The Experience Technology Advantage Program™

is Creative Realities' unique six-step creation process.

Step 1. The Visioning Conversation™

During this series of meetings, we learn about you, your customer, and what's important to you both. We get you to look into the future and imagine how this project has changed your business for the better and, from that, we cull out success factors, goals, and milestones. By the end of this step, we'll all have a deep understanding about the key business result you're shooting for, and how the new experience will help you reach it.

The step's deliverable: The Vision Report™

Step 2. The Existing Capabilities Conversation™

We take an inventory of the resources you have that might contribute to the experience, and how best to use them. We start with people: Who are your key players in each department who will touch the experience? What are their responsibilities? What are their strengths? What are their time commitments? What about your partners and vendors? How can everyone shine while serving the experience?

We then study your material resources. Do you have existing hardware? Software? Inventory? Media archives? In other words, what assets can we draw upon and leverage to help manufacture an experience that will blow away your customers?

Completing this step lets us fast track the project. We get to understand your internal and external resources. We clarify roles and decision-making processes. We identify gaps and plan for them, so that things can progress smoothly.

The step's deliverable: The Key Players and Resources Report™

Step 3. The Road Trip™

We shop your current experience. We find out what's working and not working from your customers' point of view. We examine each of your customer touch points. When customers visit you, what do they see, hear, and do? We observe, then we interview. We interview your customers, then your employees (especially those employees who have the most contact with customers). We ask them about the most frequent customer comments. We probe to see if there are any products or services that customers want, but aren't getting. We discuss areas for radical improvement.

We then shop your competitors' experiences (if you don't have any close competitors, we shop businesses that compete for the same dollar as you; we also see who you are competing with for visual attention near your location). We see what's working and not working for them, and we may suggest ways of using that knowledge to bolster your experience.

A byproduct of all this field research: Your employees will be excited about creating a new experience, since they contributed their perspectives and ideas. When the new experience is up and running, they will take an active hand in making it as powerful as possible.

The step's deliverables: The Experience Assessment™

Step 4. The Possibilities Multiplier™

A cycle of up-beat, high-energy meetings, using our proprietary creativity tools. We bring together your team and stakeholders, and brainstorm ideas for your front stage or backstage experience. The ideas can be big or small, flashy or modest, hi-tech or no-tech. Once we've drawn them all out, we cherry pick the best ones, and create the strategy for your experience.

The step's deliverables: The Experience Planner™ a report containing a graphical representation of the experience and a milestone-based schedule for the upcoming design process.

Step 5. The Experience Developer™

Here's where we actually create the experience. We write the scripts and invent any necessary stagecraft. We do plans, drawings and, if needed, scale models. We develop people-systems to support the customer experience, such as training programs for your staff (so that they have the tools and confidence they need to be customer advocates).

An important detail we keep in mind: componentization. That is, instead of coming up with one design that you have to use everywhere, we break it down into components that are usable in different locations.

The step's deliverables: The Experience Map™ (a representation of all customer touch points, so that you see what the experience looks like from their eyes) and the DocPak™, a package of all the plans (technical documents, drawings, renderings, etc.) needed to get the job done, including copies of the experience's "Owner's Manual," which includes detailed information not only about how to run and care for the equipment, but how to use it as well.

Step 6. The Pilot™

Here, your new experience is tested and perfected in the real world. We do all the prep work, including getting the plans approved and the permits okayed. We also help you create metrics and benchmarks, so the experience can be measured.

Then, working with you and your partners, we build and install all aspects of the experience. When the experience is up, we create punch lists and do an evaluation.

After the grand opening, we review the results and tweak, if necessary. We also make sure that there are processes and workflow plans in place, so the experience is consistent and can be easily maintained.

The step's deliverable: The Experience itself!