vol 8 no 1 | may 2016 | 18 €

Service Design and CX: Friends or foes?

16 Bridging the Gap by Lynn Stott 46 Breaking the Blueprint by Chris Ferguson, Chad Story 58 Customer Journey Measures by Asbjørn Følstad, Knut Kvale

the journal of service design Touchpoint Pictures Volume 8 No. 1 Unless otherwise stated, the May 2016 copyrights of all images used for The Journal of Service Design illustration lie with the author(s) ISSN 1868-6052 of the respective article

Published by Proofreading Service Design Network Tim Danaher

Publisher Printing Birgit Mager Peecho

Editor-in-Chief Fonts Jesse Grimes Mercury G2 Apercu Editorial Board Jamin Hegeman Service Design Network gGmbH Mauricio Manhaes Mülheimer Freiheit 56 Stefan Moritz D-51063 Köln Jesse Grimes Germany Birgit Mager www.service-design-network.org

Project Management Contact & Advertising Sales Cristine Lanzoni Cristine Lanzoni [email protected] Art Direction Miriam Becker For ordering Touchpoint, please visit Jeannette Weber www.service-design-network.org

Cover Picture Jeannette Weber from t he edi tors

Service Design and CX: Friends or foes?

The wide umbrella of Design encompasses many disciplines: From long- Jamin Hegeman is Head of established practices such as industrial and graphic design, to the relative Design for Financial Services at Capital One. He directs Adaptive newcomers of information architecture (IA), user experience design (UX) and Path's Service Experience service design. One thing that has become clear is that the new kids on the Conference, contributed to block are facing more challenges to their identity. And for service design This Is Service Design Thinking, and is a principal of the specifically, one acronym has triggered more consternation than others: CX. Service Design Network. Unlike UX and interaction design - which co-exist beneath that umbrella - CX Mauricio Manhaes works as is not a design discipline at all. But because it shares a focus on customers, it uses Professor of Service Design some common terms, activities and even sometimes deliverables as service design. at SCAD and Associate Design In this issue, we take a look at the overlap and contrasts between service Researcher at Livework. His PhD research focused design and CX and ask the question: “Are they friends or foes?”. on the impact of prejudice In “Bridging the Gap” (page 17), Lynn Stott characterises one challenge to CX: on innovative efforts. “From a ‘big picture’ view, CX as a function spends too much time measuring Stefan Moritz is an entrepreneur, and not enough time designing”. corporate change-maker and While on the other hand, the heavily analytical and results-driven approach customer experience champion. of CX may well complement and inspire service design, addressing a weakness Leading a unit of researchers, designers, digital experts and found all too often in our engagements. Moreover, the prominence of CX within strategists he works with global the business world - and especially in North America and the UK - may indeed service companies, governments be a boon for service design, getting our practice noticed within different and and public sector organisations. He is Vice President Customer higher echelons of organisations. Flip ahead to our theme section for more Experience at Veryday, one of fascinating insights on this topic. the world’s top-ranking design and innovation consultancies. And lastly, preparations are in full-swing for the 9th Service Design Global Conference, to be held in late October in Amsterdam. Whether it would be your Jesse Grimes, Editor-in- first time, or you’re a regular attendee, we look forward to seeing you there! Chief for Touchpoint, has fourteen years experience as an interaction designer and consultant, specialising in service design. He has worked in London, Copenhagen, Düsseldorf and Sydney and is now based in Amsterdam with Dutch agency Informaat.

Birgit Mager, publisher of Jesse Grimes for the editorial board Touchpoint, is professor for service design at Köln International School of Design (KISD), Cologne, Germany. She is founder and director of sedes research at KISD and is co-founder and president of the Service Design Network.

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6 news 14 service design and cx: friends or foes? 68 education and research 8 kerry’s take 16 Bridging the Gap 70 Assessing the Perception 8 Customer Experience & Lynn Stott of Service Design Service Design: 40 2015 service design Maria De La Vega, Jagriti Let’s Be BFFs global conference 22 Service Design and CX: Kumar, Chelsea Lyle and Kerry Bodine 64 Rebecca Ngola Distinctions without 42 Service Design and Figure 1 Differences? Transmedia Storytelling: 10 cross-discipline 74 Giving Brands the Human Toby Bottorf, Zach Hyman A Convergence of Practices 56 tools and methods Touch – and Gaining 10 The Needle Stick: Sandjar Kozubaev Customer Commitment Re-Designing for Distraction 28 Why Customer Experience 58 Customer Journey Measures Stefan Baumann, Europa Natalie W. Nixon, Paul Rosen Isn’t Enough 46 Breaking the Blueprint Asbjørn Følstad, Knut Kvale Bendig 82 inside sdn Erik Flowers, Megan Miller Chris Ferguson, Chad Story 12 Giving Disruptive 64 Design Toolkits for Customer­ 78 profiles 82 A New Era at SDN Innovations a Chance 34 Great Customer Experiences 50 Transition-oriented centred Transformation Marie de Vos, Klaas Jan Don’t Happen by Accident Service Design Gianluca Brugnoli, Roberta 78 Interview with 84 Service Design National Wierda James Samperi Cameron Tonkinwise Tassi Richard Ekelman Conference in Japan

