Smart Cities, Data, and Coproduction Experiences

It seems that the word "smart" is appearing everywhere these days - and it is no stranger to many posts in this blog. The Economists' recent article in its The World in 2013 report (pg. 85) talk about how cities are mining urban data, and using that data to facilitate the performance of its citizens and visitors. For example, transportation information (buses, subways, and so on) is being analyzed and published to on-street digital displays and smartphones so citizens can plan trips, estimate arrival times, and so on to achieve their performance goals. The article suggests that Londoners are modifying their travel behaviors based upon the advice "big data" analytics offer them. The value of smart cities is clear: efficiency and productivity, which not only makes citizens feel good, but also enhances the economic opportunity in that city.

Filling a Water Bottle For the First Time

Given the revolt of many people (including me) against bottled water, carrying one's own water bottle is slowing becoming a social norm. The trend has been noticed by drinking fountain manufacturers, who now offer water fountains that fill bottles, easily, without having to juggle the valve of a drinking fountain.

When I first encounter one of these bottle-filling fountains, I couldn't figure out how it worked. That's because I have years and years of conditioning that drinking fountains have buttons, and when you push a button, water is dispensed. So my bottle just sat on the platform while I searched for a button. Finally, someone took pity on me and showed me how it worked. You raise the bottle toward the fountain, and an electric eye detects the presence of the bottle and the water flows. Take the bottle away, and the water stops.

Why this design? Why not button? The story is that to avoid germ fears, designers needed to make the fountain touchless. But like me, other users were baffled about how to fill their bottles. So the designers added graphics to illustrate what to do. I think there were graphics on the one I first used, but I was so into button-pushing mode that my mind completely ignored them.

But what is really cool (once you learn how to use these things) is that some models have a digital readout showing how many bottles have been filled (nice feedback for social norming. See WSJ, March 25, B1 for more. 

The Smelly Bill

Puget Sound Energy has a very creative campaign called "Stinky Bill". The aim of this campaign is to raise safety awareness of natural gas by teaching customers to recognize the smell of gas. A brochure that includes a scratch-and-sniff circle is included in the customer's monthly bill. This campaign nicely illustrates the coproduction experience elements of Expertise and Access:Nuance (using the sense of smell to develop customer performance).

Don't Get Run Over!

One of my students posted this image to our online discussion about the Vision and Access components of the Coproduction Experience Model. It was taken on a street in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It appears that if you want to more safely cross the street, you grab a flag, start walking and waving it like crazy, and then place it in the flag hanger on the other side of the street. Not sure of its effectiveness, but it sure has a lot of customer performance elements.

Okay, can't resist. I can easily see pranksters turning this flag thing into something like Monty Python's "The Semaphore Version of Wuthering Heights."

You know you have a customer performance issue when...

Your customers have to post a video online that explains how to complete a task with your product. One of my students turned me on to this. http://screencast.com/t/g4jyZMOPTZwg. Enjoy!

All My Cars Are Old - And I'm Not Baffled

All of the cars in my family are 1998-2001 models. And they are wonderful because they all lack one key feature: the crazy array of dashboard electronics now found in today's cars.

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, car owners are so baffled by "proliferating dashboard electronics" that automakers like GM have had to beef up call centers to support customers. Call centers have even gone so far as to install a dashboard simulator in the call center to customer service reps can sit in a simulated car while they are talking with the customer so they can better explain how to use certain features. The photograph below illustrates this.

Over the past 15 years we've suggested (and developed) similar kinds of resources and simulators. One was for a scientific instrument that analyzed DNA. We provided call center representatives a simulator of the user interface so they could navigate the product along with the customer. Same thing with our utility clients, strongly suggesting that functioning simulators of in-home energy displays were available in the call center so that reps could provide better customer support.

So, while one can applaud GM on providing great resources to their call center representatives so they can better help customers perform, it still doesn't get around the interface issues that are the root cause of the customer performance problem in the first place.

While our family might not have the nicest looking cars on the block, we certainly aren't baffled by them.

