One of the most exciting things about the services that have emerged in the last decade or so is that some of them actually play nicely together. In the past when you thought about trying to get two products you owned talking to one another it was a bit of a far fetched geeky novelty. As our relationship to brands more often take the form of services, even in the consumer electronics world, handshakes between competitors and friends are a reality. Sitting here on day two of iPad ownership this is highlighted by the sheer existence of the Amazon Kindle and Netflix Instant watch apps. Two companies for which Apple has directly competing products, yet here they are in all their glory, and despite Apple's history of closing the gates to their customer experience. In the case of Kindle, there is more glory on the iPad than I have seen on Amazon's own hardware.
These two services, Netflix and Kindle, exemplify the future of service experience. They made the iPad feel more like mine by simply bringing what was already mine to the new device in a familiar way. Playing nicely pays off, it makes people feel welcome in new territory. Services like netflix/kindle have touch-points that extend beyond the proprietary and into the backyard of competitors. Continuity from touchpoint(iPad) to touchpoint(xBox) is not only maintained, but creates an interesting harmony. When thinking about the narrative of customer experience, it's clear that touch points like the iPad and xBox will continue to weave more brands/services together in ways that benefit people who choose to use them. Playing nicely with others is going to be one of the key factors for successful services and customer experiences going forward. It will be interesting to see how designers and businesses reconcile the fact that their customer experience is enabled by part of another brand's customer experience and vice versa. Begs the question is customer experience something that a brand owns? I'm sure I am not the first to ask that fluffy question. Any good reads out there about reconciling / accepting overlapping customer experiences?
This one? Would just look GORGEOUS in those sweet orange and brown colors.
Posted by: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=501032598 | April 20, 2010 at 06:09 PM