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#SERVICEDESIGNDAY: SHAKE UP SDGC16: Business as Unusual THE WORLD ON 1 JUNE 2016! Service Design Network is The Service design community bringing the 9th Service Design celebrates Christmas, New Year … Global Conference to the beautiful and … June 1st! Every year, from city of Amsterdam. SDN is looking Public Sector in the this year on, the 1st of June will be forward to welcoming more than spotlight: Co-creation of a International Service Design Day, 600 participants from all over Service Design Impact Report presented by the Service Design the world, coming together to Network. This day will promote the exchange experiences, ideas and Service Design Network convokes power of service design, celebrate We invite everybody to gather on different perspectives. its outstanding international and interviews with the thought its achievements, create awareness this day and to unite our voices in Become a part of this annual community to co-create the leaders of the area.It will serve the and bring people together across our common interests. Let's enjoy get-together of thinkers, doers and content of a report on the impact of service design community – both SERVICE DESIGN AWARD: nations and multidisciplinary the sense of belonging, celebrate the leaders. Join SDN in Amsterdam’s service design in the public sector. agency and client side – as well as CALL FOR ENTRIES ENDS ON backgrounds. It's fun, easy, flexible art of service design and share our Westergasfabriek for two buzzing To be published in October 2016 public sector decision makers who 6 JUNE 2016 and interactive! spirit and activities with the world! and vibrant days with inspiring by Service Design Network, the may be unaware of the potential talks and intense breakout report will provide an overview on impact of service design approaches. Be the reference of service design sessions under the title ‘Business how service design is contributing To be informed and involved at a global level. The Service Design as Unusual’ on 27th and 28th of to public services and will draw in this publication, please Award recognises outstanding October 2016, and don’t forget conclusions for the future impact connect with us on our LinkedIn work in the field of service design take place at The Royal Institute the exclusive pre-events for SDN of service design in this domain. Group ‘Public Services | SDN in commercial, non-profit/public of British Architects (RIBA) in members on October 26th! The publication will feature Special Interest Group’ at sector and methodology categories. London and will bring together outstanding case studies, articles ww.linkedin.com/groups/8174251 It is open to any organisation, professionals from all areas to Get your ticket and more service design consultancy or share experiences and demonstrate information at individual from all over the world, successful service design ideas www.service-design-conference.com and the work it is judged by a and to show how they have been jury of internationally recognised used as a catalyst for change. Service design community ­local representations of the ­Service professionals. All entries must Stimulating and provocative grows across continents ­Design Network and serve as be submitted through the talks and panel discussions bridges between the international online registration system at will explore how service design Service Design Network is happy organisation and local communities. www.service-design-award.com has created impact in the real to announce the building phase Make sure to connect with world and participants will be of three new SDN Chapters: your local chapter to create and Shortlisted projects will be an­ register now: Service Design delving into how service design ­Saskatchenwan, Nigeria and exchange knowledge with your nounced in July and showcased Network UK conference on is set to evolve in the future. Shanghai. SDN encourages the community at a local level. If there in an online exhibition, as well as 30 June 2016 Buy your ticket now at www. foundation of Chapters in order to is no SDN Chapter in your area, in a live exhibition in Amsterdam. service-design-conference.com/ develop a structure that is closely get active and build a chapter in Winners will be announced and SDN is hosting an exciting one- london and keep up to date connected to the global develop- your city or country to help grow will take the stage at the 9th Service day conference on Thursday 30th with speaker and programme ment of service design knowledge the service design community Design Global Conference on June for the active and well- announcements on Twitter, and practice but responsive to with SDN. More information at 27 October 2016. established service design industry Facebook and Linkedin. Join in on national needs and interests. In www.service-design-network.org/ in the UK. The conference will the conversation at #SDNUK16 this sense, SDN Chapters are chapters

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its core products and services to design. Several decades ago, there It’s time for us to put our diffe­ Customer Experience & Service Design: improve the quality of all customer were no ‘service designers’. There rences aside. End the debates. Stop Let’s Be BFFs interactions. were no academic classes – let alone creating Venn diagrams. Customer The leaders at another client of degrees – in service design. The field experience professionals and mine want to put the customer at of service design pulled like-minded service designers can only gain from centre of all internal and external practitioners from industrial design, partner­ships that champion and process improvement initiatives, interaction design, and even graphic achieve our shared objectives. and so they initially rooted the design. It paired those designers For the better part of a decade, I’ve had ringside seats both personally and professionally company’s customer experience with systems thinkers with a deep to the evolution of two interrelated disciplines: customer to work in an organisation with efforts in a process improvement understanding of – and a passion for values antithetical to the tenets of group, part of operations. Now, improving – how organisations work. experience and service design. From my vantage point service design. But while traditional after a recent foray into journey They didn’t have established titles as a both a designer and industry analyst, I’ve seen the marketing and advertising aren’t mapping, customer experience is or job descriptions, but they worked potential for these fields to complement, learn and dying off as quickly as I’d like, quickly spreading to IT and human together to create services that people they shouldn’t be the platform on resources. needed, that people loved. They benefit from each other. which service designers justify In fact, it’s hard for me to say at created services that were meaningful their “otherness” from the fields of this point what a typical customer for the organisations that delivered marketing and customer experience. experience professional looks them and for their communities. A natural partnership indoctrinated in traditional business Why not? like from a pedigree perspective. That’s exactly what customer The two fields’ respective objectives practices, and who think they need Certainly, there still remains a experience professionals are trying are, in my mind, the cornerstone of to be artists in order to be designers. Marketing is not the enemy strong contingent with marketing to do. this seemingly natural partnership. But I’ve also watched service First, many of today’s marketers no backgrounds. But, as customer Customer experience professionals designers focus on the differences longer hail from or hold on to the experience has gained strategic But wait, there’s more! must design improved interactions between these fields, rather than field’s traditional past. Sure, they importance across industries and There’s one other way in which for their customers and, as part of looking for common ground. They’ve care about Net Promoter Score and more bodies have been needed to customer experience and service this work, change the processes, been particularly keen to point out other marketing-based metrics, manage these initiatives, more design are similar. Despite having an policies and culture of the organi­ the differences between themselves but they’re no longer pushing out and more employees have been estimated market size of nearly USD sations that drive those interactions. and one other related discipline: empty promises. They’ve drunk the pulled into customer experience $11 Billon by 2020, the discipline of Similarly, one of the top aims of marketing. This is problematic for customer experience Kool-Aid. They land from far-flung corners of their customer experience still struggles service design is to create effective, the field of customer experience, actually care about their customers. organisations. They share innate to have a serious and permanent seat easy and enjoyable experiences for as it gained much of its start from And they’re seeking new ways to customer centricity and an ability at the executive table.1 Customer customers, citizens, students or marketers who realised it was more interact with them. Second, the field to activate those around them. experience initiatives are often the whomever a particular service is efficient to retain existing customers of customer experience has evolved But some of them have ‘customer first to get cut when budgets get tight. designed for. So far, so good. than to attract new ones. into a discipline that stretches far experience’ in their titles despite And that makes customer experience is a customer Let me point out here that I’m not beyond the marketing department. not fully understanding what that positions – and entire corporate Kerry Bodine experience expert and the Or maybe not … a fan of traditional marketing, and One of my largest clients, a tech really means or what exactly they CX initiatives – vulnerable. Sound co-author of Outside In. Unfortunately, the union of these two I hold its close cousin advertising giant based in the Silicon Valley, has need to do in their new roles. familiar? Her research, analysis and opinions appear frequently (Hence the growing number of fields has been bumpy and less than in even lower esteem. I worked at a positioned its customer experience on sites such as Harvard expeditious. Customer experience traditional advertising agency for a group in its quality organisation. customer experience conferences Business Review, Forbes, professionals are partly to blame. year and day – yes, I counted – and So now the same group that aims and consultancies!) and Fast Company. 1 http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ The word ‘design’ strikes fear into saw first hand its antiquated attitudes to minimise hardware defects and Let’s not forget the same thing was PressReleases/customer-experience- Follow Kerry on Twitter at the hearts of many business people and approaches. It was painful for me software bugs is looking beyond once true about the field of service management.asp @kerrybodine.

