Experience branding and experience thinking can help deliver a radically different impact on consumer/user lives. In all kinds of categories and industries…
Let me give a somewhat odd example today: the hospital !
A hospital is a place that everyone fears. Isn’t that strange? In the end it’s a place you go to get healed, to get better, to go from sick to alive&kicking. But the current “experience” doesn’t aid that perspective. Hospitals are dull, clean, clinical, boring, depressing. The image in your head is that of an operating theater, where Marsian-like surgeons walk around in all-green, and lamps are oddly electric blue colored. I would argue that from the moment you set foot in a hospital you actually get sicker, by the sheer fact of how a hospital is set up.
Turn that experience upside-down!
Now think of a hospital that sets the “experience” of the consumer (read: patient) in the center of its thinking. This might be on their checklist as they build their “business”, their “brand”:
…DESIGN:
.warm colors, rounded shapes everywhere, Zen-like, …it breathes calmth/rest/optimism!
.Hide scary machines; integrate them in a welcoming atmosphere
.A room that reminds you of a Spa
.Soft, wide and long, comfortable beds
.Food designed by chefs, not by inmates
.Forest smells
.Soft lights
.Water fountains for piece-of-mind
…STAFF:
.Hired for interpersonal skills as primary selection criterium (obviously, medical skills are a pre-filter. Duh!). A truly caring personality is a must. A psychological test as well.
.Smile on their face as a mandate.
…PRICING:
.Not so high as to get the usual heart-attack or depression when you see the bill.
.Recognising that upsell and cross-sell is actually a crime in a hospital.
…SYSTEMS:
.Learn from social media.
.Easy check-in, Foursquare-like and you’re done.
.Paperless environment.
…AFTER-CARE:
.After the bill is sent, doctors and nurses that care and give you a call a week later to see whether all is ok. They help with questions. A check-up is free.
this could be your next hospital room
Now, wouldn’t that make a very different experience? That’s a hospital that would breathe a very different air.
Let me know what you think! Here, on facebook or on twitter.
