Car Disabler

An interesting twist on Vison and Incentives reported in the WSJ, March 25, 2009, p. D1. Some auto dealers have been installating "disablers" in the cars they sell and finance. If a customer is late on a loan payment, the disabler notifies the customer and counts down the days until the car will be automatically disabled. Car lot owners indicate it works so well that customers rarely miss payments. The loss of mobility is a strong incentive (punishment).

Stakeholder Workshops

In March, I was invited to speak at ComEd's AMI Future stakeholder meetings, a series of workshops facilitated by Plexus Research/RW Beck that collect the community's requirements for smart meter systems. I spoke specifically on the customer experience/customer behavior aspects of smart meter systems.

What I want to point out is that these stakeholder workshops are a direct example of one of the First Principles I discussed in my October posting -- that of 1. Embrace customer-centered design. Bringing the different stakeholders together prior to writing the business case and regulatory filings strongly reflects the customer-centered design principle at a mega level.