white paper Understanding Micro, Macro & Meta Experiences: A new way of looking at experience design
In the end it’s not so much what
we as
G
uests judge hotels on the totality of the experiences they enjoy in and around their stay. But, in reality, only a very small fraction of their experiences contribute to their final determination and level of satisfaction. These experiences – the ones that matter, which we call macro experiences – can be identified, designed and managed in such a way as to ensure guests leave with every intention to return and to tell their friends about the hotel.
hoteliers do...it’s the way in which the guest remembers
what we did
416.967.3337 www.proteanstrategies.com © 2013
In the end it’s not so much what we as hoteliers do, or the services we deliver or the amenities we provide, that determine whether a guest will be a brand ambassador or a brand assassin. It is the way in which the guest remembers what we did, and the spin the guest chooses to put on these memories. We can influence this by understanding the difference between experiences that are not noticed (micro experiences) but form the core of the overall experience, and the macro experiences that will be remembered. Once we understand this, we can strategically design services and amenities to ensure guests respond in the way we would want them to.
A number of years ago I worked in one of the great hotels of Europe (in Vienna). Guests who stayed at this hotel raved about it, and every high-end traveler to the city was told that this was the must-do hotel. Guests were am-
bassadors and spoke glowingly about the hotel experience: they never mentioned the frayed carpets, or the lack of air conditioning, or the slow elevators. They based their entire, invariably rave reviews, on a few outstanding services and amenities, and the generally good feeling they had about the place when they left. In order for this to happen, the hotel had to orchestrate the guest experiences in such a way as to ensure the guest remembers those experiences that would lead to the response the hotel was looking for, and were not sidetracked by memorably negative experiences What exactly does this mean? As a modern day example, if a guest stays in a hotel and everything goes perfectly (immediate checkin, room is clean, service is fast
Excerpted from the article by Protean Managing Partner Laurence Bernstein first published in Hotelexecutive.com (http://hotelexecutive.com)
The difference between a satisfied guest, and the guest
who raves about the hotel and becomes the ambassador we are looking for, are a few,
exceptional experiences that have become “remembered experiences”.
and efficient, everybody smiles, shower works, internet works, and so on), he or she is likely at the end to say they had a satisfactory stay. If asked they would probably say the hotel was nice, or fine, or okay, and little else. If probed a little more, they would probably say they would stay there again. But, there is nothing they remember that is exceptional, or that would prompt them to rave about the hotel. Now imagine that on the day they are leaving, at breakfast, a waiter inadvertently spills coffee on their lap. Now, no matter what happened before this event, the experience will be defined by the burning sensation on their legs, and when asked they will always tell the story of the careless waiter who “ruined their experience”. Even if the hotel was the most flawless operation in the universe, they would have nothing else to talk about, because the only memorable experience – the only experience that stands out – is the burning coffee. In their letter to the manager they will say “this painful event ruined my entire experience of your hotel.”
In reality, however, the coffee incident had no effect on the experience of the hotel (it happened at the very end of the stay, so it could not possibly have impacted the experiences that came before it). What it did affect is the way in which the experience of the hotel is remembered. The moral of the story is that the way in which your service or amenities are experienced is in reality of no importance: it is the way in which these experiences are remembered that is of im-
portance. And it is worth noting that during the average 2 day hotel stay each guest has around 40,000 discreet experiences (this according to Professor Daniel Kahnemann who has studied and written on experience, and who suggest that we constantly experience events at the rate of about 1 every 3 seconds). It might be interesting, the next time a guest checks out, to ask them to list the 40,000 experiences that have had over the previous two days. Chances are they will only be able to remember a very small fraction of these experiences. The difference between a satisfied guest (who actually remembers none of the discreet experiences of your service or amenities, but for whom the overall experience of all the discreet experiences – the meta experience – is generally satisfactory) and the guest who raves about the hotel and becomes the ambassador we are looking for, are a few, exceptional experiences that have become “remembered experiences”. If those experiences are of exceptional services, surprising amenities, unexpectedly pleasant interactions, then they will recall the meta experience as exceptional and describe it by talking about the stand-out experiences that they recall. Of course, if the stand out experience is of burning flesh and coffee, the meta experience is overwhelmingly negative, and the opposite happens: he or she becomes a brand-assassin for life.
GETTING TO REMEMBERED EXPERIENCES In order for an experience to become a “remembered” experience Page 2
Without raindrops there is no rain! Even
though individually they have no relevance or salience, each raindrop is
essential to the overall experience of rain.
it needs to be relevant and salient. That is, it must be of interest in one way or another to the experiencer and it has to stand out from other experiences in one way or another.
THREE LEVELS OF EXPERIENCE: MICRO, MACRO AND META.
Clearly not all experiences are equal, and as marketers we need to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff. To do this it is useful to be able to classify the experiences our customers enjoy (or hate). Thinking in terms of micro, macro and meta experiences is an easy and efficient first step. Micro experiences are the uncountable number of events or activities we experience; macro experiences are those that for one reason or another have a degree of salience that causes them to stand out from the micro experiences; and meta experiences are, as previously explained, the aggregated experience of all the macro and macro
MICRO EXPERIENCES
When it rains and we “get wet,” we are actually experiencing millions of raindrops. We don’t generally notice any single raindrop, and unless there is something specifically different or noticeable about the rain drops, we are unlikely ever to mention them or, in the end, remember anything about them. However, without raindrops there is no rain! Even though individually they have no relevance or salience, each raindrop is essential to the overall experience of rain. Each raindrop is a micro-
experience
When staying at a hotel, there are a myriad of micro experiences – all the hundreds of “touch-point” interactions that make the stay possible but are not individually significant. Guests don’t consciously notice these individual events or activities, but without them there would be no hotel experience. These can include everything that is normally expected from a hotel experience. Most travelers don’t notice how smoothly the revolving door revolves, or how warm the lobby is, or the fan in the elevator, or the lights in the hallway. Unless, that is, there is something wrong or the experience is specifically designed to be noticed and remembered.
