There is really only one goal for digital signage: enabling initiative, getting the customer doing something with what he or she has just seen. Regardless of the engagement, a positive outcome is the only desired effect.

Here are three very general areas where digital signage can play a positive role in a customer’s experience within an environment, and the potential pitfall each encounters with poor planning and execution.

Environmental Navigation

Navigation is usually the first impression a customer gets of a store. “Where can I find…?” Good navigation will make the shopper’s experience positive and can reduce time and stress. Digital signage can play a key role in making sure that two goals are met: Showing the customer exactly where to go and showing the easiest way to get there. But you don’t get a second chance at a first impression. Poor navigation techniques, or making the customer work too hard to locate the destination, will disengage a customer before he is even at the destination.

Do we now need GPS in a store?

Education

Learning about a product or service through digital interactivity allows the customer to learn at her pace, not the pace of the employee or the store. The ability for digital engagement (most likely in a kiosk) to be flexible for the customer’s depth of knowledge and desire for education will generate interest, respect and loyalty from the customer.

In contrast, poor education or programming that makes too many assumptions about the customer’s knowledge and has ignored important messaging will sour the experience.

Perception of Time

The ability to cut down on a customer’s perception of time is taken very seriously by environments where waiting (hospitals) or poor attitudes (returning an item that gave you a bad experience) are part of the customer’s experience in the space. Engaging content can change behavior and ultimately reduce a customer’s perception of time.

However, poor execution on basic guidelines, such as the running time on a looping program being shorter than the average time a customer waits, can be a big disappointment. Customers don’t want to see the same thing twice. In addition, creating programming that does not effectively draw attention away from the customer’s purpose in the environment can backfire by making the customer even more aware of the time.

The detail that goes into each category is dependent upon the venue’s strategy with digital signage. Great care should be taken each time. Poor execution with one screen can wreck a customer’s experience in the entire environment. A bad digital signage experience can drive customers away just as fast as bad customer service.

To avoid that end, constant research and understanding will keep your digital experiences fresh and appealing for the customer and the venue.

Harry Callahan, the maverick cop played by the great Clint Eastwood, lets out a slight smile and caps “Magnum Force” with,

“A man’s got to know his limitations.”

What do Harry Callahan and Bill Gerba have in common (besides everything)?

Harry and Bill both come to mind as we touch upon a touchy digital signage subject: the do-it-yourselfer.

In his Wirespring digital signage blog, Bill recently released results from a survey, asking if digital signage network operators (or those contemplating DS networks) handle essential services in-house or outsource the execution of those services. For the record, the list of services (generally accepted as necessary, if not flat-out required, for successful DS network operation) included logistics management, strategy consulting, project planning, content strategy consulting, content management, network/operations management, initial project management, ongoing project management and installation services.

And the winner, in a landslide, is:

“We do it ourselves”

In only one of the ten categories (installation services) did the majority of operators say they outsource the work. Every other service, the respondents said, is handled in house.

Maintaining his objectivity, Bill did not pound the table on this subject. That doesn’t mean other digital signage pros can’t.

“In other parts of our lives, we make rational decisions” says Tom Percich, vice president in charge of business development for Diversified Media Group, a leading integration firm that has planned, installed and maintained dozens of networks. “But when it comes to digital signage, people go a little crazy and think they can do it on their own.”

Why? You know why. And you know who you are. You’re trying to cut corners and save money. How’s that working out, if you don’t mind us asking?

Tom notes the example of a client who bought cheaper off-the-shelf monitors at a department store (“Let’s see. I’ll take some toothpaste, kitty litter, and 50 plasma screens.”) rather than going with the more expensive pro-recommended industrial models. Sure enough, 7 months later, the consumer screens started dying. No warranty. The client had to replace the consumer clunkers with industrial models. Thus, the client was forced to buy twice as many screens, spending twice the dough. And oh by the way, installation fees were doubled also.

“You don’t know what you don’t know” Tom says. “Sure, there’s information everywhere. You can learn how to do open-heart surgery on-line. But if I needed open heart surgery, I would tend to go to a doctor.”

Another point: any reputable pro stands behind his or her work. “We have to eat our own dog food,” Percich says. “If we manage the network, we have to live with our recommendations. But that’s fine. Those recommendations are based on years of experience. Our expertise combined with that experience usually results in cost savings. We’ll live with that.”