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therapy was added, the dog could walk with the child The Needle Stick: into the lab, stay with the child during the procedure and exit the lab with the child. The reduction in anxiety carries through from the pre blood draw, to Re-Designing for Distraction the blood draw and the post-blood-draw experience. Methods to reduce fear, anxiety and pain in the pediatric How has this pet therapy affected workflow? patient experience Patient-centred user experience design is gaining momentum Before pet therapy, there was a lot more coaxing Pet therapy during needle intake in the healthcare sector. In this interview, Paul Rosen, MD and negotiating for staff to get the child into the lab. Parents also struggled with anxiety. The pet therapy shares with Natalie Nixon, PhD, design researcher, an example of team has enabled the shifting of the emphasis from redesigning a simple, common, yet fear-inducing, procedure for the needle to the dog and helps facilitate the procedure being done in a way that helps all stakeholders. children: the needle stick. The families told us it was the first time they did not What have been some of the unexpected consequences Natalie W. Nixon, PhD is have to hold their child down for blood work. The in designing pain prevention for children? the editor of Strategic Design Thinking: Innovation In paediatrics, there is great opportunity and this led to inviting pet therapy teams. staff also recognised that having less-anxious chil­ in Products, Services, to experiment with designing medical Patients shifted from being nervous, to dren enhanced their efficiency and they appreciated There is a huge opportunity to transfer our leanings Experiences and Beyond and experiences to limit the fear and anxiety relaxed because they had just spent the working with families who were less anxious. to treatment for adults. We know that at least ten is Director of the Strategic Design MBA program at that is associated with the medical setting. last ten minutes petting an English sheep- percent of adults have needle phobia developed in Philadelphia University. Her Hospitals focus on safety and minimising dog. We even saw a shift in clinic volume How do you ensure that this service design intervention childhood and these adults avoid medical care. research and consulting risk thus making it a challenging environ- because families requested to have their will be incorporated continuously? So there is no reason not to treat pain and anxiety (Figure 8 Thinking, LLC) interests focus on optimising ment for innovation to thrive. Addition- appointments on a 'dog day’. In pediatrics, just as aggressively in the adult setting. creativity in leadership and ally, clinicians are trained to be evidenced we know that getting a needle stick is one It takes collective incorporation. Walking the halls organisations. based. Yet, coming up with 'the novel of the most anxiety-inducing experiences of the hospital, you now see pet therapy teams What does this tell us about the role of design in pain idea’ may mean the absence of evidence. for children, so it seemed like a natural everywhere! That was the vision we pursued: management? Working in pain is kind of like looking at There is an opportunity for clinicians to fit to try pet therapy in the outpatient lab. pet therapy teams, smiles and stress reduction the ocean. Where do you start? think more like designers and embrace From there, it spread to the MRI suite, throughout the experience. We got a lot of support failure as part of the iterative process. surgery waiting area, emergency depart- from our partners in departments such as child The hospital experience can be very distressing ment and rehabilitation gym. The pets life, volunteer services, physiotherapy, phlebotomy, for anyone, especially for a child and for the family Natalie Nixon: How did you come up with serve as a key design intervention: distrac- ­radiology, and nursing. We also learned that the supporting that child. Pain management is a huge the idea of introducing pets to soothe tion from the onset of anxiety and pain. doctors, nurses and clinical staff can benefit as opportunity to think about how we can use design Paul Rosen, MD was kids having injections? much as patients. It is care for the caregivers. thinking to change the emotional experience of the named 'One of the First Please explain the 'cycle of anxiety’. encounter. We demonstrated with the example of 100 Innovators' by the U.S What did you learn from children in the process of Federal Government Agency Paul Rosen: It came from work earlier needle sticks (both blood draw and IV placement) for Healthcare Research in my career, where our team created Our old lab was designed so that patients designing this? of how our multi-disciplinary teams came together and Quality. Dr. Rosen is a a whole dog themed experience: dog would exit through the waiting room. to redesign the experience from the child’s per­ paediatric rheumatologist at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont photos, dog magazines, dog stamps, exam Children waiting for blood work would We interviewed children of various ages. You observe spec­tive. We have the technology, commitment Hospital for Children. rooms decorated with different dog breeds, witness other children leaving the lab them relaxing, smiling, engaging and getting dis­ and the expertise to mitigate pain and suffering for He serves as the Clinical and even ‘puppy passports’ where the in tears. That experience builds anxiety. tracted from the medical issue. Parents tell us how children. We just need to unleash design principles Director of Service and Operational Excellence for children would win prizes for coming to Our leadership redesigned the space it is another service that demonstrates how much our and be open to the question: ‘why not redesign?’ Nemours. the doctor. We had an amazing response to address the design issues. Once pet hospital cares about the comfort of their children.

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collaborate with marketing teams to measure the to corporations. Visualising outcomes, processes and effect of a new concept on consumers’ behaviour or concepts help to create shared language to communicate satisfaction, these new parameters can be taken into across silos and disciplines. However, it is not just a account. By doing so, concepts are not only judged on matter of making a nice visual, prototype or video the company’s existing values (where they might fail that explains the concept. Properly communicating to show significant results) but can also be measured the value for both the company and the customer and Giving Disruptive against new parameters and demonstrated to be adjusting this message to the different stakeholders worth the investment of another round of iteration. within the business and their needs is key.

Innovations a Chance Communicate about the project and empower Using design skills to bridge the implementation gap others to do so Network building to get the right people involved In order to create support for a new concept, at the right time communicating about it and its development is crucial. As the concept develops iteratively, new stakeholders Have you ever found it difficult to turn innovative ideas into Concepts developed by a small project team that are will need to get involved. In order to get the right people practice? In this article, we present a simple model to explain suddenly rolled out, rarely are accepted at face value. involved at the right time, their interest and goals need Other people and departments need to know about to be taken into account. In this complex process, design how disruptive innovation works in larger organisations and how the concept and to be given the opportunity to become skills can be applied in finding the right (internal and ex- you can support the implementation using design skills. enthusiastic about it. This co-creative mindset is one of ternal) stakeholders and understanding their core values the big contributions designers are nowadays making and interests. Researching values and interests is already largely being done in the initial phases of service design Marie de Vos is a Design The skills that designers use to ideate We find that this simple, ‘designed’ projects. It is important to keep on doing this as the pro- Researcher at STBY and is and create new solutions often do not representation of innovation processes is time ject evolves and new stakeholders (need to) get involved. one of the co-founders of the Dutch Chapter of the seem to reach beyond the concepting recognised quickly and makes existing These activities do not take place one after the other: Service Design Network. phase and great ideas and concepts processes clear. The model has been a instead, they are all part of iterations leading towards the end-up on the shelf. After analysing helpful tool for better explaining and Fig 1. implementation. For this to happen however, a change several of our cases, we argue one reason understanding innovation processes and, in perspective on two sides is needed. On the one hand, for this failed implementation is the as such, it allows for an honest discussion roll-out organisations have to allow and nurture design skills to incorrect perception that lives around and for managing expectations. additional take a role in these processes. But, at least as important, Research revenue disruptive innovation. The process, as it The discussions that were enabled it demands a change in perspective from the side of choose is perceived by many, is visualised aside by this model led us to identify what a concept designers. Design skills can be applied on a more strategic (Figure 1): an idea from the research activities designers could carry out to level and you should look for opportunities to do so, or phase is introduced to the mainstream support the implementation process. enable others to use design skills do so. By acknowledging Klaas Jan Wierda is an Innovation Lead for Océ- organisation and generates substantial Three core activities were identified, and the value you can add, you can take more responsibility in Technologies R&D and is results shortly after introduction. we elaborate them here. time this implementation process. one of the co-founders of However, in reality, a new concept the Dutch Chapter of the Service Design Network. requires a lot of validation before Research success parameters maturing into a sizeable result. Typically, in the early exploratory phase, A dedicated group needs to build a designers research the behaviours and business with the idea. This will cost motivations of end users to come to a

