Setting

Design for trust

For Airbnb to succeed, they must continually facilitate trust between complete strangers. By applying sound design principles to their platform, Airbnb breaks down "stranger-danger" biases with:

• Required photos: Hosts must upload clear pictures of their faces to humanize themselves to the Guest.
• Structured information: Information is presented to guests in a hierarchical design to make the critical details as transparent as possible. For example, a Host's ratings and responsiveness speed are clearly displayed for Guests so they know exactly what to expect.
• Frictionless search: Guests can quickly search in a Host's comment section for keywords important to their decision-making.
• Tailored messaging systems: When contacting a Host, too little information and too much information from the Guest result in lower acceptance rates. The size of the communication box was designed to suggest just the right amount of information for Guests to provide. Text prompts also guide Guests on what information to include so that Hosts can know about a Guest's personality and character.
• Delayed payments: Airbnb charges travelers at the time a reservation is made but holds the payments until twenty-four hours after check-in to ensure everything went as expected.
• Two-way reputation systems: Both Hosts and Guests have the opportunity to review one another. Reviews are not revealed until both parties have submitted them to avoid retaliatory ratings.
• Shortened review periods: Guests and Hosts have limited time to leave a review to reduce recall bias as memories degrade over time.

Invite the customer to play and take control of the experience

Apple devised subtle ways for shoppers to take ownership of their buying experience by making it already feel as if the product was theirs. To do this, Apple sales associates would:

• Place all products on display, turned on and connected, to invite people to come in and play and explore.
• Position computer screens at 90-degree angles forcing customers to reposition them to their liking.
• Guide, not show, customers on how to find solutions for themselves, so they become more comfortable and engaged with the product.
• Request permission to step in and help a customer with a task by asking: "May I touch your computer?"

Prioritize education, not sales

The Apple Store itself was designed as a place to help people learn and grow. While only 25% of Apple Stores are dedicated to products, the other 75% are dedicated to:

• Individual workshops and classes on how to use Apple technology
• Free lectures and seminars on how to improve your photography, music, video, coding, art, and design
• Concierge service where Geniuses answer your questions and find solutions

By making the store a place focused on personal development, Apple turned what could have been a standard sales floor into a playground for kids and adults. And the results? Apple Stores make on average $4,032/sq ft compared to product driven stores like Tiffany's who makes $2,600/sq ft and Best Buy who makes $930/sq ft.

Showcase the technology

Walk into an Apple Store and a specialist uses an iPad to check you in. Walk over to the computers and all of their details are displayed on an iPad next to them. Walk up to sales associates and they will ring you up using an Apple device. Apple is even experimenting with an iPhone app that lets customers check themselves out without speaking to anyone.

By making their devices a part of the entire shopping experience, Apple not only showcases their capabilities but also excites people about using the technology themselves.

Remove check-out lines

Apple first asked themselves: How fast can we get people through the register? But the real question became: Why stand in line at all when a specialist can come right to you? So, Apple removed all cash registers to make the check-out process as simple and fast as possible.

Make your employees' wardrobe stand out

When employees wore black shirts they blended in too much with the customers. Too many different colored shirt resulted in confusion. Apple found that blue shirts were just right because those stood out best and made it easy for customers to find employees.

Choose a location where the people are

With the focus of Apple Stores being on non-Apple users, Steve Jobs didn't want people gambling with their time to go to a remote location. He located Apple Stores in malls to reduce the risk for these non-users to make it possible for them to just come in and see what the company was about. In this way, people were only gambling with twenty feet of their time.

Keep your homepage simple

When a consumer lands on Apple's website, they should be able to find what they need within thirty seconds and within three clicks. To help with this, Apple keeps its homepage simple and unobtrusive by removing unnecessary distractions like rotating banners and keeping the word count under 50 words.

In fact, when the iPad went on sale, Apple's homepage didn't show any competing messages. It was just a large picture of the iPad with three simple words: iPad is here. That's it.

Turn store openings into a party for raving fans

At each Chick-fil-A grand opening, the first one hundred customers receive free meals once a week for one year. This prize has become so popular that raving fans began to camp out in front of stores days before their opening. Seeing an opportunity to build relationships with their customers, Chick-fil-A turned these campouts into one long event with free samplings, a midnight Icedream® party, backstage tours of the restaurant, and live entertainment and activities.

Create REMARKable moments

In their mission statement, the remark in remarkable is capitalized to emphasize that Chick-fil-A employees need to do things worth talking about. With this in mind, they organize experiences across their restaurants that bring families and friends together in memorable ways.

