Contact Bob Steele by email (rhsteele@snet.net).

Sidebar: World of Ideas

The goal of the Merlin Center is to turn hard-boiled executives into wide-eyed children eager to explore and to ask questions. Here are a few of Merlin's intellectual springboards.

Can you do something really new? Four displays in the center's foyer showcase retailers that reinvented stagnant industries or invented entirely new retailing formats. They are Home Depot, IKEA, European cosmetics retailer Lush, and superstore Mars Music. "Mars captured the energy and the excitement of the music business," says Merlin Center managing director Bob Steele. "If you've got a musical bone in your body, you can easily spend half a day there."

What will your customers do? All of the Merlin Center's banking environments are designed to give customers things to do that, no matter how frivolous they seem at first, serve as conversation starters for bank staffers. An interactive picture frame on the wall, for example, allows customers to select the kind of car that they'd like to buy and then study various financing options. "That lets a bank employee start a conversation by saying, 'That BMW sure is a gorgeous car,' instead of, 'How can I help you?' "

Do you make a perfect first impression? "For banks and for any other kind of retailer, the idea is to create the first perfect minute after the customer walks in the door," Steele says. "Have a greeter at the door to direct them to the right place, or to answer a question, or just to leave them alone. That first perfect minute is what gives you the chance to have a second and third perfect minute with that customer -- and to create a perfect experience."