Perceptual Collapse: Little Things Gradually Break Big Things

Maybe it’s just me, I thought.

The server said they’d gotten rid of paper and gone with a QR menu. I sighed in mild frustration.?

The thing about paper is that it’s a perfect technology for the purpose. Just pick it up and a millisecond later, you can see all the information. With a QR menu, you’re pinching and moving a bad mobile web page like it’s 2011 again.

But maybe that’s just me. Maybe the rest of the world can’t wait to use their phone for this. How would I know?

Well, by asking. That’s how. So I did, right here on LinkedIn.?

Here’s what you said:

It looks like it's not just me. Though one little poll doesn’t prove anything, I feel confident in saying people aren’t clamoring for QR code menus.?

So why do places like this one make a change? A decision got made based on…something. What was it?

I was genuinely curious, so I asked the company’s head of culinary operations. I said I was a frequent customer and big fan and wondered what was up with the change to QR codes. In the two weeks since I asked, I didn’t get a reply. So I’m forced to speculate.

I guess they would say it’s streamlining. Simplify their operation. It probably feels like something that’s on the rise and saves their team a (very small) amount of work.

But at a deeper level, it’s something I’ve observed all over the world of service in the last few years.

Just do less.

Between covid and mobile technologies, companies have a perfect story for peeling away service, one little thing at a time. From blankets on airplanes to QR code menus to self-busing in $20 per person restaurants, organizations have just decided to do…less.

And the logic seems right: cut something small and see what happens. Oh, look, nothing happened! I guess that little thing didn’t matter.?

The cycle repeats itself and each little cut doesn’t seem to have any impact. Sales don’t plummet. People don’t storm out in fury.

But that doesn’t mean nothing changes. The risk is something I call perceptual collapse. It happens gradually, then suddenly. What felt special to customers now feels ordinary. Formerly attentive service now seems stingy. Something that originally was a service grace note is now a $2 extra charge. Why did I used to like this so much? Uh oh. Suddenly, loyal customers are price comparing and looking for other options.

It’s not hard to avoid this. Make changes carefully, especially if you’re in the “premium” business. Companies have fast, cheap and easy ways to ask people how they feel about different parts of the service.?

Business people sometimes forget that little things mean a lot. It’s hard to capture what they mean in a spreadsheet, but a human being understands it intuitively. If, for example, being offered a hot towel on the way in made customers feel welcome and cozy, taking it away (and saving $.08) isn’t clever management. It’s taking a blind risk of perceptual collapse in exchange for pennies.

Or maybe it’s just me.