the current organisation, because formulation of their main needs. This Research additional resources need to be applied to an broader exploration is not only helpful revenue unproven idea. The roll-out of the new in the initial phases of a project, but can Fig 1. Disruptive concept in the organisation in question also be beneficial in the implementation innovation: Spin-out hopefully generates additional results, phase as the identified needs can be the perception but this may take substantially longer seen as parameters to measure if the Build business Roll-out than expected, since (part of) the developed concept really taps into Fig 2. Disruptive Choose Decide organisation needs to be re-formed. those needs. By having designers a concept where to roll-out innovation: reality

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Service Design and CX: Friends or foes? servi c e de si g n a nd c x : friend s or f oe s ?

but, as long as the sales funnel stayed full, business differentiation. Unfortunately, CX currently struggles Bridging the Gap stayed happy. with an identity crisis and a failure to fully deliver on its promise. As we will explore below, the penchant Service Design is the Means to Customer Customers, on the other hand, found themselves of customer experience leaders to focus ­on numbers Experience Success dealing with inferior or inconvenient products and measurements without framing to actually design and services. They got lost in long, automated tele­ the necessary changes has created a gap that service phone queues. They suffered feelings of increasing design is ready to fill. anonymity in service encounters. The Internet boom The knowledge that collaboration and synergy fuel success of the early 2000’s increased customer frus­trations While CX leaders across industries agree on the as the interfaces between humans and technology goal of their efforts, i.e. ‘We need to improve customer is a cornerstone of service design. As practitioners, we have became more numerous and more complex. experience in order to improve loyalty and revenue,’ there developed or applied many methods to break down silos and seems to be no agreement on crucial points to secure encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration. We do this in service Entrepreneurial online businesses and the develop­ progress and success. Basic questions abound: how do ment of enterprise and cloud technologies that followed we define ‘customer experience'?; who owns customer to the organisation, to keep everyone’s eyes on understanding increased competition in every industry. Using social experience?; and just how do we actually improve it? Lynn Stott, Ph.D., is a the customer and their needs. media, customers started talking. And with more choice, customer experience design customers started walking. Business began to worry. Disparities of definition exist across industries, consultant who champions service design as an CX as a strategy stepped into the spotlight. within individual organisations and across the essential methodology for It is ironic that the field of Customer and analysis that forms the bulk of CX professional practice of CX itself. If business leaders improvement and change. Experience (CX), whose success depends practices cannot deliver on necessary Service design has developed during the last 15 years and service designers are confused about exactly what Her insights are born of a background in anthropology on deep understanding of customers, changes in customer experience without or so in response to the same increase in interfaces CX is, it’s due to the fact that, within the discipline and education coupled with has not been one of our closest partners, significant help from service design. between humans and technology. Service design is a itself, there is very little that is unified or consistent. 15 years conducting design at least not until now. mindset and set of tools comprising a methodology projects and developing in-house programs for UX, Service design’s human-centred for solving problems where the goals of people, tech­ CX as customer service CX, & service design. She CX is a strategic business value approaches to problem definition, target nology, process and behaviour come together. The For some organisations, CX walked through the door has experience in education, energy, finance and the NGO proposition. Improving the customer state blueprinting, contextual data core value of service design is putting humans – their as a process improvement approach (or sometimes sector. She lives in California experience promises an increase in analysis, rapid prototyping and more will voices, their needs, deep empathy with their realities, merely a new name) for customer service: the part of and works wherever she can customer loyalty, brand reputation close the gap between CX’s data analytics and insights into their behaviours – into the design an organisation that customers encounter as they learn make a difference. and revenues in the business of selling and the quality experiences that will of services, products, organisations, interactions and, to use its products or when something goes wrong. products and services. Improving make a real difference, both to customers yes, experiences. This continues to be a very common approach as experiences increases engagement, and to the bottom line. Service design even more companies begin their CX journeys. Many participation, behaviour change and is the means by which to deliver on the Customer experience and the gap: CX jobs posted on LinkedIn in the US are actually compliance in education, healthcare value of customer experience. CX as a discipline and strategic approach gained both customer service jobs with a new label. For exam­ or social services. visibility and practitioners over the last 15 years, with ple, Comcast's 2015 announcement that it was hiring A short review of history: faster movement over the past eight-to-ten years. CX 5000 CX specialists didn't mean hiring 5000 ana­ However, in many organizations and Changes in retail and service operations is now visible in the C-suite of many large companies lysts, designers or ethnographers, but rather more sectors, CX as a discipline and strategy of the last 30–40 years led to the need and a ‘commitment’ to improving customer experiences service agents, call centre agents and installers who falls short on some of its promises. From for customer experience strategy. (and patient experiences, and student experiences, etc.) would now be called customer experience agents. a ‘big picture’ view, CX as a function Technology and the opening of world appears in many mission and strategy statements. spends too much time measuring and labour markets led to a shift to ­high- Historically, early customer experience efforts focused not enough time designing. In this volume production of goods. Customer CX is a strategic perspective and value proposition on improving customer service because, in many in­dus­ article, I suggest that the data gathering turnover in some industries increased that seeks to deliver customer retention and brand tries, it is the most visible interface with the company.

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It's not a bad place to start, but a number of companies stop and analysis. For some, this was as far as they got. untouchable traditions as the starting point (rather there, and customer service is far from a finishing point. The good news is that CX leaders are beginning to than questioning them and re-evaluating reality). We Customer Experience recognize the shortcomings of these current systems. also see resistance to new methods of problem-solving. Interactions Measuring: Net Promoter Score Making real differences to the products, services Before many organisations are willing to establish Journey-mapping & process design and systems that create the customer experience Products Services an internal program for CX, they want to make sure Frustrated CX leaders are looking for other approaches requires intentional change. Despite protests to the they have measurements in place to determine the to link data insights to customer insights in order to contrary, few organisations really like change. Rapid prototyping effectiveness of their efforts. The approaches to finding execute on real innovation. Many CX programs have Robust cross-functional co-creation the right measure(s) have been many and varied. begun to use one particular service design technique: We are reaching a tipping point: CX leaders now

gn Human-centered Design

the journey map. It is the tool of choice for clarifying see the gap between their measurements and the goals si Fred Reicheld’s work regarding customer loyalty led to and examining pain points, and often leads to first that they have set for themselves. Customer experience Blueprinting: products, services, experiences 2 the concept of the Net Promoter Score (NPS): a measure attempts at co-design efforts (though most CX leaders leaders grow more willing to consider alternatives. ice De Employee Journey Mapping of customers' likelihood to recommend the company or don't choose the word ‘design’). rv Fieldwork & ethnography its products and services to friends and family members. Service design to the rescue! Se Holistic perspectives The value proposition behind the NPS is its promise to be Too many times, journey mapping and first efforts CX has made a few steps, but the gap to actually the highest correlative indicator of customer loyalty and at co-design don't get very far. A core reason for this delivering improved experiences is still large. Service Backstage / On stage word-of-mouth recommendation.1 shortfall is the tendency of business to work from the design offers the way to build on CX’s data insights Co-creation inside out: accepting perceived limitations and internal with an expansive toolkit anchored in human-centred Process Improvement

