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This mornings routine forced me to visit a different Second Cup to pickup my daily dose of caffeine.  Having never visited this location before, I settled into line and waited for my turn to order.  I was greeted by staff, I ordered my medium Paradiso Medium, followed the line to the cash, swiped my giftcard and was off to find the ever important 'raw sugar' to make my coffee drinkable.

I turned around, found the sugar station, and proceeded to load up.  1.. 2.. 3.. done. 

Next - find a stir stick.  Different stir sticks here, wood instead of plastic.  I stir, and find the wood is much more effective for large sugar consumers.  Mentally noted.

Lid.  I need a lid for my coffee so I don't spill it (on myself) during my walk back to the office.  I look up to see the usual stack of lids above the sugar, reach for one, instinctively grab and shake it so I don't take 2 when I notice they are all upside-down.  Interesting. 

When I picked a lid off the stack, it was immediately easier to grab because the rim was up.  Because the rim was up instead of down I didn't apply pressure to grab it, which meant I didn't inadvertently grab 2 or 3, try to separate them and put them back on the stack.  It made my visit to the sugar station much quicker and reduced the after purchase wait time.  Fascinating!

I remembered a few things this morning as a result of my coffee experience. 

First, small changes can make a big difference.  Not all small changes will result in a positive effect on a system, but well thought out changes can.  In my case, upside-down coffee lids made a marked improvement on the overall coffee experience.  The wood stir sticks were more effective too.

Second, people who are very comfortable with a particular system can have a hard time seeing small improvements.  While I normally have feedback on everything, my morning coffee process has become a habit to the point of auto-pilot.  I have ordered a coffee so many times from the same location that I don't notice the system at all.  It's important to get a fresh perspective on a system, those who are too close might not see simple improvements that can make a big difference.

It was an interesting experience this morning.  It reminded me to read WHY WE BUY: The Science of Shopping, and CALL OF THE MALL: The Geography of Shopping again.  While all of these observations occur outside of the online experience, they still apply.  Understanding your users and their behavior within your system is a critical part of business.

There are many ways to better understand your users - through usability testing or usability assessments, but the most common and most cost effective way is through the use of analytics packages like Omniture's SiteCatalyst.  While the information gathered by the analytics package won't tell you everything, it will tell you more than you think.

Posted at 10:05 AM in The "Customer Experience" | Permalink