How May I Make Your Experience Better? Innovation and a Concierge's View

If you’ve ever paid attention to what goes on at a great hotel, there are a nearly infinite number “action items” that need attention, from appearance and cleanliness to customer service.  The general manager may be where the buck stops, but the concierge is the most important person on the floor.  As the “go-to” person, the concierge is the forward-facing individual that has the immediate ability to make hotel stay absolutely phenomenal.  We adopt the philosophy of being “web concierges” at dt.

Being web concierges means that we do far more than wait for the “bell to ring.”  The core of this philosophy is that each and every person at digital-telepathy is responsible for being proactive about our our clients’ projects.  Strategy is not only the foundation of our work, it’s a continuous process that never ends.  It is this strategic thinking that creates innovation, and innovation is what sets us apart.

When asked about “places for a romantic dinner,” a great concierge should be able to answer with several options, what kind of food each restaurant serves, how to get there, and the quality of the wine list.  He or she should also be able to call for a reservation and grab you a cab in one fell swoop.  dt’s web concierges are poised to do the same thing.  We employ best practices to ensure the highest quality output. Our designers may look at a search process and design the system to best serve the type and demographic of a user.  Our developers may choose to use cufon instead of sifr or jquery instead of prototype for certain applications.  The right call is always what works best for each project and use case. Because of this, it’s our duty to consider questions like, “how can we design this signup process to be more efficient?” or “what can we do to ensure that the automatic degradation of the javascript works properly with legacy browsers over slow connections?”

Innovation is a dish best served hot.  Always hot, and always prepared on the front burner.  Most of the time, complex questions are answered during the initial strategic process, but sometimes true clarity comes as the project moves through its phases.  There is always a better way to do something – if there isn’t now, there soon will be.