A case study of customer experience design

1. Designing Integrated
Guest Experience at
Sentosa
A Case Study of Customer Experience Design
Yee Jie, NG
2016

2. Designing Integrated Guest Experience for Sentosa
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PRELUDE
In this case study we employ the following framework to construct a holistic solution for
iGX@Sentosa (Integrated Guest Experience at Sentosa) not only upon a technology play, but a
sound business model – we call it the blueprint. The rooms of the house are the value creation
model that focuses on the creation and delivery of value to customers; and the profit model that
focuses on the creation of revenue and profit for SDC. The roof of the house which connects the
two rooms is the logic for iGX@Sentosa.
Figure 1: Haim's House Model adopted from Stanford University

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PROCESSIONAL
A. Value Creation Model
The current digital solutions adapted by Sentosa (website, online store, MySentosa &
SentosaLens mobile apps, social media and EDM) follows a Customer Intimacy value
creation model in which it aims to forge continuous learning relationship with customers,
engaging them to understand their behaviours and preferences. With these captured
information Sentosa have been able to customize products, services, content and context to
satisfy increasing customer needs. However these information are largely historical hence
providing little benefit to visiting guests directly. As a result customers’ on-island experience
is easily tampered due to lack of awareness of…including but not limited to direction, places,
activities, transport options and queues. Besides that iGX@Sentosa have great potential to
become a marketplace platform. Just like eBay that enables buyers and sellers to trade with
each other, iGX@Sentosa can connect and bridge the gap between guests and businesses
such as retailers, restaurants, hotels and attractions. This results in enriching customers’ on-
island experience as well as developing a sustainable business ecosystem.
a) Customers and Needs
External Customers Internal Customer
Guests Businesses SDC
Ease and convenience in
making travel decisions
Guide customers to their
place
Increase guest satisfaction
Know more about
attractions, offers and
experiences
Advertise relevant
information such as
discounts and promotions
to nearby guests
Increase guest positive
engagement on social
media
Experience unusual
touristy stuff
Get insights into
customer behaviour
b) Proposed Solution
In a nutshell, we are building a Waze-liked solution to enhance on-island experience for
guests who visiting Sentosa.
Figure 2: Revive Sentosa Experience
What is Waze? Waze is a vastly popular GPS app that is changing how drivers navigate traffic
through crowdsourcing real-time traffic and road info. It helps its users to remove the
mundane experience of driving and turned it into an enjoyably immersive adventure with
a rewarding social experience.
Besides focusing on gamification, Waze augment business propositions into user
experience, e.g. displaying nearby promotions and call to actions. On average 3 percent of
users who see an ad not only click on it, but express purchase intent by hitting the Drive

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There button. This average click-through rate is way higher than the average click-through
rate for a retail mobile banner ad which is 0.52 percent.
Figure 3: Waze Ad Feature
Our solution, Sentosa eX (abbreviation for experience) is NOT built upon the Waze
platform, instead drawing on Waze’s design concept and approach in empowering
interaction among guests and engagement with businesses. The following diagram
illustrates a guest journey when using Sentosa eX mobile app:
Figure 4: Guest Journey with Sentosa eX
We make use of the proven technologies below in building Sentosa eX solution:
i. Beacons
According to a study, 65 percent of smartphone users that receive push
notifications check and open them. Beacons enable businesses to engage
users in a more personalised manner. Simply put, beacons send out
messages via Bluetooth connection to app users that enter a specified range.
As compared with other LBS technologies such as WiFi and GPS, Beacon is a
less-costly technology that’s using Bluetooth Low Energy. With beacons,
businesses can deeply engage guests via Sentosa eX app in several means:
in-app pop ups, push notifications, loyalty points, couponing as well as

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dedicated content. For Sentosa eX solution, we are using beacons made by
kontak.io, attributed to its signal stability, battery power and cost. Its default
configuration that advertise message at an interval of 350ms and broadcast
signal within the range of 20 meters promise 2 years battery life. Moreover
the battery is easily-changeable. For more information regarding technical
specifications of kontak.io beacons, please refer to
https://support.kontakt.io/hc/en-gb/articles/202891932-Smart-Beacon-technical-spec.
Figure 5: kontak.io beacons
ii. Indoor Navigation
Navigation throughout the island poses a major technical challenge where
GPS is not always reachable in covered outdoor spaces, not to mention
indoor spaces. Due to GPS restriction, wayfinding and location awareness
are difficult in indoor spaces, where we actually spend more than 80% of
our time. Hence to resolve this limitation, a combined use of GPS and
Beacon is leveraged in our solution. indoo.rs deliver the best-of-breed real-
time indoor navigation system achieving high accuracy for indoor positioning
(down to 1 meter). Their core technology has significant advantages over
competitors: greater accuracy, longer battery life, and higher availability
across all leading mobile devices – best of all maps are available offline and
the positioning calculations are done on a mobile device. Below are some
notable projects that indoo.rs had delivered with their partners in Europe:
Figure 6: CF Shop real-time indoor navigation and interaction (available @ App Store)

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Figure 7: Davos Klosters Ski Resort outdoor navigation and interaction (available @ App Store)
iii. Analytics
It is essential to turn data collected from in-app interactions and beacons
logging into actionable insights for businesses (to push more effective
campaigns) and SDC (to do better infrastructure planning and tenant mix).
At this prototyping stage, we are providing a basic dashboard consisting of
heat-map, user statistics & profiling and click-through rate as illustrated
below. Detailed analysis and statistics can be further developed and tailored
to specific business requirements of SDC.
Figure 8: Analytical Dashboard
c) Differentiated Value
Sentosa eX is designed and built upon customer experience. In doing so it provides a
differentiated value for guests by shifting usage of mobile app from information at finger

