we have always striven to deliver research on time or early, we need to continue to do so now. But what was once the aspiration has become the ground rule. The concept itself has flattened out.

Professionalism can be another cliche. Not the integrity of our profession, mind you. That is more vital and its manifestations more tangible than ever. The technical and interpersonal demands of our roles ensure that. But paradoxically, as our professional growth expands into exciting and uncharted territory, the need to trumpet ourselves as professionals within our corporations shrinks to a surprising low. For isn't everyone a professional now? Think of the term's currency in today's workplace. The word "professional" has become the minimum status to confer on anyone doing a good job. Last summer when my older son was home from college and checking out a summer job at a car dealership, he recounted his interview with pride. When the owner asked him if he had ever washed cars before, my son answered thoughtfully, "Well, I have for my family...but not professionally."

A fair response, and for me, an instructive one. How many times have I explained to bankers that although they search the Internet, we do it professionally. I don't deny the statement's veracity, but I do question how people within corporations perceive it. In the business world we are professionals just as others are. The shift from hierarchical structures to team-based matrices has altered the way business thinks, and now everyone mixes, professionals all.

So in a team-based business culture where good service is a minimum and professionalism is a given, how do we, as information experts, continue to distinguish ourselves? We have an opportunity right now because a new landscape is emerging. The service economy, like a houseguest with good manners but too many vacation days, is leaving the scene. It is time for the "experience economy" says trend forecaster John Naisbitt in his Trend Letter.[1] You studied the agrarian era, you remember the industrial era, you lived the service era, now get ready for the experience era. Naisbitt describes this changing landscape, citing the work of the consultant B. Joseph Pines II whom he says first developed this idea of the experience economy. Naisbitt goes on to tell us that companies now find they need to "repackage their products and services to deliver unique experiences." Are we prepared? Together our profession needs to create "the information experience."

An experience is something personally encountered. Hence the popularity of falling in love or riding a rollercoaster. To imagine ourselves creating information experiences requires that we think of customers individually and that we use adaptive methods of problem-solving. We once created excellent products like "company searches" and "M&A histories" and matched them with good service. Now we have to rise to another level, and it is a potentially chaotic one since it requires attentive interaction with people. John Naisbitt tells us that "in the experience economy...services are linked together to form memorable events that personally engage the customer." Memorable events? Is this strategy too fanciful for the information world and more appropriate for, say, resort hotels?

A corporate information center is not Disneyland, although some days find us in Adventure Land. The Banana Republic now sells much more than sportswear because the management realized that its customers did not want to just shop at The Banana Republic, but to "live" The Banana Republic.[2] So out came the leather sofas and bedsheets. Canadian Pacific Hotels' share of Canadian business travel rose significantly once the company began creating "guest experiences" by mapping together bits of customers' preferences and expectations.[3] And Land's End hopes to boost retail sales by transforming its outlets into "inlets" which will offer customers "the catalog experience."[4] Savvy marketers everywhere are selling experiences.

But can we sell information experiences? We not only can, we must! The information climate is changing; users are changing. How we adapt to these challenges will define our futures. One example occurs to me as a prototype of the changing mode. I can point to a user group in our bank which can be described as extremely successful and influential. The group deals with a specific market and has both primary and secondary sources at hand. The research that we had been doing for them over the last few years was excellent and well-received, but I felt that our group was a wallflower at the party. How could we penetrate their world and work with them as partners? We did it by creating experiences.