In theory, improvements in NPS will improve design principles. The result is a holistic approach Customer Journey Mapping customer retention and net revenues. In practice, NPS with people-centred insights at the heart of solutions strategy and implementation have been, for many that leads to authentic innovation and improved expe­ Voice of the Customer Data: companies, a confusing breakdown point. Where does riences. This ultimately provides increased retention Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer NPS fit in the company? What does it actually mean? and revenues. Service design allows companies to Satisfaction, etc. How does one use it to make actual improvements? ‘do the right thing’ both for their customers, for their Service Design Tool Kit includes: Every business has a different response to each employees and for their business. question, and most combinations leave CX programs 1. Customer journey map Service Design provides the necessary that are struggling to demonstrate their promise. Service design is a mindset, a methodology and a tool 2. Service blueprint building blocks for creating an improved 3. Fieldwork: ethnography, interviews kit, but it is not an end in and of itself. Flexible and shape- Measuring: Voice of the Customer 4. Personas shifting, it provides the pathway to improved design and Customer Experience A number of organisations approach CX as primarily 5. Empathy mapping greater longevity for organisations, products, services, a ‘listening’ post activity and equate it with Voice of 6. Contextual data analysis interactions, and experiences. the Customer (VOC). That is why, in many companies, 7. Cross-functional co-design workshops marketing and VOC programs were the first to champion 8. Rapid prototypes CX practitioners have data and analysis and, a concept of CX, seeing it as another way to measure 9. Storyboarding sometimes, great statistical insights, but they struggle customer satisfaction. 10. Mental maps, mental models to identify actionable insights and then design products and more ... and services based upon those insights. As service For these companies, the introduction of CX design practitioners know, service design provides the and NPS happened in relation to market evaluation framework for identifying insights, framing the design of solutions and leading collaborative design that delivers.

The Service Design tool kit 1 Reicheld, Fred, The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and 2 This point of realization has spurred the reach to customer journey True Growth. Harvard Business School Press, 2006. (selected items) mapping and fledgling efforts at co-design.

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Joining forces Service design’s raison-d’être is to provide frame­ One particular challenge for service design practitioners works and tools to design solutions to complex prob­ Customer Experience Maturity Phases: is that most CX leaders are unaware of the discipline lems. Service design maps the ideal state of interactions, Customer of service design. As we've seen, they catch a glimpse cuts across silos and forces an integrated, human- Experience of some of service design's tools in efforts at journey 1. Ignore: CX is not part of centred, collaborative approach to solutions design. mapping or touchpoint mapping. But they have very little value proposition. This approach will always provide the best possible exposure to the overall practice and its promise.3 2. Explore: Executives appoint solutions for customer experiences: solutions that a temporary team to examine the service design’s methodology itself aids in testing, There is also the problem with the word ‘design’. The the value of CX. evaluating and ranking. Service misunderstanding I've encountered most when trying to 3. Mobilize: Organization appoints Minimum table stakes5 for business and technology introduce aspects of human-centred design to problem a full-time executive to build get higher every year. Customer experience will Design definition or solutions design has been the assertion that team & roadmap activity. be the way companies continue to grow and flex with design has no respect for business outcomes or revenues. 4. Operationalize: Begin redesigning changing markets. Service design can help business Design is viewed as fluffy, and bringing in customers to cross-functional processes, build the necessary ecosystems and frameworks to keep participate in co-creation introduces too many wild cards products, and interfaces. a lively engagement with customers and their needs to the process. Business doesn't like to lose control.4 5. Align: CX metrics integrated with at the centre of strategy, operations and culture. Data other business & HR metrics. Service design's first big opportunity to help is prob­ 6. Embed: CX is integral part of And so … Strategy ably at the level of operationalisation. Bruce Temkin company culture. Customer experience is the value proposition. Service identifies six stages in an organisation's maturity of CX design is the approach and structural framework for change. Adapted from: Temkin Group Q1 2015 CX success. Service Design is HOW we deliver Management Survey Report. The service design toolkit is diverse, well-honed Customer Experience While many organisations are, as we have seen, in the and looking for difficult problems to solve. Customer early stages (still measuring, measuring), the tipping experience, as we have seen, has a wide gap between point for service design occurs at the phases in which where it is (measurement and analysis) and where CX teams are asked to work with operations to produce Customer Experience it needs to be (practical, results-producing change). results. This is the starting point (sometimes beginning Maturity Phases I have been on a journey with both customer with phase 3, but definitely with phase 4). More experience and service design for the past 15 years. delightful, wicked design opportunities occur in the I have puzzled at the paucity of crossover, all alignment and enculturation phases (phases 5 & 6). the while, in my own practice, integrating service design as the methodology for delivering on custo­ Journey mapping could be a great entry point for build trust and then share other tools and opportu­ni­ mer experience. I urge you to do the same. service design practices into the customer experience ties with CX teams. Long experience shows that service design is the framework, allowing service design practitioners to discipline that bridges the data gathering and analysis Service design and its secret sauce: of customer experience to design a holistic system that Customer experience is based in interactions layered delivers true improvement to the customer experience. upon other interactions – including business mission, Service design is not only a player and a partner, it is 3 Notable exceptions are champions like Kerry Bodine who fluently speaks both languages and Bruce Temkin who, though he doesn't use technology and manufacturing, delivery, on-boarding, essential to the success of customer experience. the vocabulary of service design, talks of methods that parallel those implementation, customer service and engagement. of service design in his appeal that CX adopt 'people-centred design'. Delivering branded, integrated customer experiences 4 For helpful insights on educating business and CX partners, read the 5 In poker and other gambling games, 'table stakes’ are a limit on means finding solutions to many complex problems and excellent articles in Touchpoint Vol. 7 No. 3 – Selling Service Design, the amount a player can win or lose in the play of a single hand. January 2016. orchestrating how those solutions work together. (Wikipedia)

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Service Design and CX:

Distinctions­ without People are... Internal clients are... Differences? A Comparison of Contexts, Cultures, and Customers For Customer Customers (either prospective, Those who provide an current, or former). They ‘experience’ to a Experience behave rationally and customer across Service designers and Customer Experience (CX) designers both predictably. Their behaviour ‘channels’ and who work to improve the experiences people have when they interact tends to map closely to the think of operational with an organisation. We are all experience designers. We share metrics collected about them changes to experiences and their answers to surveys. in terms of the resultant the same tools for understanding and mapping behaviour, and the changes to their metrics same approaches to designing the touchpoints and underlying for assessment. Toby Bottorf joined systems that deliver a better experience. Why do we use Continuum to establish a digital design capability and different names for what seems to be the same work? The main is now a VP in service design, Actors (either front stage, Those who provide leading teams to design differences we see are between more data-driven approaches For Service solutions for complex human back of house, or moving offerings that span to CX and more qualitative approaches to service design. These and technical systems. His Design between the two). Some across a period of time work builds on a career in arise from differences in goals and determine how success is UX and interface design, aspects of their behavior and touchpoints focusing on integrating UX measured. cannot be easily captured (digital, physical, etc), initiatives into broader CX and by metrics, and often diverges which must suit a range operational strategies. in fact from both their intent of actors with complex Qualitative and Quantitative Where did CX originate as a and the ways they report and differentiated Measures discipline? their own behaviour. needs, and whose While CX and service design share a CX was born in the competitive American outcomes may not common language of experience design, corporate context, where it arose from always be measurable or it is often the dominant perspective marketing departments’ expansion of tangible. of the implementing organisation – responsibilities to include the relation competitive- versus collectively-minded – with existing customers, beyond the that determines how this work is scoped, traditional role of acquiring customers. Zach Hyman is a Design directed, and measured. Additionally, This expansion requires managing both Strategist at Continuum who Additional distinctions in perspective between CX and SD has previously worked on how this work is framed depends on operational aspects of the organisation, teams developing products who owns the initiative. CX is primarily and technologically mediated channels and services for healthcare, transportation, agriculture, the domain of marketing leadership, (software and UX). mobile and education across while service design initiatives may nine countries. He received be owned by IT, operations or a more As B. Joseph Pine II and James H. a Fulbright scholarship to study innovation in China cross-disciplinary governing body. These Gilmore were writing a book entitled and recently published are fundamentally different contexts for The Experience Economy in 1999, digital Yangonomics, a book about the same goal of designing compelling technologies had been ascending from Myanmar’s informal economy. human experiences. an accessory of traditional advertising to

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a competitor for its budget.1 Describing notions already How are CX engagements evaluated? CX practitioners most often set out seeking to change things that may be felt by customers familiar to those in the hospitality industry, the authors A victory in the competitively-minded field of CX is to diagnose and fix the most broken and employees, but not necessarily easily measured. stressed the necessity of moving from thinking about evaluated through metrics-measuring concepts like physical commodities to instead selling the experience 'engagement'. Customer engagement metrics range from parts of a customer’s experience, while How are service design engagements evaluated? surrounding a product. Over the following years, web- low engagement behaviours, such as bookmarking or service designers typically set out to Just as user requirements and design constraints vary based advertising and digital channels continued to ‘liking' a company’s page or post, to high engagement identify users’ previously unmet needs. across each service design engagement, so too do the flourish and marketers gained new insights into the activities like customers generating their own content terms of success vary by client. CX practitioners most efficacy of their activities by scrutinising new, deep, and on behalf of a brand. While much of the analysed data is often set out to diagnose and fix the most broken parts incredibly precise data. More analogue measures like 'digital exhaust', generated passively by people, surveys of a customer’s experience, while service designers Net Promoter Scores (the measurement of a customer’s are a notable exception to this, including surveys refinement and evolutionary (rather than revolutionary) typically set out to identify users’ previously unmet willingness to recommend the goods or services offered rating customers’ interactions with touchpoints like an advancement of the most precisely measurable needs. As a result, the outcome of a service design project by a company) were complemented with usage metrics, online chat with a customer service representative. interactions, prioritising the optimisation of existing is more likely to be the creation of a new customer-facing and likes, mentions, tweets and pins, on the social media channels over the creation of entirely new offerings or offering rather than CX’s reconfiguration of an existing sites Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest respectively. Due to the metric-centred view that companies use to channels. Of course, that which is easiest to measure is one to drive performance against key metrics. This is due evaluate their offerings, CX projects usually focus on not necessarily that which is most important. to service design’s more open and holistic context and The widespread deployment of this toolkit, which some the improvement of a company’s existing offerings to how that frames learning goals. Sometimes, an entirely might label the beginning of CX, led to marketing’s generate higher customer satisfaction metrics. Funding Where did service design originate as a discipline? new experience is the stated intent. In our experience, expansion of influence within the corporation to include and initial hypotheses are often directed at known Similar to CX, one perspective on the origin of service those projects are more likely to be framed as service more fundamental, operational aspects and to the tactical challenges. However, when we get into doing design suggests it arose out of a human-centred approach design engagements than CX. emergence of roles like ‘marketing technologist’. Gartner the work in a human-centred way, understanding people to bringing together marketing and operations. At predicts that, by 2017 “…a company’s chief marketing deeply, we often see the potential for greater impact. least, that can be said of one of the key tools of service Take Continuum’s work with Audi AG, for example. In officer [will] be spending more on technology than its Many CX initiatives grow naturally into more holistic design, the service blueprint (as shared by Lynn designing a car-on-demand service, one of Audi’s goals chief information officer.”2 service design projects. Shostack in her seminal article in the Harvard Business was to translate engineering-based brand attributes into Review). 4 By depicting how a customer and service a native language of service. We sought to capitalise on At Continuum, we have first-hand experience of this. provider engage with each other across a span of time, the 'experience economy’ by giving people access instead Due to the metric-centred view that We were recently engaged by a health insurance and introducing the 'line of visibility’ to the process of ownership. This project investigated the right role of companies use to evaluate their company to improve patients’ experiences interacting to create what service designers today often call the people and software, automated and personal communi­ with their call centre. For this project, the driving 'backstage', this marked the beginning of trying to cations and even physical spaces, job responsibilities and offerings, CX projects usually focus measure of success was customer satisfaction. While better design intangible, time-based interaction. As uniforms. We designed the ideal customer experience on the improvement of a company’s we achieved this objective, our redesign yielded it evolved as a discipline, the toolkits of design and indirectly, by designing the ways the service operates existing offerings to generate higher additional positive results: lower total call time, as ethnography joined the duo of marketing and operations. and supports that experience. This was, in many ways, a well as greater job satisfaction reported by staff. We Today, our firm Continuum and many others aim to start-up operation. Our early prototypes looked true and customer satisfaction metrics. saw broad system impact, even though our initial help grow service design as a discipline in the United real: we had a call centre number, a web-app on custom­ directive was to optimise only one party’s experience. States for companies, both for- and non-profit alike. ers’ phones, uniforms, and loose interaction scripts. We We believe in the ability of the service design process built it in order to learn what it wanted to be and where One could take issue with the ability to optimise an to deliver meaningful impact globally to companies the system was vulnerable to failure. There was no base­ experience – something that is, by its very definition, line experience to improve on or even refer to. subjective – yet there are plenty of articles instructing CX managers in how to ostensibly do this.3 Ultimately, Deep experiential assessment is the best way to figure 1 Pine, J. and Gilmore, J. (1999) The Experience Economy, Harvard a successful customer experience leads to higher sales 3 http://blog.usabilla.com/which-metrics-are-most-important-for- out how to make something better. While surveys and Business School Press, Boston, 1999. optimizing-cx/ 2 https://hbr.org/2014/07/the-rise-of-the-chief-marketing- and drives the total lifetime value of a customer. A 4 Shostack, L. G. (1984). 'Designing Services that Deliver'. Harvard other metrics can provide an accurate measure of a technologist focus on metrics often drives CX engagements toward Business Review (84115): 133-139. customer’s satisfaction, they are not effective tools for