MACRO EXPERIENCES
Macro experiences are the relatively few experiences that stand out for one reason or another and that impact the ultimate determination of the meta experience. In a rainstorm we are likely to notice the thunder or the lightening or a rainbow at the end of the storm. These are classic macro experiences because they clearly stand out from the micro experiences (raindrops). However, not all macro experiences are equal (lightening is likely to be more memorable than thunder for instance, and a rainbow might be more memorable than lightening because it happens at the very end of the storm) and macro experiences do not automatically translate into remembered experiences. For a macro experience to be remembered, it must be relevant and important to the guest. Page 3
...it’s not what you do; it’s not what guests
remember you do, it’s not even what guests imagine you did: it’s what guests de-
cide to think about what they think you did.
And, of course, macro experiences can be both positive and negative. The spilled coffee is indeed a macro experience and is likely to be a remembered macro experience. Unless there is a really brilliant recovery by the hotel management, which, coming as it would at the very end of the experience, would be like the rainbow at the end of the storm: the most remembered experience that defines the ultimate outcome as beautiful!
Macro experiences are for the most part micro experiences designed to be special, or micro experiences that have gone wrong. For instance, if the revolving door is stuck, it’s noticed and ceases to be a micro experience; if the lobby is overheated it gets noticed and becomes a macro experience; if the fan in the elevator is too loud or not working, it is a macro experience; if the lights in the hallways are too dim and guests cannot read the room numbers, they are become macro experiences. These unintended macro experiences are the result of micro experiences going wrong. On the other hand, if the lights in hallway are intentionally dim because the hotel wants guests to feel cool and sophisticated (in many boutique hotels this is the case), the micro experience becomes a macro experience, but it is by design, and should add to the enjoyment of the overall hotel experience (meta experience). Thus micro experiences become macro experiences when we screw up or when we successfully design experiences to fit our brand. Any raindrop can be ele-
vated – made noticeable or even memorable – either by accidentally causing it to fall into someone’s eye or by intentionally causing it to fall in the centre of a pool of water causing fascinating ripples (bad example…). The same goes for any of the myriad amenities and services that comprise a guest’s hotel stay.
META EXPERIENCE
Meta experiences are the experience of all experiences. That is, the meta experience is the final remembered experience that sums up the stay. It is comprised of all the macro experiences and the totality of the micro experiences. While the meta experience is the sum of all the other experiences, it also becomes the filter through which all experiences – good or bad – will be viewed and recalled. The meta experience of a hotel stay is probably 10% based on what actually happens and 90% and how the guest feels (which later translates into what he or she thinks happened). How the guest feels is largely determined by a few macro experiences overlaid on the many, uneventful micro experiences. Using the rainstorm metaphor, the way we feel about the storm at the end of the day (whether we think of it as a positive or negative experience) is determined by a few macro experiences (a crack of thunder that frightened us or a rainbow that charmed us) overlaid on the millions of raindrops that soaked us (if we were outside) or made us feel refreshed. It is human nature to change the narrative to suit the outcome – if we are, at the end, Page 4
...thinking of ways to ensure guests are feeling positive
at the end of their stay will result in positive memories. And this can be done by understanding
the impact of the experiences we offer,
charmed by the rainbow, it is likely we will revise our memory of the raindrops from being cold and miserably wet, to being refreshing and enjoyable. So, in fact, the meta experience determines the way in which we recall the macro experiences and micro experiences When a person concludes that your hotel is a brilliant place to stay (meta experience) they are not adding up all the micro and macro experiences and coming to an arithmetic conclusion (e.g. six good things happened, three bad things, so the hotel is pretty good). They are more likely to think of one or two macroexperiences that pop into their conscious mind – the peak experiences -- and allow their unconscious mind to sum up the way they felt throughout the experience. In the end, it’s not what you do; it’s not what guests remember you do, it’s not even what guests imagine you did: it’s what guests decide to think about what they think you did. Which is why the way in which you do everything is
so important: if the way you do everything makes the guest feel good, they will create (evaluate their) a meta experience that they feel good about, and through this rose-colored lens they will revise the macro experiences and the micro experiences to fit the happy narrative (after seeing the rainbow I seem to recall that the bitterly cold raindrops that soaked me as I walked to my car, were refreshing and good for the garden!)
All of which suggests that thinking of ways to ensure guests are feeling positive at the end of their stay will result in positive memories of specific experiences. And this can be done by understanding the impact of the micro and macro experiences we offer, and identifying the specific services and amenities we can conjure up that will have the positive impact we are looking for, and focus on ensuring that these experiences are consistently brilliant – even at the expense of some of the other, less memorable micro experiences.
Protean Hospitality is a boutique brand strategy advisory firm focused on helping our hospitality clients drive growth. We combine our business/category expertise with tenacity, balancing rigor and creativity, to uncover new opportunities for hotels, resorts and hospitality brands. For further information on this and other Protean Hospitality studies contact: Laurence Bernstein, Managing Partner, 416 967-3337 x 101; Bernstein@proteanstrategies.com Www.proteanhospitality.com Page 5