Another result of the survey, which is borderline stunning, is the percentage of respondents who say that “they don’t bother” with the essential services. Really? No kidding? You don’t bother with network management? Project management? Content production?

“Content is the last thing discussed, which drives me mad” says Stephen Ghigliotty, who for the past two years handled content creative and strategy for Artisan.

Strategy. Now there’s a concept.

The dialogue at the meeting goes something like this: “The deliverable is a long-term plan, a strategy. The goal is good content on budget and on time. We’ve got a lot of sharp people on staff. They can knock out this strategy thing before lunch.”

Stephen tells the story about one sharp client, with no DS experience but ample experience paying broadcast-spot production rates, who commissioned a single (read “one”) broadcast-quality piece for their digital signage network. The piece looked great. But the client burned their entire content budget on that one piece. So they played it, over and over and over again, leading to burn out, tune out and flame out.

Brian Ardinger is the marketing director for one of the industry’s leading software providers, Nanonation. The folks at Nanonation focus on software and only software. Nonetheless, they are DS pros. And by keeping the big picture in mind, pros can help novice clients navigate the minefield.

“We have a good understanding of all the parts, the good, the bad and the ugly,” Brian says. “For example, we don’t hang the screens but because we’ve been involved in so many networks, we know who to call to hang the screens.”

Brian and the others share a common insight: there are many links to the digital signage chain. One link breaks, and there goes the chain.

But enough already. By now, you’ve figured us out. We’re just self-serving vendors who want to charge crazy rates for work you can handle yourself.

That’s true. We do like to get paid. But anyone charging crazy rates in this business does not last long.

The genuine DS pro wants your network to thrive. Every blue screen of death, lame content, display hung 12 feet off the floor where no one sees it network drags down the entire industry. We cringe, grind our teeth and lose sleep, whether we had anything to do with the offending network or not.

Our goal is not to gouge. Our goal is to lift digital signage to a new level.

We sum it up with another classic Clint Eastwood line.

This one goes out to all of the do-it-yourselfers who plan to handle DS services in house or, better yet, plan to not even bother.

In the words of Detective Callahan in “Dirty Harry”,

“You have to ask yourself one question. ‘Do I feel lucky?’ “

Well, do you?

At corporate, I asked meeting attendees to watch both spots. I showed the trailer at the beginning of a meeting and the clip at the end of the meeting. Then I asked if the audience if they could tell me the running times of the spots.

In almost every case, the viewers felt the trailer was longer than it was, by about 30 seconds. The actual running time of the trailer was 2:30. In contrast, the viewer felt the clip was shorter than it was. Many felt it was only about 30 seconds, when its actual running time was 1:05.

The trailer was not engaging. It felt longer than it was. However, the viewers were so engaged with the clip that they lost track of time.

I recently wrote about a Stanford study written by Jennifer Aaker and Cassie Mogilner on the effects of time versus money. Part of that study included perception. The authors surveyed attendees at a concert in San Francisco with free admission. But, people had to wait for long periods to get tickets. When attendees were asked about the time they spent to see the concert versus the amount of money spent to see the concert (They asked random individuals: “How much time will you have spent to see the concert today?” or “How much money will you have spent to see the concert today?”), the responses to the question stressing time were more favorable. What was surprising was that those who waited in line longer said their satisfaction with the concert was higher.

What does this mean? The more engaged a customer is with something that will benefit his lifestyle, the greater the discrepancy in perception of time as the he moves down the path to purchase. (How many of you have seen a movie that was so good that it felt like it was half as long as it really was?)

The role of Digital Signage in any environment impacts not only the shopping behaviors, but also the psychological effects of the time spent in the store. In a recent study, 45% of all customers interviewed had a perceived wait time of five minutes less than those interviewed in a store without a digital signage network. In the same study, 68% of all customers interviewed prefer to shop at a store with digital signage.

Perception of time has deep impact in areas of where the psychological effects of waiting could be detrimental to the overall experience, like amusement parks, checkouts, grocery markets, gas stations, and waiting rooms.

If you can relate to your customer’s lifestyle and purpose for being in your store, you can create compelling content that eases the perception of time spent with the products and services you sell, creating a truly engaging experience.