I don’t know about you, but I love me some Netflix. We shred through five or six movies and TV shows on DVD per week. Dawngrrl and I have been addicted to Showtime’s Dexter and when we ran out of episodes on the disc we had, we were in a panic to watch more. Lucky for us the first season of Dexter as available as “Watch Now” on Netflix. Problem with that was the only place to watch it was in my office as it’s Windows only and my laptop is a Mac.
In my office I have a plethora of computers. One of those machines is a 64-bit Windows Vista Ultimate computer that has a TV Tuner and Media Center is configured and running. Along with that I have completely configured the Netflix Watch Now client and as long as I want to sit in the office and watch TV and movies, I am good to go.
But what about our bedroom? Being good little Microsoft geeks like we are, we have several Xbox 360s around the house. The bedroom 360 is set up as a Media Center Extender we already use it to watch shared media and listen to music.
Now that I have found my true love in vmcNetFlix, I can also watch movies and TV shows from Netflix instantly on the bedroom TV.
The UI is very nice, you can browse the entire library, manage your queue and of course watch video instantly from the Netflix Watch Now catalog.
As we speak I am in bed with Dawn, on my Mac, Remote Desktop connected to my 32-bit Windows Vista box writing this blog on Windows Live Writer. On the Xbox 360 is “Father Knows Best", the latest episode of Dexter we are currently watching.
If you have Vista Media Center (that’s where the vmc comes in) and a valid Netflix Account with Watch Now enabled, and a Windows Media Center Extender, you are golden to watch great quality video, realtime, away from the PC.
First let me qualify this by saying that I no doubt love Redbox. The service is one of the coolest things in awhile. Vending machine DVD rental is not only a brilliant model, but it’s also extremely convenient.
Now…that being said, I will point out the largest failures in the system and how they could be rectified to make a cool service turn into a powerhouse that could crush Blockbuster (at least what’s left after Netflicks kicked their ass!)
Marketing
Tonight I stood in a long line to return and pick up a new movie (more on that later.) As I stood there I watched countless people browse through the movies, flicking through the cumbersome interface, getting stuck in the checkout process, and ultimately leaving. While I am sure those are happy customers, the interesting part was the conversations I had in line. Of the two people I spoke with, neither had any idea that you could rent movies online and come pick them up.
When Tuesday rolls around, I try to hit Redbox before I go home so I can reserve the new movies. It also saves me from having to flip through the interface to find them, and lastly, even going if the movie I want isn’t in.
Take a look at the following photos:
So with this, in the store point of purchase, and your take home media, there is a small mention of www.redbox.com under the customer service number and the text "Questions or Problems?", and nowhere does it say "Rent your movies online!" or "Save time by renting your movies online and picking them up at the store!" Talk about your missed marketing opportunity.
I bet I watched a half dozen people walk away because the line was too long. This is a classic example of an Internet company not realizing they are an Internet company.
Usability
This is further clarified by some huge flaws in their website. When I go to rent a movie, it makes me enter my zip code, no problem. When I say I want to rent another movie, I have to enter a zip code again! Do they think I am going to rent my movies from a collection of stores? So maybe the movie I want is out and I want to get it from another store. Ok, I get that, but why not let me have a "Home" store, as I am sure most people will, and then give you the ability to alternate it if you need to. We are talking simple usability here.
Another flaw, which exists in the store too, is if you sort by release date (the most common I am betting) it shows movies that are coming out next week first. So I have to browse through a page of movies I can’t rent, before I can select ones I can. Why would the machine default to alphabetical order and not release date, or release date with a new releases tab?
One last usability gripe, there is no search feature. If I am looking for a movie, I would rather have an ajaxish type of search where I can start typing characters and it filters in stock titles ala iTunes…..hmmm? Sounding better guys? I sure think so.
Of course I live in a usability world, so I am probably closer than your average user, but surely someone at the company is thinking about these things.
Speed of Service
One last thing to note, if you have ever been to a McDonalds, two drive through windows. There are two very smart reasons for this. First, two windows prevents theft because the food has to be put into the cash register to be prepared. Second, and most important, they can bring many more people through in the same amount of time with one person taking money and one person servicing the customer.
Redbox has this same problem, of the nearly dozen people in line, half of them were waiting to return movies. I understand the technical reasons you can’t just have a drop box, but why not have part of the machine dedicated to returns, and the rest for rentals, so users can walk up, stick their movies in, and walk away.
In any business, it’s about volume, and it’s also terrible to have potential customers walking away because the line to return movies is too long to wait to rent one.
I don’t know about you, but I love me some Netflix. We shred through five or six movies and TV shows on DVD per week. Dawngrrl and I have been addicted to Showtime’s Dexter and when we ran out of episodes on the disc we had, we were in a panic to watch more. Lucky for us the first season of Dexter as available as “Watch Now” on Netflix. Problem with that was the only place to watch it was in my office as it’s Windows only and my laptop is a Mac.