“Wimbledon is the place where magic can happen”

“Wimbledon is the place where magic can happen”
Andre Agassi

I’ve been living in Wimbledon for a while, so yesterday I decided to check what the buzz was about at the All England Lawn Tennis Club down the road. And yes, I got to see some really high standard tennis, but I was mostly impressed by the ‘Wimbledon experience’. I’ve been to a few football matches, concerts etc, however, Wimbledon can be put in a totally different league in terms of organisation, and the ‘how nice this is’ feel.

I didn’t have tickets, and after arriving at the gate I spoke to one of the 100’s knowleadgeble stewards, who gave me clear and to the point information on how to buy a last minute ticket. Fifteen minutes later I was watching a tennis game (well, I have to say that I got there around 7pm, so the queues where quite small).

At the Championships (on and off the tennis courts), everything was organised and managed with almost military precision. From environments, staff uniforms (designed by Polo Ralph Lauren), behaviours (everyone was really polite and knowleadgeble - making you feel almost ‘royalty’) to logistics (more than 10 simultaneous matches with 450,000 spectators), the show ran like clockwork.

Well, all of this requires a lot of effort and organisation, and most of all, experience. After all, Wimbledon has been around for more than 100 years, and one thing that they truly managed to do is to learn how to run the Championships.

Between Championships, the Club has regular meetings with officials from the local council, the London Borough of Merton and other interested parties to consider problems experienced during the fortnight and to monitor progress on remedies recommended.

More than 6,000 people work on The Championships. These include a temporary staff of several hundred who are directly employed by the AELTC.
from the Wimbledon website

Delivering ‘Wimbledon-class’ customer experience requires lots of effort, and more importantly, the ability to learn from mistakes and focus on continuous improvement. Only then, as Andre Agassi said, you’ll be able to make magic happen.

wikicity project

MIT is doing some really cool research on how to use mobile technology to map the flow of people in cities. Each blue dot on the picture above represents a mobile phone, which can be tracked in real time. One really interesting application could be public transport planning. If you know where people are, and if you can spot ‘migration’ patterns, it would certainly help increase transport efficiency.

check this project out here

Talking the talk

I really like the way Virgin communicates to customers. They always use plain English, and most importantly, they make every contact feel as a bit of fun. I was having a problem with my internet modem, and received a new one by post. The letter that came with the new modem said:

“We’re are sorry you had problems with you modem; this little box of goodies will help!
… All you need to to now is follow the instruction below…
Ok, here it goes:
…Replace you new modem, using the spanner. It’s there to help unscrew and screw the white cable without too much elbow grease!

Virgin also has a great attention for details. When my broadband pack first arrived, I got this massive box containing all the equipment I needed. To be honest, opening the box and setting my new broadband up was quite exciting (I have to confess, I was feeling like a kid opening a Christmas gift). And then I noticed the ‘caution’ label on the box, which added a bit of fun to whole experience.

Sometimes, small details make a big difference. Next time you have to design something, or get in touch with a customer, try to make it a bit fun. It won’t add anything to your costs, and it surely will have a great impact on your customer’s experience.

NTT DoCoMo Vision 2010 - the art of storytelling

I first saw this video from NTT DoCoMO a couple of years ago, and although the prospect of having this kind of technology around us soon us quite exciting, what really strikes me is how powerful those videos are to tell a a story.

Good storytelling is not only about communicating a vision or a concept. It’s about establishing an emotional connection with your audience.

from www.youtube.com posted with vodpod

IDEO eyes open

The folks at IDEO launched a the IDEO eyes open, a website to enable ’social network’ of stories about great experiences:

Ideoeyesopen.com is about casting a wide net to find inspirational experiences in the unlikeliest of places—the things we do and see everyday.

Michele Dougherty published a really interesting post about the airport experience. Working for a company that specialises in producing film titles, she drew an interesting parallel between the airport experience and the process of creating a film title sequence:

“When Fred asked me to think about a place or experience that embodied some of the key elements involved in creating film titles, a few places sprung to mind. But none seemed quite as compelling as the airport.

The three main things I focus on when I start a project are: choreography, typography, and telling a good story (which is largely dependent on the previous two things in my line of work). Upon thinking about this assignment, I realized that the airport is chock full of all three. Not to mention, it’s an intriguing place to observe how they all come together in a highly staged narrative experience with literal steps that must be taken—which is remarkably relevant to the kind of timing and delivery moments that are so critical to the kind of work we do.”

I particularly liked the idea of choreography and typography when creating, or innovating customers’ experiences. At the end of the day, it’s all about staging a story.

