As you can imagine I travel quite a lot. There are a couple of things that really annoy me about hotels Customer Experience. I consider myself fairly tech savvy person, but what really irritates me is the taps in hotels bathrooms. Yes, I said the taps in hotels bathrooms. I have a shower every morning and I am constantly frustrated by the different designs on taps that are integrated with showers in tubs. Here is an example from a hotel I recently stayed at.
As I try and turn the tap to shower I am always confused about how to turn it on. Do I pull or push this tap? Do I press or shove it? Maybe I hold this button down? It drives me mad! When I finally work it out the shower starts and I get a spurt of cold water over my head as I am bending down trying to work it out. It as if this was some form of prize for getting it right!
The other thing that bugs me is the remotes on TV in hotels. Again at home I am fine. I have my 37 different remotes for all the different systems. But try and get normal TV in a hotel room! It always starts with the hotel menu and the movies you can hire at the same price it would take to buy a whole movie theater. The remote has so many different buttons that I have accidentally set alarms, paid my bill and ordered the Sound of Music seventy six times before I find out the terrestrial TV button. This annoyed me so much that the other day I decided to take a picture. Look at this TV from this hotel.
On the screen at the bottom says “Press TV to exit and return to TV”. Now look at this remoter. Where is the TV button! They are all worn out! Which do I press!
So what is the learning: It is the detail that matters. Walk in the customers shoes. A great design could be a nightmare. Consider undertaking Ethnographic research i.e. filming Customers using the product or service. This provides some fascinating insights.