Going for gold • 2
Inspired by an article in Harvard Business Review about the underlying quests for corporate transformation (Anand & Barsoux, 2017), I have identified seven arenas where the power of service design can transform organizations, teams, and people. In this blog post, I explore Service Design for Customer Excellence.
2. Service Design for Customer Excellence
Purpose: Crafting approaches, strategies, services, processes, and tools to make customer experiences feel reliable, convenient, engaging, enjoyable, and meaningful. (Feel free to replace ‘customer’ with passenger, guest, patient, resident, citizen, client, partner, consumer, end-user, or whichever term makes sense to you.)
Note: All CX work in the context of service design should include both the onstage and backstage components required for effective service production and delivery; please see my blog post Bringing down the house • 1 for a lighthearted introduction to the 7Ps of services marketing.
Common themes: Core product and supplementary services. Production & delivery processes. Three experience phases (pre-delivery, point-of-delivery, post-delivery – or pre-purchase, service encounter, post-encounter) with moments that matter and prioritised touchpoints. Customer segments, mindsets, archetypes, and/or personas. Diversity, equity, and inclusion. Customer outcomes/goals/jobs. Customer activities, customer–provider interactions, and customer–employee interactions. Customer moods and emotions. High-touch and low-touch engagement models. Frontline employees and backstage teams. Service roles and scripts. Line of visibility (between onstage and backstage components). Value creation, value facilitation, and value co-creation. Unmet, underserved, or overserved needs. Pain/friction points. Service quality gaps. Experience mapping. Journey management. Self-service technologies. Customer onboarding and training. Customer churn, retention, and loyalty. Customer feedback systems. Customer service and support. Customer complaints and service recovery. Value propositions, service packages (customer offerings), and service tiering. Etc.
Project archetypes:
Designing for value creation & co-creation. Exploring new or improved ways to enable and empower customers in their value creation process. This involves uncovering untapped sources of value creation, defining new or improved ways for customers to engage in value creation, identifying opportunities for value facilitation and co-creation, and crafting new value propositions, customer offerings, and service tiers. (Based on Grönroos, 2011; Wirtz & Lovelock, 2016; and others.)
Examples: Airbnb (peer-to-peer business model, dynamic pricing tools, AirCover for hosts and guests, etc.), Tesla (EV charging solutions and infrastructure), Lego (LEGO Ideas), and Spotify (tiered offerings for different lifestyles and budgets).
Note: For more information about value co-creation, plesae see my blog post Get the balance right! • 2.
Designing for personalization & customization. Proactively and dynamically tailoring the end-to-end experience to meet individual needs and preferences while actively engaging customers in the co-innovation, co-creation, co-design, co-development, co-production, and co-marketing of products and services. This requires harnessing the power of data analytics, behavioral economics, relationship management, mass customization, modularity, and AI capabilities to deliver personalized content, services, and solutions across multiple touchpoints. (Based on Peppers & Rogers, 1993; Pine, 1992; Gummesson, 2008; and others.)
Examples: Nike (By You), Build-A-Bear Workshop, Amazon, Netflix, Starbucks (My Starbucks Idea), Sephora (Color IQ), Threadless, and Stitch Fix.
Designing for immersion & engagement. Staging engaging, meaningful, and impactful experiences that create a sense of anticipation, build emotional connections, leave lasting memories, and foster unwavering loyalty. This involves various strategies, including defining overarching themes and core concepts, crafting compelling narratives and content, designing multi-sensory and immersive environments, incorporating interactive and hands-on activities, introducing elements of delight and surprise, providing learning and growth opportunities, and fostering a strong sense of community among users. (Based on Pine & Gilmore, 1999; Coleman, 2018; and others.)
Examples: IKEA Experience Centers, Nike House of Innovation, Royal Carribean (onboard experiences, themed environments), and Rapha (clubhouses, cycle clubs, branded rides & events).
Designing for loyalty & advocacy. Engaging and incentivizing customers to actively support and celebrate the brand they love, leading to greater brand reach, higher retention rates, and more organic growth. While the first three project types all aim to encourage loyalty and engagement, this one focuses specifically on creating tiered membership programs with experiential rewards, orchestrating surprise and delight campaigns, offering exclusive access and early releases, and encouraging customers to become co-innovators and co-marketers. Additionally, it involves developing referral and ambassador programs, publicly recognizing and celebrating loyal customers, and building a community platform through online forums, regular events, and user-generated content initiatives.
Examples: Cricut Community; Nike+ and Nike Ambassador Program; Sephora Beauty Insider and Sephora Squad; Rapha (exclusive events, clubhouses, Rapha Cycling Club); Lululemon Ambassador Program; Lego (LEGO CON, LEGO Ideas, LEGO VIP, LEGO Life app); and Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” campaigns.
Note: Specific strategies to reduce customer defections and create effective service recovery systems will be covered in a future blog post.
Fostering culture of journey orchestration. Building and nurturing a culture dedicated to orchestrating seamless experiences across all encounters with the brand(s) throughout the three stages of service delivery (e.g., pre-flight, in-flight, and post-flight experiences). This approach emphasizes the importance of cohesive and fluid transitions not only between online and offline experiences but also between onstage (customer-facing) and backstage (employee-facing) components of the ecosystem. Key strategies include synchronizing customer data and preferences across brands, functions, processes, and touchpoints, as well as proactively identifying and addressing pain points to remove friction throughout the journey. (Based on Risdon & Quattlebaum, 2018; Manning & Bodine, 2012; and others.)