• Daddy-daughter date night: Both dad and daughter enjoy an evening with limousine and carriage rides, table service from staff dressed in tuxedos, strolling violinists, and tablecloth-covered, candlelit tables.
• Cow appreciation day: Come into any Chick-fil-A restaurant dressed as a cow, or wearing cow print, and receive a free entree.
• Stuffed animal sleepovers: Have dinner with your favorite stuffed animal and then leave it there overnight for a stuffed animal slumber party with the other stuffed animals. It will be waiting for you in the morning with photos of the fun it had and a 'thank you' letter.

Encourage conversation instead of screen time

The Cell Phone Coop challenge was created to get people to spend more time talking to each other and less time on their phones while eating at Chick-fil-A restaurants. The rules are simple:

• All family members silence their phones and place them in a provided coop box.
• Everyone enjoys their meals distraction and cell phone free.
• When you are done, tell the staff you completed the challenge and receive a small Icedream® cone.

Keep your products simple and focused

While competitors focused on building multi-media news portals where search was one of many features, Google focused on creating a portal where search was the only feature. Google's clean, uncluttered search page was a result of the prevailing belief that users just wanted a single portal to all of the internet where what they were looking for instantly appeared before them with one click.

Google's portal was so simple and clean that, at first, users would not type anything into the search field, thinking that the page had to finish loading. To remedy this, Google added a copyright at the bottom—not because they had to, but just as a nudge to say that the page was finished loading.

Personalize everything

From the rows on the homepage, to the titles in those rows, to the galleries shown and cover art displayed, everything you see on Netflix is designed by complex algorithms to be just for you. Let's say you are keen on romantic comedies, Netflix will show a couple of lovebirds on the cover art rather than a lone bearded Robin Williams. Each of your clicks and views are then run through a complex rating system to weed out "clickbait" and only show you what will keep you engaged.

See an example.

Artwork Personalization at Netflix

As the Netflix Technology Blog writes: "Let us consider trying to personalize the image we use to depict the movie Good Will Hunting. Here we might personalize this decision based on how much a member prefers different genres and themes. Someone who has watched many romantic movies may be interested in Good Will Hunting if we show the artwork containing Matt Damon and Minnie Driver, whereas, a member who has watched many comedies might be drawn to the movie if we use the artwork containing Robin Williams, a well-known comedian."

Artwork Personalization at Netflix

Make your retail space a showroom for what's relevant, not what's expensive

Patagonia displays products in their stores as if it were a showroom by focusing on simplicity and function. They do not waste expensive retail space with extra inventory—any backstock is kept in the back or a nearby stock room.

By placing the products front and center, Patagonia takes the "tedious hunting experience out of shopping...highlighting each product's function without jeopardizing the retail environment." And the items they do highlight are not always the most expensive but instead the most relevant for the season.

Provide full operational transparency on your website

Everything Patagonia makes has an impact on the planet, and they want to make sure you understand that cost. Each product has a detailed description of how and where it was made providing you full transparency around the manufacturing process, including factory photos, details, and maps.

Create a sense-of-place through scenography

At The Ritz-Carlton, scenography is all about creating fully immersive experiences for their guests. Each property has its own theme, inspired by its surrounding location, that engages all five senses.

• Smell: The Ritz-Carlton's New York location has its own fragrance that evokes the smell of Central Park's flowers and plants.
• Taste: In Texas a Guacamologist™ prepares fresh guacamole every evening in the hotel lobby.
• Sound: In Arizona, each evening a ranger shares stories of the region's Native American ancestors while a flautist performs in the distance.
• Sight: In Washington, DC, a converted incineration plant with the theme of fire, has a design of deep red and orange hues throughout the lobby.
• Touch: In Moscow, guests are given extra-warm coats to enjoy the rooftop ice bar.

Each property is expected to improve upon their scenography each year with three new scenes. A scenography toolkit, SCNG, is available to help inspire staff and provide more context to the narrative of their property.

Define universal and localized brand standards

When defining their brand guidelines, The Ritz-Carlton separates their standards into two classifications:

• Universal standards, which are non-negotiable standards across all their hotels. These consistencies are what guests expect globally, like certain quality linens and textiles, the presence of fresh flowers, and Club Lounge service.
• Localized standards can be customized to each hotel depending on its location. The fresh flowers chosen should reflect the hotel's geographic location, and the Club Lounge food, should align to the guest demographic.

Have your customer's experience mirror your culture

Southwest's co-founder Herb Kelleher "deplored the class mentality" and was set on creating a culture and a customer experience where everyone was treated as equals. While other airlines assigned seats and created cabin classes with tiered fare structures, Herb created an experience where no one had an assigned seat, everyone paid the same fare, and everyone had the same snack and drink choices. This experience helped speed up boarding time and kept prices low which brought them closer to their founding vision of democratizing the skies for everyone.

