You might be thinking about now.. how is a mirror relevant to my software product?
Hang tight.
Not only is it relevant to you, your problem and - most importantly - your customer; it might change the way you approach problem-solving altogether, saving you money in the process.
Let me introduce you to…
The hotel elevator problem
Big hotels have lots of floors:
- Lifts take time to move between them, collect people, handle queues, and make multiple stops.
People don’t like waiting:
Customers get grumpy. They complain. They leave bad reviews.
Bad reviews mean reputation damage, risk of customers not returning, and ultimately, lost bookings and lost revenue.
How they solve it
Option 1: “It’s too slow. Let’s make it faster.” WRONG.
This is the instinctive fix, think again.
Yes, okay, sometimes it is the right choice, but it is also your £35,000 option to hire an engineer. You’ll need to upgrade the motor, tweak the mechanics, adjust the door timings, run safety checks and deal with the downtime.
Expensive. Distruptive. And at best saves 20-30 seconds waiting per customer.
On a busy day, customers still complain.
Option 2. What’s the actual problem here?
The real problem isn’t the machinery.
The real problem is that customers don’t like waiting.
Your customers are frustrated by their perception of the elapsed time.
Now we’ve entered customer experience territory, this is probably sounding a lot more familiar. Slow loading screens. Long calculation times. Waiting for an SMS code.
Your product might be doing the job perfectly well.. but the user feels the wait. And feelings are where the churn starts.
How they actually fix it (and keep costs low)
Hotels began improving the experience around the wait instead of the lift itself.
Here’s what they did:
1. The call button lights up
- Instant feedback: “We’ve received your request.”
- No double-pressing. No uncertainty.
- Bonus points if the button has a nice tactile feel, or a friendly “good to go” coloured light.
2. A clear floor indicator
- Guests can see exactly where the lift is. This is expectation management.
- If it’s on floor 12, I understand why I might need to wait slightly longer. My anxiety drops. Everything feels a bit more predictable.
3. Directional arrows showing movement
- Now they can watch it approach.
- Something to do, whilst feeling like progress.
4. A mirror
- Humans naturally focus on their own reflection. Fixing hair, checking clothes… time moves faster.
- The mirror alone, was enough to significantly reduce the number of complaints.
5. A purposeful distraction
- Antibacterial gel. A small bowl of mints.
- A tiny, intentional delight.
- Customers are busy doing, not thinking about waiting.
6. And finally, the “ding”
- A little burst of satisfaction.
- A final cue that the moment is over and you can get on with your day.
- And yes, that’s deliberate dopamine.
Not one of these changes made the lift faster.
They simply made the wait feel shorter, calmer and more predictable.
The lift was never the problem. The experience around it was.
Applied to your product
Most teams default to engineering fixes: optimise performance, speed up processes, refactor, rebuild. Sometimes that’s needed. But not always.
Often, you can solve the real problem - your customer’s emotional experience - with something far smaller and financially smarter.
Clarity. Feedback. Visibility. Reassurance. Small, inexpensive changes that reshape how a moment feels.
Complaints drop. Satisfaction rises. And no one has to spend £35,000.
So next time you have problem, take a moment to empathise. Perhaps your solution lies in something much more people focused. Turn a frustration into a retention win!
Because sometimes, the smartest fix isn’t a rebuild. It’s a £20 mirror.