Customer Experience in the Fifteen-Minute City, by Stephen Spencer
1. Customer Experience in
the Fifteen-Minute City
Stephen Spencer, Ambience Director, Stephen Spencer + Associates
2. 2
Topics…
• The 15-Minute City Concept in
Oxford
• How humans “experience”
• Understanding and
maximising the benefits of
both physical + digital CX to
meet customer expectations
and aspirations
• The way forward – with a
SPACE MAN
3. 3
The 15-
minute
city…
• “…a town or city can be
designed so that pretty much
all the stuff you need in your
daily life is no more than 15
minutes’ walk or cycle away.
• One example is Paris, whose
mayor Anne Hidalgo has led a
huge campaign in recent years
to build more public parks and
cycle lanes.”
- Ed Cunningham, Time Out,
February 2023
“In its Local Plan 2040, Oxford
City Council proposed installing
15-minute neighbourhoods
throughout the city over the next
20 years. These plans don’t
include restricting people to their
local areas, but instead focus on
improving infrastructure and
increasing mobility within
neighbourhoods.
However, Oxfordshire County
Council also recently announced
traffic-reducing measures
throughout the city.
At the end of the day, a 15-
minute city will be one that’s
built for humans rather than
cars. And that, we’re sure you’ll
agree, can only be a good thing
– for both us and the planet.”
4. 4
The
customer
realm
(Whether you call them customers,
visitors, stakeholders or residents,
they ARE experiencing your
destination!)
Customer experience doesn't happen
in a vacuum. So we need to relate it
to the nature of our destination; the
experience concept (including
online).
Within the realm, are all the elements
that you would like your customer to
experience.
For older customers and employees,
accessibility is a basic hygiene
factor.
“You cannot, not have an experience.”
– Lou Carbone, Godfather of CX
5. 5
Mapping
the
journey
Begin by thinking about where
your customer’s journey starts
Literally map all the
touchpoints (interactions)
The touchpoints that really count
are called Moments of Truth
(MoTs)…
6. 6
The
Customer
Journey:
some key
concepts
• How Experiences, Memories, +
Reputations are made
• The Primacy Law
• The Peak-End Rule
• The Decompression Zone
• The Butt-Brush Effect
• Human Physiology
7. 7
A simple model that enables organisations + destinations to design, plan,
monitor and manage an ideal customer experience:
● Defining your Story and what makes your destination unique
● Aligning your Team to deliver the Story in every interaction
● Modelling Ambience - how your customer experiences your destination,
through their five senses
● Bringing your key customer (Recipient)
personas vividly to life
● Identifying the Systems that will drive
the delivery of your experience
Customer
Experience
design:
the STARS
Model
8. 8
Why
Ambience is
the key to
success
A study by Rockefeller University in
New York suggested that
customers remember 1% of what
we touch, 2% of what we hear, 5%
of what we see, 15% of what we
taste and 35% of what we smell.
In our view there’s a sixth sense:
the feeling customers get when the
whole experience delivers the
brand promise.
9. 9
Why the
Sixth Sense
is the key to
success
• When it “feels” right
• When employees, customers,
and stakeholders are aligned
to your story
• When customer
satisfaction/VFM scores
increase
• When positive wellbeing,
community cohesion and
economic benefits are flowing
“Excite the mind, and the hand will reach for the
pocket.”
- H. Gordon Selfridge
10. 10
Culture Hint, led by Co-
founder and CEO Cesare
Fialà, uses Artificial
Intelligence to improve
cultural venues and
destinations.
At each Moment of Truth, what does success need to happen? That’s where
the intelligent use of data and software comes in.
As an example: is every single visitor greeted at the welcome MoT? And at
the end MoT, is each visitor encouraged to bring home a souvenir or a gift
from our venue, to remember us after their visit or to delight their loved ones
with a treat?
This approach allowed Culture Hint to achieve results such as a 97%
increase in retail spend per visitor, at The Postal Museum.
For any business: the start point is knowing which data to collect, and how
to use it.
“IA (Intelligence, Augmented) versus
AI (Artificial Intelligence)”
- Tom Peters
11. 11
The way
ahead –
with a
SPACE
MAN
Question: how do we make our
policymaking and implementing
structures work in a more
responsive, dynamic and
sustainable way?
S ERVICE - the Service Proposition, designed and delivered by
the businesses themselves
P IONEERS - the early adopters, who will bring the Service
Proposition to life
A DVOCATES - influencers - people and organisations - who
can promote and support the initiative
C OMMUNICATION - effective, appropriate, responsive,
internal and external
E NERGY - real teamwork, passion, "A Bias for Action", in
pursuit of a compelling Vision
M OMENTUM - identifying milestones, celebrating
achievements, quickly overcoming challenges
A UTHORITY - "owning" and delivering the Proposition with
quality and continuous improvement
N EXT STEPS - having "a Plan", thinking ahead, eyes on the
next horizon