Make waiting fun

Whether waiting to board a flight or waiting to land, Southwest employees are empowered to find any creative way to make flying fun. Besides their well-known singing safety announcements, Southwest employees:

• Give $25 gift cards to anyone with a hole in their sock or a humiliating driver's license picture.
• Hold snack races to help determine which snack will be given out on the plane.
• Hold paper airplane throwing competitions and scavenger hunts in waiting areas.
• Build LUV Carts, made out of anything with wheels, to hand out snacks and Southwest swag while also giving customers a chance to win toys for kids or donuts for early-morning travelers with a wheel of fortune.
• Demonstrate the power of the airplane's lavatory technology by unraveling a roll of toilet paper down the aisle and flushing it to see how fast it gets sucked down.

Create a multi-sensory experience

The Starbucks Experience is not just about coffee. It's about engaging all of your five senses with an experience that is warm and welcoming.

• Taste: With thousands of combinations to choose from, each order is personalized to the customer's liking. Samples are made upon request and any drink will be remade without question if you're not completely satisfied.
• Smell: Upon entering, the aroma of freshly ground coffee creates a full-bodied suggestive, rich aroma reinforcing a commitment to quality.
• Sound: In-house music curators carefully select interesting, cool, lesser known songs that keep customers relaxed and inspired. “It’s the music that we’d want to hear on Sunday morning in our home when we’re reading the paper and drinking coffee.”
• Sight: Stores are carefully designed so customers can watch and be inspired by the artistry that goes into the making of each drink. Soft colors, reclaimed wood, and pleasant lighting are all carefully selected to create a friendly ambiance.
• Touch: From the feel of the coffee mug to the high quality seating upholstery, everything is aimed at encouraging you to relax, unwind, and stay awhile.

Pay attention to the small details

Whether it's lowering the height of espresso machines so customers can better connect with baristas or providing round tables so that coffee-drinkers flying solo didn't feel alone, all details matter to Starbucks. Store designers even work as baristas first to better understand what is needed by both employees and customers.

Starbucks also uses daily checklists to maintain a strict focus on the small details. They cover everything from cleaning counters to checking the café every 10 minutes. But these checklists also do something else: Free-up partners (employees) to get out from behind the counter, observe the store from the customer's perspective, and look for new ways to deliver extraordinary experiences.

Connect and collaborate with customers online

Instead of using their website to speak at customers, Starbucks launched "My Starbucks Idea" in 2008, so they could speak with their customers.

The idea was simple. Create a platform where customers can share and suggest ideas on how to make their favorite Starbucks products even better. After creating a profile, customers could write, categorize, and submit their suggestions for others to comment and vote on. The most popular topics would prompt Starbucks 'idea partners' to chime in, collaborate, answer questions, and even begin making the idea a reality.

Although risky leaving partners to deal with potential trolls, Starbucks felt this was the most authentic and honest way to communicate with their customers. In its 10 year run, hundreds of ideas were implemented including remote pay, reusable cup sleeves, and the relaunch of salted caramel hot chocolate.

And yes, this took a lot of employee power adding up to 50 staff spending 8 hours a week monitoring posts.

Bring your personality to life with a multi-sensory experience

The Trader Joe's experience is about engaging all of your fives sense in order to evoke a sense of adventure, while also making it feel like you are on vacation.

• Sight: From the moment you enter a Trader Joe's store you are surrounded by nautical themed artifacts including ship bells, oars, netting, and a half a rowboat. Staff are dressed in Hawaiian shirts with Bermuda shorts. And unlike other supermarkets, the lighting is designed to be on the warm spectrum rather than a blue spectrum, to avoid a cold sterile looking environment.
• Sound: Instead of a PA system that makes you feel like you are in a generic store, employees communicate with each other by ringing ship bells. One ring means they need another register open, two means the cashier needs assistance, three means a manager is needed for something important.
• Smell & Taste: Besides being able to taste almost any food in the store before purchase, Trader Joe's wants shoppers to expand their pallets as much as possible. Each store host countless tasting events that allow shoppers to smell and taste all the exotic and fun flavors they have collected from around the world. These events are actually the majority of their marketing budget.
• Touch: Trader Joe's has designed its stores to break down as many barriers as possible between customers and their meals. They have even removed the large cumbersome freezer doors to make it easier for shoppers to see what is available, to grab new items, and to give them a try.

Make every store unique to its neighborhood

While supermarkets have planograms to keep each store looking the same down to the square inch, Trader Joe's focuses on each store being different. Yes, the nautical theme is the one consistent piece across all stores, but each store is also given the freedom to design and organize itself in their own creative way.

In-house artists are hired for each location to create all of the murals and signage down to the product labels and price tags. The goal is to have all the artwork reflect the neighborhood that the store is located in. This gives each store its own identity, a friendly neighborhood vibe, and a way to make connections with their customers.

