Make me smile...
It really isn’t a difficult concept to grasp: the presence of a smile is a strong indicator of happiness (at least in the moment).
So many product designers and marketers just don’t get this. If your product and/or service doesn’t include the option - nay - the requirement that I smile at some point (indicating that I'm happy as a result of the interaction), there really is no point. Paul Annett at Clearleft gets this, and lays it out clearly in this presentation (which is designed to elicit smiles).
A friend of mine who works as a Cafe Mistress at a local java joint recently made me smile tremendously when she mentioned that for every customer who comes in without a loyalty card, she puts the coffee credit (which eventually results in a free coffee) into my account. It’s not her job to do this, but since we’ve become friends, she did it anyway.
Lesson learned? Treat all customers as friends (and they will eventually become them). And I don’t know about you, but if making my friends happy with a smile isn’t priority numero uno, then I don’t know what is.
Photo from Bob Fornal @ Flickr.
Make me smile...
It really isn’t a difficult concept to grasp: the presence of a smile is a strong indicator of happiness (at least in the moment).
So many product designers and marketers just don’t get this. If your product and/or service doesn’t include the option - nay - the requirement that I smile at some point (indicating that I'm happy as a result of the interaction), there really is no point. Paul Annett at Clearleft gets this, and lays it out clearly in this presentation (which is designed to elicit smiles).
A friend of mine who works as a Cafe Mistress at a local java joint recently made me smile tremendously when she mentioned that for every customer who comes in without a loyalty card, she puts the coffee credit (which eventually results in a free coffee) into my account. It’s not her job to do this, but since we’ve become friends, she did it anyway.
Lesson learned? Treat all customers as friends (and they will eventually become them). And I don’t know about you, but if making my friends happy with a smile isn’t priority numero uno, then I don’t know what is.
Photo from Bob Fornal @ Flickr.