Process across the web to out of the box - a review

Disneyland are one of the masters of user experience. their 'Imagineers' created ride experiences that considered not only the ride, but what happened before and after. Queues and other devices were used to create anticipation before the ride making the experience seem longer and more memorable.

• By examining the before and after segments, they actually lengthened and heightened the 'ride' experience. 'Emotional Priming' - described elegantly by Amy Hoy, contributes to putting a person into a more receptive state for your objectives, be it selling, persuading etc.
• A great experience stands out far more than a 'run of the mill' good experience that consumers would more or less take for granted nowadays
  
• Kathy Sierra talks about giving people a triumphant feeling like they just achieved something as opposed to just a hum drum one.

Recently I had an upgrade my internet and telephony service. I've critiqued the process against the above principles. Both the online and offline parts of the upgrade process are equally important and how they flowed together.

The words that described how I felt to show my progress on the user experience curve are in bold

Pre-sale/pre-conversion

• As a customer* my local internet service provider (ISP), I received a very exotic large envelope with a wax seal in the post. The seal was stamped with the brand of the ISP, I felt: intrigued, impressed by the quality of paper and the seal itself. So that put me in a state of anticipation of what was to come.

• Opening the envelope I found a letter on good quality paper and a tri-fold document. The colours of all the print 'collateral' had been on brand to the company's corporate colours (white and purple).
• Well and good I thought. I was impressed by the paper quality and the trouble they went to.. (Seemingly). The offer was to upgrade to one of three telephony packages. They were easy to understand and included the delivery of a new modem.
  
• The sign up process on-line was surprisingly good, easy to understand and forms well designed. I won't go into it as I am more interested in the off web experience. But I felt good that I had set up the attributes myself. (a sense of achievement)
• At the end I did not get an e-mail confirming the details of the upgrade/sign up I had just completed. (disappointed).
• I felt like once they had 'sealed the deal', I was not important to them any more, dropped like a jilted suitor.

So at this point, all the build up of feeling dropped. Granted they got the sale, but that good feeling towards my ISP should have been sustained. I had no idea what would happen next or when as I could not recall the last screens messages (if any).

Solution: Keep the contact with the client going. For example:

• Send a confirmation email branded in same colour as the paper mail to continue the anticipation and positive feelings generated by the pre-sale process.
  
• Include notification of when I would next hear from them and kept that expectation and positive feeling going.

Fulfilment:

This went a little better. I received an email (albeit unexpectedly) letting me know when and what would be happening to my phone line.

At this point I felt mollified/placated by the return of communication, the ISP went back up a little in my opinion. It was still a let down after the drop from the end of the sign up process.

Considering it costs more to acquire a client than to keep them (arguably), they should have considered the entire process as a whole. I am still a customer with options else where if I want. They should be working hard to make me 'happy' after the upgrade.

Online fulfilment:
I received regular e-mails telling me when the engineers would switch my service over to ADSL2 points for that. They were quite plain in terms of presentation and in an old fashioned looking font and could have used the branding and colours to carry the intial campaign look and feel through.

Off-line fulfilment:
The modem arrived in a big box. It had a small hard to read label addressed to me and I felt a little frisson of anticipation (e.g. how pleasant, I got a package) hearkening back to that pleasure learned since child hood of getting a present. note the reaction was not 'wow' i got a package.

Opening it revealed the modem, and two purple booklets.

I still felt like now I had become a customer, the ball had dropped in terms of attention to detail.



This box looked quite average after the elaborate 'pre-sell' labeling of the print and online materials.

Solution: Use the delivery box to create anticipation and excitement. For example:

• Use the logo of the company, create some continuity with the brand or messaging.
• Larger stickers and labeling make it easy to read and identify
• Create a sense excitement triggered by receiving a gift does or nowadays, an amazon.com delivery or the unwrapping of a carefully put together Apple product package.

Opening the box was a little bit of a non event too. The opportunity to create a connection literally was not going to happen until I plugged the modem in at home.

I did get two booklets, but with no help numbers so I had to call them using the mobile phone directory assist.

Solution: Have a welcome letter or personalised welcome letter on opening the box.

For example:

"We just delivered you the internet 2.0".

Learning: Deliver your product with pride, fanfare, excitement.

A custom sleeve with the company logo was a nice touch around the modem, but they could have made it look like a gift and reap the visceral reaction that we're trained to exhibit when given a present.

A help number would have also been useful as whilst the connection was problematic, I couldn't get online for help.

After calling the help on my mobile via directory assist and them on my mobile at my expense (not impressed), I got the service started and got online.

Overall: I was satisfied, not wowed by the end of the process. This could have been a amazing brand lifting experience had:

• A few little details been thought about more
  
• The process mapped out end to end with both on and offline components considered, (including post sale) and how they work together
  
• Emotional priming (mentioned above) used effectively all the way through.

To sum up:

• Keep the contact with the client going consistently and in the same tone
• Make people feel like they have achieved
• Plan your on and off line processes as one
  
• Map out anticipated reactions on a user experience curve in parallel with the process map
  
• Create and sustain anticipation and expectation
• Deliver your product with pride, fanfare, excitement
• Be consistent in dealing with prospective and existing customers

*All this feedback comes from my experience and perspective as a customer of this ISP only. It does not reflect the opinion of any other party :)


Foot note - weeks after upgrading I got this summary of my account details and common configurations with their contact number for help. This was handy, but would have been useful when I got the modem in the box.