The Service Design of Nest
Yup. All kinds of old-school fugly.
Here is what I had immediately following the install of my Nest:
Here it is once I fixed the texture and painted:
Here were the features of my old thermostat:
Adjust-ish temperature of house from device
And that’s it.
Here are some of the features of the Nest thermostat:
Adjust temperature of house from device precisely
Adjust temperature of house from anywhere in the world
Program device to adjust temperature of house
Teach device to adjust temperature itself automatically
Detect when I’m home/away and adjust temperature accordingly
Just use the fans and turn off the heat/cool to conserve energy when possible
So those are just SOME of the features of the device itself. That feature-set is enough to convince many it’s a good buy. But there are a lot of thermostats out there that do that sort of thing (sort of). Why should you buy this one?
So, sure. It’s really cool looking. It’s got that nostalgic feel where you just rotate the outer ring to raise/lower the temperature. It’s got a nifty LCD screen with animated features that tell you all sorts of things. You can control it from your mobile device with a free app.
“Brandon!” you say. “What the heck is the point of this post already?”
OK — here it is.
These are all great reasons to buy and install the Nest thermostat. It’ll probably even pay for itself in a year or two, then start saving you money after that. Here’s the clincher though — the reason I evangelize the Nest wherever I go: It’s all of this, and more. The most important two words of this whole post: and more.
When you hear about the Nest for the first time it’s kind of silly — why is everyone getting psyched about a thermostat? Guess I’ll check it out. What’s the URL? nest.com — oh cool, that’s easy.
1 point Nest.
…and more…
Okay — I’m at nest.com, wow — gorgeous website; clean, simple, rich with details and animations.
10 more points Nest.
…and more…
Really helpful information, tutorials, testimonials etc.
5 more points Nest.
…and more…
But how do I know if it’ll work with my old and busted system? Oh — an online compatibility checker — sweet!
15 more points Nest.
…and more…
And that’s when I pre-ordered my Nest.
When you get the box in the mail — it’s beautifully packaged.
Here is a very detailed video I suggest watching that covers pretty much the whole 9 yards.
…and more…
As you unbox the Nest, even the attention paid to how and where the items are placed is impressive.
10 more points Nest.
…and more…
Just about every tool you might need is included.
5 more points Nest.
…and more…
The instruction manual is very clear, easy to understand and full of pictures.
5 more points Nest.
…and more…
The manual contains little stickers I can use to label my cables as I disassemble my old piece of junk so I can hook it up to the Nest correctly.
5 more points Nest.
Here is what mine looked like at this stage in the process:
Note: It also comes with a cover plate that would’ve covered up that nasty wall without having to texture and paint, but I was going to do it anyway.
At this point, I’m just giddy with anticipation. All I have to do now is plug in the main device and we’re good to go. Oh, crap:
Crap crap crap. The first thing I see is an error. That’s not good.
-20 points Nest.
…and more…
What’s it say — There’s an error code — E24 and there’s a URL — nest.com/e24, so I go there. Oh, I probably just have a loose wire. I pull off the device, sure enough, exactly what they stated is what has happened. I reseat the wire and plug the device in — it works perfectly. The error was actually my fault, but the error reporting and ease of resolution have now made me a Nest fanboi. I’m actually GLAD I got the error so I could see how well they handled it.
+50 points Nest!
…and more…
It gets better. Now I install the iPhone app. I can’t even begin to tell you how cool it is. The stacked bar charts, the gamification of keeping my home green and warm all while saving money…it just goes on and on.
+100 points Nest.
…and more…
And now that everything’s installed, I hand the iPhone to my wife. She starts to play with it and falls in love with it after about 5 minutes. Her first experience with Nest was the iPhone app — and she’s just as big a fangirl now as I am. As I am a fanboi that is. Ahem…
+1000 points Nest.
Total: 1186 points Nest
Every day I discover new features on the hardware and the mobile app that continue to engage and satisfy.
This is Service Design
This is what service design looks like. It’s the magic recipe for success in your startup, design, party, endeavor — it doesn’t matter: always be ready with the ‘and more’ for your customer. When you can anticipate and pre-fulfill their needs at virtually every single step of the way like Nest has, you win. Each time a user interacts with your brand or product — that’s a touchpoint. Good service design ensures the user experiences ‘surprise and delight’ at each touchpoint, even if it’s an error or a support call.
At every step of the process from learning the nest.com URL until I handed the phone over to my wife, Nest surprised and delighted me. And more. Every single time I moved from one step to the next, I felt that Nest always had my back and had solved my problems before I even knew I had them. Imagine if every service, device, and software application we used went to such great pains — I think the world would be a much happier place, and more.
DISCLAIMER: I do not now, nor have I ever worked for Nest.