Packaging the customer experience: Apple versus Expansys
– posted January 8th, 2007 by Laurence Veale Comments (2)
What does the user or customer experience really mean? Over the course of the Christmas holidays, I found some good contrasting examples. Unfortunately, one of them left my wife, Paula, a little deflated.
Expansys.ie: I speaka de Ingleesh!
Moi, je ne parle pas Francais assez bien, non parlo Italiano und verdammt! Ich spreche nur am klein bisschen Deutsch! We had what one could call a poor customer experience occured on Christmas Day, and as Tom Raftery points out, probably the worst time for it to happen. Having opened her present of a Canon EOS 400D on Christmas day, the missus was disappointed to find no instructions in English. Instead, she got three manuals, in French, Italian and German. I bought the camera from an Irish registered website, expansys.ie (should I even be linking to these guys?)
When I’m based in Ireland and I buy an expensive camera from an English-speaking Irish registered website, I expect to get the instructions for the camera in my lingua franca, English. It’s not really too much to ask.
In fairness to Expansys, when I complained they offered me a full refund and in the meantime they are chasing their supplier for a manual in English, but they’ve already got my money so it’s really too late, especially for Christmas.
This is the difference between pre sales and posts sales packaging, something the “Creating Passionate Users” bloggers alluded to in their post, “Why marketing should make the user manuals!”, although with this example I’d take a boring manual in English as a good start.
Will I be purchasing from Expansys again? Not likely. What would Seth do?
Apple: a lesson on how to package the user experience.
Now take the last packaging experience, that of the new diminutive iPod shuffle, which I also bought for my wife. The minimalist packaging, once opened reveals the trusty message, “Designed by Apple in California”.
But that’s only the physical packaging. The customer experience doesn’t stop at the point of sale. iTunes completes and enhances the post sales user experience. At Apple, the total experience is designed to perfection, with the after sales experience being as important as the pre-sales experience.
The message is clear, how you package the customer experience can frame how your customers perceive you, whether positively or negatively. Designing the experience up to the point of sale shows a short term plan. You want your customers’ money, not their loyalty.
How have your customer experiences been packaged?
How were your most recent experiences packaged with a product or website you recently visited? Was it an easy and engaging experience or were you left a feeling a little empty? Please share.
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Categories Design, Technology
2 comments so far
1. Keith Donegan on Jan 9th, 2007 - 12:54
I bought the new Zen Vision M about a month ago and was quite pleased with the product. The packaging is more like an Ipod, Very sweet :). I really like it, nice simple black box with a few sexy sweeps in the artwork. And although it comes with a manual, It is very easily usable.
2. David on Jan 10th, 2007 - 20:48
I ordered a spare power cord for my nice new MacBook Pro (bought refurbished at the US Apple Store for a bargain price), and a wireless might mouse to go with it.
A mouse and a power cord aren’t the most exciting things in the world, but they both came packaged beautifully. The mouse box had circular scoops cut in the base on which the mouse sat, so it was easy to pick up. As a mouse is all about feel, making sure you don’t have to fumble with it out the of the box was a nice touch.
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