It's often the little things that can make a big impact on the customer experience.
If you travel a lot, and stay in a different hotel each night, it can be easy to forget your room number, especially if your more of a visual person; a person who remembers pictures better than numbers.
That's why I really appreciate what Hampton Inn has done with the room numbers in their hotels - they've added a unique black and white photograph next to the number. So if you have trouble rembering if your room was 323 or 332, you'll probably find it a lot easier to remember the photo of the farmer riding the tractor. I had the room with the adirondack chair on the sun-drenched lawn.
When I go to sleep in a hotel, I like to keep my cell phone on the night stand, and use it as an alarm clock. And I also like to keep it plugged in, to begin the next day with a full charge. But I've found that most hotels don't have enough outlets for charging all our digital stuff.
But this particular Hampton Inn mounted a cluster of outlets and USB charging ports right above the nightstand.
Visual room numbers andU SB ports by the nightstands aren't exactly big enhancements like hot breakfast bars or state-of-the art fitness centers. But they're big in two ways:
They're simple solutions to common problems - USB ports by the nightstand may not be glamorous, but they're exactly what I needed.
They're memorable - black and white photos may not transform the Hampton Inn into a luxurios hotel, but they do trigger memories, and stir curiosity - I dare you to walk down the hall to the elevator, without looking to see what photos accompany the other room numbers.
Here's thet point:
When designing your customer experience, ask yourself if each element fits at least one of the following:
1. Is it useful to the customer?
2. Is it memorable for the customer?
Design your experience to give customers more reasons to use your service, and more reasons to remember it.