Make shopping an adventure for the kids as well

Don't be surprised when you grab for a bag of chips at Trader Joe's and find a stuffed monkey next to it. Stuffed animals and plastic toys are hidden around most Trader Joe's locations as a way to engage with and entertain kids while parents shop. Any child that finds one receives a lollipop.

Turn your locations into community centers

Umpqua Bank designed their stores to be a place where customers can have fun, hang out, network, and even hold personal business meetings. Former CEO Ray Davis believed that if you can get people to want to spend more time in your stores, they will more likely buy something.

Umpqua Associates are encouraged to take initiative and hold events based on their customers' interests. Three to five times a month, stores host events like Hawaiian luaus, yoga classes, book clubs, poetry readings, Nintendo Wii bowling nights, 'stitch and bitch' knitting sessions, and 'Friday Nite Flicks,' where anyone can enjoy a free movie.

As for the cost, Umpqua partners with local businesses to keep expenses low. When they hosted a Greek art show, a local Greek restaurant provided food at a 40% discount.

Design a store that appeals to all five senses

When former CEO Ray Davis reimagined Umpqua Bank branches as stores, he put design at the center of their creation. "Design isn't just about how things look. We pay attention to what our customers see, hear, smell, taste, and feel."

• Sight: Beginning with their floor-to-ceiling windows that invite people to look in from the street, Umpqua stores have 40-foot plasma screens on their walls and clearly designated sections to Sip, Read, Surf, Shop, and Bank.
• Taste: Customers can treat themselves to a cookie or a cup of Umpqua-brand coffee. Chocolates are also delivered to the customer on a tray with their receipt after every transaction.
• Smell: Walk into their store, and customers can smell their freshly made Umpqua brand coffee.
• Sound: Local music is featured in each Umpqua store to create deeper connections with their community.
• Touch: From plush chairs to interactive multiscreen displays, Umpqua invites customers to explore and relax within their stores. Electronic "daily specials" menus are also available for customers to view bank products and neighborhood events.

Redefine the experience to match the business you are really in

When Ray Davis started at Umpqua Bank in 1994, he set out to understand 'Why would somebody want to bank with them?' and 'How were they going to stand out?' He felt that "the only way to break away from the pack...[was] to start operating on a different playing field."

He then began looking at other industries and found that while Umpqua was in the banking business, they also sold products and services like retailers. With that clarity, Umpqua began changing their entire operations to mirror retail companies like Nordstrom and Starbucks.

With the help of brand strategists from Ziba, Umpqua began by redefining their branches as stores. "The old-style bank branch where you've got tellers on one side and desks with loan officers at the other—and velvet rope telling people where they're supposed to stand—[was] over." Instead, they created an experience with an unbank-like look and feel.

Remove the risk of online ordering

When it comes down to it, every online clothing purchase is a gamble. So in order replace feelings of stress with feelings of WOW, Zappos provides their customers with:

• Free shipping and free returns, even if its 10 variations of the same shoe
• A 365-day return policy
• High resolution multi-angle photos

Always have a customer survey available on your website

Zappos is constantly looking to hear feedback from customers regarding their shopping experience. The Zappos online survey located in the footer of their website asks visitors to offer suggestions or ideas on how to improve the site. Answers are scaled on either a 1 to 7 or 0 to 10 scale and the questions include:

• How likely are you to recommend Zappos.com to a friend or colleague? (0 to 10)
• How can we improve Zappos.com? (free-form)
• I feel that the Zappos website is personalized (tailored) to me. (0 to 10)
• Please rate your overall experience with Zappos.com. (0 to 10)
• Overall, the Zappos website is easy to use. (1 to 7)
• Finding products is easy. (1 to 7)
• Zappos always has my best interest as a customer in mind. (0 to 10)
• Which of the following best describes you? (Multiple choice)
• Which of the following options best represents your age?
• Would you like to be contacted by a Zappos customer service representative regarding this matter? (Yes/No)

Don't hide your contact details

If you're all about service, make it easy for your customers to contact you. Zappos customer service is not only available 24/7 but also prominently places their phone number on every webpage.

As Zappos co-founder Tony Hsieh puts it: "The telephone is one of the best branding devices out there. You have the customer's undivided attention for 5 to 10 minutes, and if you get the interaction right, what we've found is that the customer remembers the experience for a very long time and tells his or her friends about it."

Let customers opt-out of behaviorally targeted ads

We all know how creepy/annoying it can be when you shop for one product and then every platform you visit thereafter has ads for that exact or similar product.

Although Zappos does use these behaviorally targeted ads, they include a link in them that says "Why are you being shown this banner?" This directs customers to a page that educates and reassures them that their personal information is not being shared with any other sites. Additionally, on that same page, Zappos offers customers the option opt-out of these targeted ads from appearing ever again.