Change one little thing every day

Daniele Catalanotto
Mar 17, 2022
A Service Design for services that happen over multiple days

We are having a family holiday at the Residence Inn by Marriott near the London Tower Bridge. We are staying there for a week. The first day I’m impressed by the breakfast. The second day I’m still impressed. There are now bacon and eggs available! The third day there are new pastries. The fourth day pancakes replace some of the pastries. You get the idea.

Everyday the hotel changes one little thing to the breakfast to make it special. In that way the buffet keeps on surprising you even when you are staying for a while.

About 98% of thé breakfast stays the same. But by swapping a few elements every day the team ensures that every morning I ask myself:

How will the breakfast be today?

By doing so the hotel team is able to prolong the buffet excitement I got from the first day to a whole week.


Little side notes

  • This is the first draft of this Service Design Principle.
  • Once adapted, even more, this principle will be part of the book "Service Design Principles 201-300"
  • As always comments and feedback to improve this principle are welcome
  • If you have a personal story that goes in that direction it would also help if you share it 


Like 1
Daniele Catalanotto
Apr 8, 2022
This is the second version of this principle

We are having a family holiday at the Residence Inn by Marriott near London Bridge.

We are staying there for a week. On the first day, I’m impressed by the breakfast. On the second day, I’m still impressed. There are now bacon and eggs available! On the third day, there are new pastries. On the fourth day, pancakes replace some of the pastries.

Every day the hotel changes one little thing to the breakfast to make it memorable. So the buffet keeps on surprising you even when you stay for a while.

The majority of the breakfast stays the same. But by swapping a few elements every day, the team ensures that every morning I ask myself:

”How will the breakfast be today?”

Side notes

  • I was able to reduce the lengths by 20.12% compared to the first version.
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Daniele Catalanotto
Jun 4, 2022
Reacting to your "Surprise you customers", I'd would iterate on it by saying: "Keep the surprises coming". Which could maybe better fit this particular example :) 
Daniele Catalanotto
Oct 29, 2022

The third draft of this Service Design Principle

We’re on a family holiday at the Residence Inn by Marriott in London for one week.

On the first day, I’m impressed by the breakfast buffet! So much good stuff! On the second day, still impressed! There is bacon and eggs available! Third day, now there are new pastries. Fourth day: pancakes!

The majority of the breakfast stays the same during the week. But by swapping a few elements daily, the buffet stays exciting even as we stay for a while (1).

So let me ask you.

How can you make your customers ask themselves, “How will they surprise me today?”

Footnotes

(1) The team in this hotel knows that we humans get used to the good stuff! That's what psychologists call hedonic adaptation or hedonic treadmill — Hedonic treadmill. Wikipedia. Available at https://extra.swissinnovation.academy/aou2 accessed 29 October 2022.

Daniele’s notes

  • This is the third draft of this principle.
  • I’ve reduced the length of this principle by 17 % compared to the previous draft.
  • I’ve added a conclusion question to help the reader turn this principle into action.
  • Added a reference about hedonic adaptation.
  • After reflection I decided to keep the title of this principle unchanged as the mention of the daily change is really what this principle is all about.