From: Selling office supplies
To: Building a community for lifelong learning
Office supplies had become commoditized and customers increasingly turned to Amazon for quick and easy fulfillment. In addition, “work” had changed; more people were freelancing, and supplementing full time jobs with gigs that fed their hobbies and passions. Targeting customers who were committed to lifelong learning, Staples reinvented themselves as “The Working and Learning Company” along with this they were looking for help envisioning their future customer experience.
Beyond products, customers want support, advice and a community. This necessitated drastic changes to their customer experience, both online and in store.
Our Approach
Acting as their Chief Experience Officer , we conceptualizing the Customer Experience, and seeing concept and helped through to execution. Partnering with the Staples USR Leadership Team, their Internal Studio, Internal Dev Team and External Agency I acted as the connective tissue between the partners
Jackman supplemented the Staples USR Team with an embedded activation team for approx. 1 year
Ecommerce
To bring the strategy to life, we reimagined an e-commerce experience driven by community. Content, product reviews, product solutions and services were all localized.
Customer profiles were built both organically and through data we could infer. We prioritized community voices and what was produced with products, over price, product description and details.
How it works:
Category and PDP pages are personalized bassed on a customers local community, seeing reviews and trending products from the people they know, like the customers teacher, principal or friend.
Product images are more then just the product photo, they are an accumulation of photos from the customers - like a poster from a grade 2 student or an new office setup at a local business. Product pages that look more like a classroom wall then an page on Amazon.
Community modules that live across the website include trending products at a local school, featured shopping lists from a childs teacher, social components - like asking a friend/teacher or parent on the website, upvoting, live in-store or in-school demo videos and more.
Loyalty
Staples Connect rewards customers with benefits that recognize the unique ways they work, learn and support their local community.
How it works:
Customers Get Points by either shopping for products at Staples or by taking an action like, recycling ink cartridges, signing up to a business directory or taking a short survey.
Customers can use those points to redeem great rewards like a $50 Gift Card, Google Chrombook or a new binder.
Customer can also donate points (with an X multiplier) to their teacher, local school or community group.
Coworking and Business Support
The physical retail space was reprioritized, and thirty to forty percent of previously merchandized space was dedicated to networking, customer-led learning, local product discovery and community building.
Store Community Pages:
Local Business Directory
Local Product Showcase “Inventor and Entrepreneur”
My Role:
Leading a dynamic team of creatives, business consultants, and brand strategists, my primary focus was spearheading the customer experience strategy. This encompassed conducting qualitative research, mapping customer journeys, and facilitating client interactions. Building on these insights, I crafted the core experience parameters and provided the initial wireframes and new journey. These served as a blueprint, guiding our creative team in expanding and refining the envisioned customer experience.
Team:
Lead, Customer Experience and Digital Strategy: Kevin Hisko
Business Consultant: Andrew Lee
Creative Direction, Digital: Bronwyn Anderson
Creative Direction, Brand: Ocean Ronald
Creative Direction Enviro: Cristiano Cartolano
Senior Art Director: Lora Leclair
Writer: Andy Lyberopoulos