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Read Touchpoint Archive Online understanding how to improve a service. Just as the The benefits of great service design process to deliver a valuable experience, we could have research process for a service design engagement is do not always lend themselves to a included assurances of high customer satisfaction bespoke, so, too, is the definition of success. ratings in our proposal (had Audi asked for them). story told in data and, judged by those Whether taking CX’s iterative, metrics-informed Why does service design flourish in Europe and standards, can be received skeptically. approach to improving how customers conceive of 330+ falter in America? a brand, or using service design’s toolkit to uncover One of the reasons we believe service design has been people’s unmet needs and designing an offering from artic

slower to catch on in the U.S. is that it is adopted in to design a service that would yield non-measurable the ground up, when practiced well, both create les the organisational context of CX work, and as a result results when they could instead employ a CX perspective happier people, and that’s what matters in the end. evaluated against CX’s quantitative measures. The to iterate upon an offering they already have with results benefits of great service design do not always lend (higher metrics) that can be counted. Of course, an If these fields continue to move closer together, as we free themselves to a story told in data and, judged by those over-reliance upon metrics is unproductive as well, as anticipate they will, we look for the best of both of access standards, can be received skeptically. We continually shown by between 60 and 80 percent of customers who these approaches to complement each other. CX needs work to legitimise vivid human storytelling as a form of considered themselves 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied’ on the more holistic and human measures of success; service data. This is challenging. Experiential stories are ‘true' most recent customer satisfaction survey administered design needs greater business fluency to leverage an in feeling, but less so in an analytical sense. They direct before they defected to a competitor.5 organisation’s capability better. Each can get what it strategy on the basis of empathy, not data, and they are needs from the other. best experienced first-hand, in the field, not distilled So, where to from here? into business documents. Companies need to be willing Despite the differences between service design and CX, to pursue a more experiential governance model for CX each discipline cares about how customers consider and Touchpoint, the Journal of Service Design, was work to see the full benefit of service design thinking. relate to organisations and both could stand to learn from launched in May 2009 and is the first and only the other. The best way forward must account for a better journal dedicated to the theory and practice of Today, American companies are turning to marketing synthesis of quantitative and qualitative learning. Service service design. Published by SDN three times technology roles because they are the sum of the two designers are getting better at using hard data, at setting per year, it provides a written record of the familiar silos of IT and marketing: more of a merging the right target for more ethnographic research and at ongoing discussions within the service design and less of a replacement. In conversation with American making refinements later in the process. CX professionals community. service designers, many state that without more are extending their scope, beyond fixing what’s broken to To improve the reach of this unique resource, quantitative means of assessment and framing outcomes exploring what’s next. Touchpoint has opened its Archive (all issues in terms of measurable Key Performance Indicators, except the three most recent). That means service design in America is at a disadvantage. American Our CX engagement to improve the call centre experi­ more than 330 articles related to service companies’ prowess at collecting data and using it for ence drew upon ethnographic research techniques design freely available on our website. Enjoy marketing and iterating upon their offerings vis-à-vis to deliver successful outcomes, measured against the opportunity to search articles by volume their competitors leaves little room for approaches that hard quantitative criteria. Yet, our team never lost and issue, by authors or keywords. propose investigating the human messiness readily sight of the fact that we would be judged, not by the engaged with by service design. methods we used, but by the results achieved by our Visit SDN website and sign in for a free Community Membership to dive into the proposed revisions. Similarly, we started from human Touchpoint Archive! Full issues of Touchpoint Given the choice, decision-makers in American needs in our service design engagement with Audi, but may be also read on-screen and on mobile companies tend to prefer the cut-and-dried lens of data because we believed in the ability of the service design devices via the Issuu website and app. as a means of understanding customer behaviour, rather than the nuanced and not always easily summarised findings that ethnographic research can uncover. Most 5 Eisenberg B. and Eisenberg J., (2006) Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?, risk-averse American companies would balk at a proposal Thomas Nelson, Nashville www.service-design-network.org

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embraced by customers and are establishing a new bar Why Customer Experience for consumer entitlement and expectations, not just with Isn’t Enough similar services, but across all industries. More and more, we are seeing these 'liquid' Silicon Valley Needs Service Design expectations prevail (a concept championed by Shelley Evenson of Fjord), where customers expect the same level and quality of service regardless of the channel, Silicon Valley is the home of most of the world’s most influential medium or industry. As they swipe left and right on their tech companies. A focus on design and customer experience smartphone screens, they ask: 'Why can’t the post office be more like my experience with Instacart? Why can’t is everywhere, from the CEO down to the newly hired designer. my medical provider have the same on-demand service Many tech companies that once dominated through features experience like Uber?' and functionality now compete almost solely on the customer These liquid expectations, in combination with a Erik Flowers is a Principal experience. But today, competing on the customer experience of much more mature, technically-savvy customer base, Service Designer at Intuit, has led to a rapid growth in customer entitlement across a financial services company, touchpoints isn’t enough. where he is re-envisioning all industries. Customers are seeking more value from customer experiences, digital technologies, expecting a product to become a and building organisational A changing landscape capacity to design end-to- Just ten years ago, having a dedicated service and businesses to become service providers. end and surface-to-core. experience design team would have been Design in tech is rapidly evolving. There People don’t want a shopping app to just show them what an exception, not a rule. As technology are new players on the scene, such as is available to buy, they want a company to take care of has boomed, especially with the intro­ Airbnb, Uber and Instacart, service-based the shopping for them, full stop. People don’t want an app duction of the smartphone in the past companies that are using technology to that can call various cab companies, they want a company decade, experience design has grown deliver fantastic service experiences, to provide them with a safe, fast and convenient ride. from a luxury to a necessity. Today, we where the technology is purely an see design at the forefront of company interface layer to facilitate the delivery of An opportunity for service design identity, and not a single company would value to the customer. These companies This is why now is the time for service design in admit that customer experience isn’t a top are taking The Valley by storm and are Silicon Valley. How companies deliver their service Megan Miller is Senior priority. It has been the best way (so far) playing a major role in shifting customer experience is becoming just as important (if not Service Designer for Stanford University IT, where she for companies to differentiate in a sea of expectations. works to design seamless rapidly innovating competition. and quality customer experiences for the university Yet experience design in the technology Companies such as these are standing and build momentum industry has largely remained confined to out because of their focus on using digital Customers now have 'liquid' expec­ around service design. the digital medium, and companies still as a means to meet real-world, non-digital tations of service experiences that cross Erik and Megan are approach design from the perspective of customer needs. For example, shopping Co-Founders of www. the product and its digital interfaces. This for groceries, getting a ride across town industries, from finance to hospitality PracticalServiceDesign. deeply-rooted culture of the 'product' – quickly or saving money on an overnight to entertainment. Digital experiences com, an online resource and community of practice for the software, website, or mobile app – still trip. The digital experience is a means are enabling these liquid expectations, service designers. reigns supreme across Silicon Valley and to providing service, not the other way drives much of the strategic integration of around. Their delightful, orchestrated, prompting customers to ask, 'Why can’t design into company culture. multi-channel experiences are being my entire date night be like this?'

