Note: This is a re-post of an article I wrote on March 12th, 2008 and posted on another blog but I like it enough that I wanted to have a record of it here (I also rewrote the first paragraph).
What do coffee makers have to do with design? To be honest, not much other than a lot of my work has been created with the help and stimulation of many cups of coffee. I try to be picky with any project I work on and ensure it’s well-designed, well-thought out and easy to use, with choosing appliances I try to do the same.
Recently the coffee maker that my wife and I have had for the last 5 or so years decided to kick the bucket. We should have guessed a few weeks ago when it started leaking out the side it was on it’s last legs, but simply turning the carafe to catch the leak solved that problem.
It’s important to me to have a well-thought out coffee maker. I’m at my most vulnerable (and grumpy) first thing in the morning and don’t want to risk making it worse by having the first thing i do after i get up go wrong. So with our coffee maker broken my wife and i set out to find a replacement – this ended up being a 2 day project.
The last machine that we had was not an expensive one, but it was simple and well thought out. For instance the water reservoir pulled out and could be filled and put back in which meant no spilt water on the counter as you tried to fill the back of the machine. Also, the basket that the filter sat in was removable so you just grabbed it, dumped it into the garbage can and the filter (with used coffee grinds) slid in to the garbage never having had to touch the wet filter or risk spilling/breaking it on the way to the garbage can. It also made a good cup of coffee. I think it cost us a total of $40 but sadly, Hamilton Beach no longer makes this model (to be fair it was 5-6 years ago that we got it).
So the search began…between the 2 of us we were a little picky (e.g. knew it was 5-6 year thing we had to live with so it had to fill some pre-determined criteria so that it would not be a point of contention to complain about for that amount of time). I wanted it to be easy to fill and maintain and my wife didn’t want a stainless steel carafe (I don’t really know why that was an issue but any one who’s married knows to choose their battles wisely and this wasn’t one that was gonna do any good to argue…so no stainless steel).
We tried a number of stores over the course of 2 evenings to no avail, there was one or two that were potential candidates but nothing that really stood out. We finally ended up choosing the KitchenAid* JavaStudio Coffeemaker, it filled most of our needs – the water can be poured in from the front ensuring less of a hassle while on the counter top, it has a glass carafe, and it has a removable basket to dispose of the grounds. However, there was one major sticking point – it was white. They had 3 colours to choose from white, red and black. My wife was dead set on black (can’t blame i preferred it to) however the red and white models were marked down to $89.99 whereas the black model was still priced at $179.99. It may have done what we were looking for but i’m not about to part with $180 if it doesn’t clean itself or have a pot of coffee ready for me as soon as i think about wanting a cup of coffee. So after a brief discussion we ended up with the white model – saving ourselves $90 in the process. We brought home and it looks find on the counter AND most importantly it fulfills our requirements and (so far) makes a good pot of coffee.
This morning while setting up the machine i noticed a really great detail on the carafe, on the side where it has the number of cups of coffee there’s 2 part to it, one for the number of cups of coffee, the other for the amount of water required to get that many cups of coffee. I often noticed with our old machine that i’d put in 12 cups of water and only get 10-11 cups of coffee – a normal thing when you heat water up is it evaporates so not a big deal, but this small detail actually worked – this morning i got the exact amount of coffee i thought i was making.
* I generally dislike KitchenAid products so this was a hard choice – they seem to be the fine choice of Yuppies everywhere these days which immediately causes me to hate anything but i also find their products are designed to look cool but are usually not great in the usability end of things and they’re generally way over-priced for what they are – now, i’m more than willing to pay for good design (and have on many occasions) but not when most of the design has gone in to the way it looks and not the way it works. Just because it looks good doesn’t mean it’s well-designed, generally looking good certainly helps something work better, but looking good doesn’t in itself provide good design.
This entry was written by , posted on April 19, 2009 at 1:06 pm, filed under regular. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
With all the negativity being hurled towards the financial industry (not all of it completely unfounded) I thought it’d be nice to outline an experience that happened to me a couple of weeks ago.
A new bank just opened 3 blocks from the house that happens to also be the same bank I do all my business banking through (as well as my mortgage) – which is fantastic! The morning this happened I had a deposit to make and also wanted some US cash for my trip to Texas. I walked into the branch and seemed to be the only person in the entire bank (it had literally just opened). I spotted someone who may or may not have been a teller and walked over to ask if they were actually open – they were.
So…to make a longish story shorter, she was very helpful, a little spacey maybe, and a few mistakes here/there, but very apologetic about the whole experience. I wasn’t bothered by it – a banking experience with an actual human (as opposed to a lot of the mindless automatons that populate the counters at many banks) and being treated like an honest citizen (as opposed to a common criminal) is always good in my eyes.
Once everything I needed to do at the bank was finished up, I said thank you, the Teller apologized again and as I walked out said ‘I hope you’ll come back’, insinuating she may have turned me off from ever going to the branch again. This was, of course, far from the truth, despite some hiccups it was a pleasant experience (I don’t look for perfection with customer service, I prefer honesty and a little light-heartedness, it goes a long way to iron out any issues).
When I got back from Texas 4-5 days later and got the mail there was a small envelope, about the size of a wedding invitation, in the mailbox. My first thought was of fear that we would have to go to another wedding. As I opened it my fears were put to rest, it was a Thank you card with a green cushy chair and the TD Canada Trust logo on it. Inside was a hand-written note, yes HAND-WRITTEN! from the Teller that I had seen before I left thanking me for my patience and understanding and letting me know that should I require anything her and the entire branch were there for me.
To say I was completely blown away by this gesture would be an understatement, I’ve shown it to everyone that’s been by the house since I got it. I wasn’t planning on taking my banking anywhere else, but if I had been I wouldn’t be now – Thanks Marie, and TD Canada Trust, you not only made my day, you also managed to turn me into someone who brags about my banking service, neither are easy tasks!
Other businesses (not just banks) should take note, it doesn’t take a whole lot to make a customer happy – treating them like a human, being friendly, honest and sincere doesn’t cost much but it can go further than any ad campaign you might embark upon.
The reputation economy is upon us, and I’ve got many choices where I can go and where I can spend my money – if a person I trust tells me of a good experience they had with a product/service I will be 9 times more likely to visit/try/buy than if I see an ad on TV, in the newspaper, etc.
Full Disclosure: my mother worked at the Royal Bank of Canada until her retirement a couple of years ago.
This entry was written by , posted on April 10, 2009 at 10:38 am, filed under regular. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.