Comments on: I can’t switch, I’m attached

By: cc

cc — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:36:54 +0000

That’s a great point. Familiarity and comfort are probably key factors in any sort of attachment, whether it be for a product or service.

As a designer, I then wonder what sorts of things we can do to help a customer get to the point of familiarity and comfort. “Customer retention”, if we want to get all business-y. But customer retention with an actual hook behind it, beyond simply using your service because they have to, or because it works best. How can we make services that people hold on to emotionally? I guess there’s lots to it…

By: alison prendiville

alison prendiville — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:42:48 +0000

Should the discussion embrace ritual. Habits form around services, for example always buying coffee from the same vendor which in turn develops into a ritual. Familiarity and comfort are all part of this that then lends itself to an emotional attachment to that service.

By: cc

cc — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 00:03:01 +0000

Definitely… I think in the end, attachment is useful to a service with sustainability as an end goal. I think that’s what any company would want for their services.

Thanks for the recommendations, I’d be interested in getting a hold of that PDF!

By: Simon King

Simon King — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 20:10:17 +0000

I’m personally interested in the idea of attachment as it relates to sustainability, which means I focus more on product longevity than staying with a service instead of using a competitor. However, you may find interesting viewpoints in a book I can recommend called “Eternally Yours”, by Ed van Hinte. You can find it in the CMU library (HF5415.155 .H56 1997, STACKS-2) or I have a PDF copy somewhere if you’re interested. You might also want to check out “Emotionally Durable Design”, by Jonathan Chapman.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 16:37:48 +0000

I’m attached to Google, and that’s more of a service than a product, no?

By: Imran

Imran — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 16:11:15 +0000

I think so. People might form attachments to individual elements of a service, like the people, but also the behaviors that it allows them to engage in. I think it might even be easier to talk about emotion with services because they enable things that are much or dynamic and active. With pizza delivery you may not have an emotional attachment to the people or to the brand, but the fact that you can get pizza to your door when you are hungry might be enough for you to love it. But also there is the potential to have more negative emotion if things go wrong. Yeah, I see a bunch of thesis ideas in there too ;P