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tips to immerse and interact with people, places and things around. From our
experience, a successful app goes beyond what the app (features) can do for users,
instead what users could possibly do with the app.
Sentosa eX also provides differentiated value for businesses and SDC by allowing them
to gain useful customer insights, in turn facilitating strategies to be crafted to drive more
traffic to their places, increase revenues from up-sell and cross-sell opportunities.
d) Go-to-Market Strategy
Sentosa eX follows a “bowling alley” approach to progressively scale to a larger adoption
base. As Sentosa eX is better positioned as a marketplace platform, there are two
sources of adoption: users/guests and businesses.
i. At initial stage, Sentosa eX is aimed to Islanders – season pass holders.
ii. A few popular businesses will be enticed and incentivised to push proximity-
based promotions thru the app.
iii. Word-of-mouth from early adopters (frequent visitors and independent
travellers) is a key driver for the growth of user base.
iv. SDC plays an important role in public relations and digital marketing to
promote the differentiated experience
v. When viral effects kick in and number of users on-boarding shoot up, other
businesses begin to join the “cool kids party”
vi. Sentosa eX will be further targeted to tourists and first-time visitors.
e) Risk and Assumptions
The key adoption risks for Sentosa eX are:
i. User acquisition cost. Although app owners always expect an organic
growth once their app is well designed and published, that’s not always the
ideal case. Consumer-facing app requires investment in acquiring new users
and retaining existing users, mostly incentivising them with free gifts, lucky
draws, e-coupons and monetary surprises.
ii. Changing customer needs. Users expect to see new contents, excitements
from time to time; Businesses expect conversion rate of ads will be as good
as reach-out rate. Hence this changing needs require us to constantly curate
exciting contents and making changes to better satisfy customer needs.
Crucial assumptions are that:
i. Islanders are more receptive to try out Sentosa eX and provide genuine
feedback.
ii. Businesses provide attractive yet unique promotions, different from those
published in-store or online.
iii. Sentosa eX will be able to integrate SDC existing systems such as ticketing,
membership and shuttle bus arrival time.

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B. Profit Model
Sentosa eX’s profit model is based on Economies of Scale. As more users are utilising the
app, businesses advertise more promotional contents on the app, this increases likelihood of
conversion rate. For each successful click-thru or redemption, we charge a fee.
a) Revenue Model
When Sentosa eX is commercialised, the following pricing model is charged to our
customers – the businesses:
Item Unit Unit Price
Branded Marker Monthly $100.00
Guide Thru Time $0.15
Click Thru Time $0.15
Redemption Time $1.00
b) Cost Structure
We incur sales and marketing cost to generate leads and on-boarding businesses. We
are hosting and maintaining our backend management and analytics service on Amazon
Web Services. We may involve in user acquisition process – the more on-island guests
using the app, the more campaigns carried out by businesses to attract guests.
Cost Unit Unit Price
Marketing activities Monthly $5,000.00
AWS hosting Monthly $1,500.00
User acquisition User $10.00
c) Key drivers of profitability
i. Intrinsic value: dimension of information (e.g. weather information is
combined with foot traffic information) to benefit businesses in driving traffic
and sales.
ii. Network value: more guests using the app will spur adoption from the
business.
iii. Value added services: reselling membership passes, season passes and other
one-time passes thru the app.
iv. Guest satisfaction: Increasing guest satisfaction thru Sentosa eX improves
profitability by reducing user acquisition cost and by promoting repeated
visits.
v. Scale: Fixed costs such as office rental and overhead can be diluted when
revenue increases.
d) Payback Period
Our calculation suggests that the payback period for Sentosa eX is 50 recurring
businesses per month, as shown below:

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Payback Period Calculation $ Monthly
Variable Cost
• Marketing activities
• AWS hosting
• 100 user acquisition
-$7,500
Average revenue per business
• Branded mark
• 100 guide thru exposure
• 100 click thru exposure
• 50 promotion redemptions
$150
Payback Period (# businesses) 50
C. Logic
Figure 9: Logic of Business for Sentosa eX

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POSTLUDE
In our view the main priority for iGX@Sentosa is to focus on customer experience design. Many
big companies begin to appoint chief design officers, making design central and integral to
business strategy. According to Professor Baba Shiv (Sanwa Bank. Limited, Professor of
Marketing, Stanford Graduate School of Business), the 3 pillars of customer experience design
are:
D. Understanding your customer. The goal is not only figuring out ways to solve the
pain points that customer is experiencing, but gaining rich insights into it.
E. Designing effective value propositions. The goal to eliminate customer pain points is
as important as creating new business opportunities.
F. Building a competitive advantage. The goal is to make customers keep coming back.
When loyalty is established, we can maximize the customer lifetime value.
When we conceptualise Sentosa eX, the solution entails a simple goal, which is to reimagine how
guests could spend quality time with their loved ones in the State of Fun. First, eliminating the
hassle of finding ways; Second, making their journey meaningful by bringing relevant
information (promotional contents from businesses) close to them; Third, cultivate culture of
sharing, people trust peer review more e.g. TripAdvisor; Lastly, create a sustainable business
ecosystem to inhabit other innovative solutions.