Examples: Warby Parker, USAA, Airbnb, IKEA, Sephora, and Porsche.
Note: See also my blog post Going for gold • 4.
Complementary methodologies/toolkits: Design research. Services marketing / management. Service quality (SERVQUAL or Service Gap Model). Customer experience management. Journey management. Customer segmentation. Outcome-driven innovation (jobs-to-be-done theory). Design thinking. Service and UX design. Ecosystem and experience mapping (value exchange maps, value stream maps, journey maps, service blueprints, flowcharts, etc.). DEI frameworks and toolkits.
Exploring the problem space: Understanding the broader context. Defining customer mindsets / archetypes / personas. Understanding customer drivers, needs, goals, behaviours, and blockers in existing experiences. Crafting mental models to highlight moments that matter, pivotal touchpoints/interactions, common pain points, and unmet customer and employee needs. Uncovering deep insights across multiple research methods and sources. Crafting tentative North Star CX, determining ambition levels, and identifying opportunity spaces for improvement. Framing or reframing challenges/problems. Brainstorming initial ideas and hypotheses. Etc.
Exploring the solution space: Finding smart, emotionally resonant solutions for value creation (empowering customers to get the job done better than today) and value facilitation (empowering frontline staff and back-of-house teams to serve and support customers better than today). Creating smart solutions for effective service recovery (principles, policies, programs, procedures, etc.). Continuously testing tentative solutions through storytelling, rapid prototyping, experimentation, and piloting. Continuously adapting, downselecting, and prioritising tentative solutions. Crafting ideal, future-state end-to-end experiences (onstage and backstage) for prioritised customer segments or mindsets. Defining stakeholder and business impact. Crafting compelling stories and value cases for change. Identifying roadblocks, creating roadmaps, defining requirements, and mobilising resources for implementation and sustained success. Etc.
Project sponsors: CXO, Chief Customer Officer, Chief Brand Officer, Chief Diversity Officer, or equivalent
Desired outcomes: ↑ service quality, ↑ differentiation, ↑ brand buzz, ↑ customer reviews & testimonials, ↑ user-generated content, ↑ brand loyalty (customer retention & advocacy), ↑ customer satisfaction, ↑ NPS, ↑ customer lifetime value
Note: Desired outcomes could also cover effectiveness and efficiency indicators to measure performance in moments that matter (e.g., conversion rates, emotions evoked, effort levels, customer response time).
Power tip: When planning CX-related projects, try to scope them by altitude. High-altitude projects (10,000 to 30,000 ft.) explore the relationships, interconnections, flows, and feedback loops in an entire ecosystem (such as an airport). Mid-altitude projects (2,500 to 10,000 ft.) delve into the interconnections and flows within and between moments that matter (such as check-in, security, and boarding). Finally, low-altitude projects (500 to 2,500 ft.) focus on the flows and interactions of specific activities and touchpoints within a moment that matters (such as checking in with a self-service kiosk).
Service Design for Employee Engagement will be covered in the next blog post.
References
Anand, N. & Barsoux, J-L. (2017, Nov–Dec). What everyone gets wrong about change management. Poor execution is only part of the problem. Harvard Business Review.
Coleman, D. (2018). Building brand experiences: A practical guide to retaining brand relevance. Kogan Page.
Grönroos, C. (2011). Value co-creation in service logic: A critical analysis. Marketing Theory, 11(3), 279–301.
Gummesson, E. (2008). Total relationship marketing (3rd ed.). Routledge.
Holmes, K. (2020). Mismatch: How inclusion shapes design. MIT Press.
Kowalski, S. (2023). Cultural sensitivity training: Developing the basis for effective intercultural communication. Econcise.
Linares, M. (2021, April). Frameworks for measuring product inclusion and product equity. Medium.
Lupton et al. (2021). Extra bold: A feminist, inclusive, anti-racist, nonbinary field guide for graphic designers. Princeton Architectural Press.
Manning, H. & Bodine, K. (2012). Outside in: The power of putting customers at the center of your business. Amazon Publishing.
Meyer, E. (2016). The culture map: Decoding how people think, lead, and get things done across cultures. PublicAffairs.
Microsoft Design. (2016). Inclusive 101 guidebook. Microsoft.
Microsoft Inclusive Design. (2023). Cognitive exclusion. Microsoft.
Noel, L-A. (2023). Design social change: Take action, work toward equity, and challenge status quo. A Stanford d.school guide. Ten Speed Press
Peppers, D. & Rogers, M. (1993). The one-to-one future: Building relationships one customer at a time. Doubleday.
Pine, B.J. (1992). Mass customization. The new frontier in business competition. Harvard Business School Press.
Risdon, C. & Quattlebaum, P. (2018). Orchestrating experiences: Collaborative design for complexity. Rosenfeld Media.
Wirtz, J. & Lovelock, C. (2016). Services Marketing: People, technology, strategy (8th ed.). World Scientific Publishing.
