Retail, consumer experience design and WhatsApp

At Good Rebels, we’ve been using WhatsApp for research, co-design and communication for almost 2 years. Below we explore the enormous value of WhatsApp as a platform for putting the human into human centred design, and how this can provide value to the retail sector..

Consumer experience design

First up, at Good Rebels we call it consumer experience design (as opposed to customer experience). For a simple reason, today consumer experience is your brand and it is defined by how people experience it. Even consumers who aren’t your customers affect your bottom line.

“As of today, one billion people are using WhatsApp. That’s nearly one in seven people on Earth who use WhatsApp each month…” Facebook, 1 February 2016

With messaging apps now reaching ubiquity and WhatsApp the global leader, the platform provides an unprecedented opportunity for research, co-creation and communication with the consumers you are designing for. The intimacy of the medium means you are given unprecedented access to consumers real opinions and feelings vs. what a focus group will tell you.

We have deployed WhatsApp for retail and non-retail clients and found the following 3 use-cases to be most effective:

1. In-field research and insight

We can’t be with the people we are designing for all the time but we can try to be.

Our mobile missions use WhatsApp to accompany consumers during the retail journeys we want to understand from their perspective. Using WhatsApp allows us to quickly and effectively work with any segment, at any time of the day, to gather insight into their experience in real time.

2. Consumer experience co-creation

We can’t and shouldn’t design consumer retail experiences in a vacuum. Our mobile co-creation communities enable you to involve end consumers in the design of retail experiences and services. Using WhatsApp enables us to quickly and effectively work with any consumer group to activate ideas, gather feedback or validate the direction of travel.

3. Consumer engagement

WhatsApp provides an unprecedented opportunity to build deep and long-lasting relationships with customers and prospects. We use WhatsApp to create marketing, content and customer service solutions to enhance the consumer experience.
To learn about how WhatsApp can help you create compelling consumer experiences please drop us a line.