I noticed this small article in the New York times the other day about a restaurant that has started to use the iPad as a wine list. To me, it makes perfect sense – wine is an emotional affair and the iPad give emotionally rich experiences – a great match. Not only does it give more information than most wine lists, it also has reviews of the wines that they stock. This allows people to make more informed choices and seems to tempt them to trade up and try generally more expensive wines than they would normally choose. In fact, the restaurant claims that the average purchase is 11 percent higher per diner compared to the previous non iPad solution.
I really like the customer insights in the article, citing the stress of choosing the right wine for a group, or avoiding being sold what one customer described as a used car special.
The article also made me think of the book Shaping Things by Bruce Sterling in which he explains how the digital presence of products will eclipse the products themselves over time. He uses the example of wine and particularly the experience of choosing a wine bottle as an example.
I am not writing this to advocate the wonders of the iPad (although I think it is a really great product) Â but to show how innovations in touchpoints can provide improved experience and higher profits. Innovating touchpoints is one of the five lenses of the AT-ONE process, and we have just updated our touchpoint cards to add tablets and surfaces, as we expect these cards to be used a lot.