The perception is actually the reality

Chase and Dasu conducted a research on how to create better experiences by applying behavioural science. For decades, cognitive and behavioural scientists have studied the way people behave in social interactions, and their findings are extremely helpful for experiential design. One of the key aspects of behavioural science is that in any interaction between a service or product and a client, the perception is actually the reality. In other words, what really matters is how the customer interprets the interaction.

According to behavioural scientists, people are not able to remember the whole set of events when they recall an experience. Only a few significant moments stick to people’s mind. In other words, they remember snapshots, not movies. When assessing past experiences people usually prefer a sequence that improves over time. For example, gamblers prefer to lose £10 first, then win £5, rather than win £5 then lose £10. The ending of a sequence of events is also crucial for the overall recollection of the experience. A great ending will usually recur in good memories.

According to Chase and Dasu, there are five principles that when applied may contribute to improve the perceptions customers have of a service experience:

1. Finish strong:
the end of a transaction or the last stage of an experience is the moment that remains in the customers’ reminiscences. For example, composers such as Beethoven always finish the symphonies in exhilarating movements. In the airline industry context, having someone to help in the luggage reclaim area would considerably improve the passenger’s perception of his or her trip.

2. Get bad experiences out early
people are happier if a sequence of events evolves from bad to good. Waiting in the check in queue is always unpleasant. But if the airline company offers a reward such as a cup of coffee or even apologies for making a passenger wait, it can turn a bad experience into an acceptable one.

3. Segment pleasure, combine pain
people prefer to win small amounts several times instead of a greater amount once. They also prefer to loose a larger amount once rather than smaller amounts several times. Companies should break pleasant experiences into multiple stages, and combine unpleasant ones into a single stage. For example, passengers always have to go through several steps when calling a help-line. Cutting the number of steps would reduce the perceived time.

4. build commitment through choice
people are happier when they have more control over the process. Having the opportunity to make some choices, such as choosing a meal between two options, and being served whenever they want would greatly enhance the perceived quality of the service.

5. give people rituals
people usually are more comfortable when dealing with familiar rituals and activities. These rituals provide a standard, and customers base their evaluations on these standards. For example, passengers expect to find the same level of comfort in every aircraft of an airline. Sometimes older aircrafts are not so well equipped as newer ones, making passengers feel the flight unpleasant.

I guess that’s why people usually say: “save the best for last”…

Making magic happen

I spent easter in Normandy where I had the most exhilarating gastronomic experience of my life. We found this tiny restaurant on top of a cliff, next to a lighthouse facing the Normandy beaches (which was quite difficult to find, but it gave a bit of an ‘adventure’ feel).

The owner, a lady whose dream was to convert her country house into a restaurant (which she obviously accomplished) was the perfect host: always smiling, making you feel completely at home.

The food was perfect. My only thought after finishing the desert was: “I’m in heaven…” The price was very reasonable: 38 euros for a 4 course meal.

The service was great, no long waits, really polite and nice waiters.

As a service designer, I would give this restaurant a perfect 10 out of 10 in terms of the experience I had (in every aspect). Yet, they didn’t have anything ’special’ going on, no fancy designer furniture, no Michelin stars kind-of-thing, no English speaking staff…

The point I want to make here is: there is a certain element of magic that make customers have a great experience. And yet, we don’t know exactly how to define it. My guess would be: to make magic happen you need to have great products, great services, but still, leave some room for a few ‘imperfections’. Just like anything we see in nature.

Health Vault - the facebook version for healthcare?

Microsoft launched a really cool service called Healthvault. It allows users to upload detailed information about their health and share it with friends, family and health professionals (hospitals and doctors).

” HealthVault isn’t just a Web site - it’s the hub of a network of Web sites, personal health devices and other services that you can use to help manage your health. HealthVault lets you store the information in one central place on the Web. You’re in control of what information you store and can decide who else can see, change, or help manage it. HealthVault never lets other Web sites or programs see or change the information in your HealthVault record without explicit permission from you or a record custodian invited to share your records.”

It also has an interface that allows you to upload information from a number of devices, such as blood pressure and heart rate monitors.

I can imagine that this might bring peace of mind for lots of people. Imagine how nice it would be to check how your granny (who lives far away) is doing. Just log on the website and check info such as glucose level and blood pressure. Should something get a bit out of control, the system triggers an text message to you. Well done Bill Gates.

Service Transparency

I’ve recently written a viewpoint on how companies can establish emotional connections with customers by being more transparent. You can check the full story at the Engine website.