Experience Matters

Things found in meeting rooms, Part 1

We keep a clean shop here, making sure that client-sensitive information remains secret and safe. But not every meeting is solely about client work, and sometimes you find something interesting sitting in a meeting room.

In this particular case, I happened to glance up at an easel sitting in the corner of the Ancho Room (the second floor in Calgary has meeting rooms named after peppers), and witnessed a wonderful diagram created by Chrissie, Senior IA in our I&P group.

This is an early draft, but this isn’t about the final result — it’s about the sheer comprehension this diagram creates. For the record, it’s not 100% original, the source for this document was from a blog entry on CIO.com. The article is a good read, but it would have been far more useful if it had this diagram in it.

On it’s own, the diagram itself is good. It’s this caption that truly makes it great:

The problem is that no one company is focusing on all components. Most just focus on 1, 2, or 3 aspects.

Why? Because on its own, the aspects become almost optional. You do the ones that make sense to you, and disregard the rest. But the power lies with combining all of the aspects. Here’s what they mean:

• Ecommerce: Could be just “commerce”, but that’s not the point. Even if this is a personal website, you’re still selling something to someone.
• Globalisation: Welcome to the global economy. If you haven’t thought about how someone who speaks another language will see your products and services, then you’re losing sales.
• Search & Navigation: Simply put — can’t find, won’t buy.
• Information: Details are everything. If a consumer can’t learn what they need to know about you and your product, they’ll go to someone else who provides it.
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): What is the goal for a consumer visiting your website? And can you measure the success of that goal?
• Service: Beyond information, this is the utility of your website. What can someone gain to enhance information and experience?
• Engagement: To be truly successful, you need to suck in your consumer. They need to feel a part of the action. Think of how QVC engages its viewers, leading them to purchase.
• Relationship Building: So you got someone in the door … now you need them to not only buy, but become an advocate. Advocates drive more sales. They drive traffic. And they buy again and again and again. Think Apple would be around without relationships?
• Branding: Your brand is what makes you, you. If you don’t support that brand, others will take it and make it their own. (Think counterfeiting.) Incidentally, “support” does not equal “defend”.

The diagram also has a very intriguing question:

How much does a robust brand experience translate into the bottom line?

It’s easy to look at the downside: botch any one of the aspects, and the experience is minimised. Botch more than one of the ones you currently depend on, and you’re probably looking at lost business.

Or worse, a business lost.

I know I’m not the only one who’s found interesting things in meeting rooms. Anyone else care to share?