Coproduction for Green Consumers

Paul Stern in the Wall Street Journal (Sept. 17, 2012 R8) offers six principles for getting people to take steps to save energy. He suggests that changing behavior does not depend on the size of the financial incentive, but other factors as well, which I connect to our Coproduction Experience Model:

1. Get people to think big (in terms of the one or two big changes that have the greatest impact) - Vision
2. Make the savings obvious - Incentive
3. Market effectively - Vision, Access
4. Provide convenient, credible answers - Expertise
5. Keep it simple - Access
6. Provide quality assurance/guarantee - Access, Incentive

Mr. Stern goes on to give an example illustrating these factors, Cash for Clunkers, as well as a variety of private company business models that apply the factors. But he also reminds readers that saving energy isn't a key objective of most households and businesses.

Yes, Customer Education Was Needed

As I wandered around the Tokyo airport during a long layover I wandered into a bathroom to wash my hands. When I got to the sink, I saw this:

Yes, it is instructions for how to operate the automated soap dispenser and faucet, in both English and Japanese. An example of how poor interface design always needs to be supported by customer education.

PartnerCare

PartnerCare is a project I've been involved with over the past couple of years off and on, and I think it is one of the coolest customer co-creation of value examples out in the market, if not the most radical. Basically, PartnerCare is a service provided by STD clinics that is legal in 31 states (as of 12/2011) where a health care provider can treat a patient for a bacterial STD, and then give the patient medicine that the patient can take to their partner(s).

Obviously, this service has a number of customer performance elements to it, as it essentially puts patients in the role of being a dispensing pharmacist (and that's a whole new twist on self-service). My colleagues and I shot an interesting video documentary at Denver Public Health's STD clinic. You can check it out at http://partnercare.org/clinic-case-studies to see how it all works. We even shot videos illustrating "what it might be like" for patients to provide these kinds of medicines to their partners.

Fear and Graphic Labels

Communication that influences customer performance relies on four key methods of framing: fear, pride, imitation, and gain. In Thailand, the government's fight against alcohol abuse has turned to using fear in its communications. Similar to the "Red Asphalt" drivers education movies that began in the 1960's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Asphalt), Thailand is moving toward placing graphic labels on liquor bottles. The graphical labels are used to illustrate six types of messages, including:

Type 1 “Drinking alcohol causes the hypertension liver cirrhosis”
Type 2 “Drunk driving causes disability or death”
Type 3 “Drinking alcohol leads to unconsciousness and even death”
Type 4 “Drinking alcohol leads to sexual impotency”
Type 5 “Drinking alcohol leads to adverse health effect and family problems
Type 6 “Drinking alcohol is a bad role model for children and young people”

Examples of the policy and more graphical labels can be found at: http://www.puntofocal.gov.ar/notific_otros_miembros/tha332_t.pdf

Too Little Customer Education?

The report investigating PG&E's smart meter program was released on September 2, 2010. While the report found the smart meters accurate, the consumer backlash associated with the program was connected to poor customer education and customer support. A presentation I attended at Smart Metering International (Sept. 8th) by Chris Villareal from the California PUC echoed these issues and provided additional insight into their rise. Additional details are in the WSJ 9/7/10 p. A5 and http://gigaom.com/cleantech/report-pges-smart-meter-tech-works-but-outreach-lacking/.

Enabling Annoying Customer Performance

It seems that "hypermilers" - people who drive in such a way to increase MPG, are driving other drivers crazy (WSJ, 4/17/09 A9). The interesting thing about this is that car manufacturers are installing devices in cars that aid this kind of driving, such as Nissan's "eco-pedal", which provides the driver pressure-based feedback when stepping on the gas too hard. Additionally, customer education has sprung up to teach people about "eco-driving."

Embedded Expertise

WSJ, 4/10/09, W13, has an interesting article about embedded instructions/education in machines and devices -- essentially machines that talk to you to help you accomplish tasks. The driver is that people are searching for other channels of communcation from devices rather than just staring at a screen.