Target unveiled a new app for its customers. But it’s not every customer that has access to it. Only about 600 of Target’s estimated 30 million weekly shoppers have been invited to download the app and participate in its purpose.
Studio Connect, as the app is called, allows Target’s designers to connect with, and poll, the customers they are designing for. They use the app to get feedback from customers on design projects involving anything from housewares to t-shirts.
The reason, Target says, is simple: the production cycle is moving faster than ever, but the feedback cycle – customer polls and surveys – has not kept up.
“Studio Connect enables our designers to interact with guests at any point while developing products, encouraging conversations and adding a level of flexibility to the formal feedback process,” says Target senior vice president of product design and development Julie Guggemos.
Every designer at Target has an account on Studio Connect, and they are free to pose questions to the customers on anything they wish.
Recent decisions crowd-sourced through the app include what message to put on Mother’s Day t-shirts and clever catchphrases for Target’s popular children’s line, Cat & Jack.
“I love Studio Connect. I love you guys,” says one of the customers with tears in her eyes through the app. Her daughter had submitted drawings that the company used to inspire a children’s clothing line. “I think it’s brilliant, genius, and honestly something every company should be doing.”
“Our guests are at the center of everything we do,” Guggemos adds. “We’re constantly engaging with them through a number of forums—like guest reviews on Target.com, social media, in our stores, and Studio Connect—to give them an opportunity to weigh in on what they like and don’t like.”
Photo by Ser Amantio di Nicolao via Wikimedia Commons