So how do these brands do it?
Avoiding boredom: variety within a contained system
Within these very contained systems, which work well for the business, how do you keep the user engaged and coming back for more?
Key takeaway
Customer experience or service brand thinking has been led by high-touch environments such as hotels, casinos, restaurants, department stores etc, with these categories offering great examples of 'above and beyond' experiences.
If we were to take the lead from these categories, we would think that variety and sensory engagement are key to a great experience. On closer inspection, however, a great experience is more a result of how brands have understood the limitations of their systems instead of the outermost parts that peak the experience.
Brands need to understand how their systems can deliver variety and service consistency, because a great experience every now and again is not a branded experience, but a chance encounter. They also need to have an intimate understanding of what kind of demand they can cope with, while rendering a great experience.
Only once they have understood these more mundane things can they design an optimal service system to meet this 'brief', which can create unprecedented levels of customer satisfaction. So, the feather boas and bright lights merely punctuate the experience.
If you can find systems which are not contained in some way, you will also find examples of bad service: miscommunication between departments, long call-centre waits, long delivery waits, etc - also known as open systems that are vulnerable to chaos (great in a brainstorm, not so great in a high-service space).
Notable exception: service success by removing the limits
Zappos.com, though, has opened up a traditionally closed loop (the call centre) by giving its customer service consultants free rein to delight customers in ways which are unexpected and whacky. In terms of systems design, it has gone outside of the norms of the category and, instead of arming automatons with a script, it lets well-educated, premium employees loose.
I am sure it also has very contained parts of its system (such as warehousing and logistics) but the contact-centre approach is open and refreshing.