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Shifting from products to services more important) than the value offering of the This results in customers having to assemble requires not only a new mindset and product itself. The product then becomes just a their service experience from the various product touchpoint of their holistic service experience. offerings on their own, instead of the way it should methods, but also new organisational be, where the business designs the end-to-end structures. Whereas in a product- Over the past decade, the product itself was the service that the customer experiences. It is between based organisation, teams are differentiator, but this is all changing. More and more these gaps and organisational silos where service we are seeing companies shift towards a services design will help companies stay cohesive and organised around each product and model: where once they offered a single app or product, deliver customer experience that goes beyond just organically piece together the customer now they are trying to offer more. A prime example delighting on a touchpoint-by-touchpoint basis. is a typical Software as a Service model (SAAS), experience of company offerings, where we see the service layer being added to online The service design transformation in a services-based organisation, software, previously treated more simply as a product, Companies have an opportunity to differentiate on how teams are organised in alignment with now becoming a monthly subscription model but still well-designed their holistic service experience is, across not managed as a coordinated, end-to-end service channels and beyond just digital. Many companies are the end-to-end customer experience experience. Think of Adobe as an example, where already trying to make this transformation, but don’t yet of the service, with each 'product' Photoshop once required a one-time payment for have the tools or mindset to make the shift. This is where as a touchpoint along that journey. software as a product, but now is part of the Creative service design can offer a new approach that goes beyond Cloud subscription service. customer experience to evolve the way the organisation operates. This requires a shift in mindset from product As companies add value through new offerings, to service, a shift in the way organisations are structured layered onto a product-based infrastructure, service to make space for service design to happen and a rise of ecosystems are being established organically around design leadership to help organisations adopt more inte­ what once was core product-based functionality. grated and holistic approaches to designing for services. These ecosystems of offerings are what we as service designers understand as connected services. We, as service designers, have an opportunity to lead But the tech industry is late to the service design this influx of practice into the technology industry, party, and the lack of strategic planning or foresight helping organisations see their ecosystem of products regarding products turning into services leads to an as interconnected services and growing capacity for unorchestrated and ad-hoc ecosystem of services. designing across the service ecosystem they are creating.

This inheritance of a product-based mindset and Challenges for change organisational structure is a major challenge for Silicon This transformation will not be easy. There are major Valley companies who are trying to adopt a services challenges that we face in bringing service design approach. Although specific touchpoints may have to a product-based technology culture. The first ownership and design teams supporting them, the gaps is mindset. Helping companies see the difference between these touchpoints and the ecosystem of the between providing excellent product experiences service as a whole may not have an owner to provide and excellent service experiences will be critical holistic design direction. Customer experience and to making this transition. This involves educating design are still stuck in product-based silos, instead of teams on the end-to-end customer experience that transforming the organisation to think holistically across crosses touchpoints and channels and helping them a multi-channel experience. see where they fit in that end-to-end experience.

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Three major challenges and only going to accelerate: it’s a part of the trend towards opportunities for service personalisation and the ‘customised service’ economy.

design: developing mindset, Much as, over the last decade, we have seen a transi­ changing organisation and tion of UX as differentiator to UX as requirement, we believe that service design is poised to be the next big dif­ building capability. ferentiator in tech. As the medium of brands is becoming more and more irrelevant, the only thing customers will attach to our names to is the service we provide.

But companies should not feel like they have to reinvent the wheel. Technology companies can benefit from looking to and adapting the ‘design-for-service’ practices of mature service-oriented industries, such The second challenge is organisational and involves How do we help create adoption of service design as internal consultants and establishing new lines of healthcare, finance and hospitality that have already understanding the difference between managing a practices in organisations that are struggling to even communications internally within the company. embraced service design at the core of their business. product and managing a service and implementing this understand how their products are becoming services? By co-opting practices from these service sectors, tech change across the organisation. Product management This will require new roles to emerge that will take companies can gain a huge head-start in developing is much more siloed and focused around the specific Facing the challenge responsibility for designing service experience across internal services infrastructures to meet the challenges technology or product being provided to the customer. We have to help our organisations understand a the service ecosystem, roles that are accountable for that lie ahead. Services, in contrast, involve the many layers of that services mindset: not just the customer experience, end-to-end customer experience across the organisa­ service experience, from sales to onboarding, to but the internal business experience side of it as tion. These new roles will help align internal, touch­ Empowering the future customer support and incident management. This service well. We do this through introducing core concepts, point-specific teams to the overall customer journey. For Silicon Valley to adopt service design, we have management practice looks very different from an terminology and methods and tying those to the heart to make the space and empower our organisations. organisational standpoint and may require a shift in core of the business in a tangible way. This will help us Lastly, we have to help our colleagues build capability Designers have to be empowered to extend the reach of structures and reporting in a fundamental way. adopt a more end-to-end customer-experience mindset for integrating service design into their day-to-day what it means to design to include the things that happen across our service experiences and allow us to build work. This means enabling them through developing in the gaps between touchpoints. Companies have to The last challenge is one of capabilities: the organisational bridges between touchpoints in a holistic shared terminology, frameworks and methodologies be empowered to recognise the larger picture they are development of services methodologies and practices way and to consider the variety of paths by which a that embody a services-based approach. It means creating and place people into roles that can help design across the organisation. This involves the introduction customer can travel through a multi-channel space empowering them to utilise service design practices for the experience of that larger picture. And, most of all, of service design and service management tools and best of a service experience. In this way, we can create and helping them integrate their work into a broader leaders have to be empowered to allow these changes to practices to all levels of the organisation, helping staff customer experience that is seamless and navigable context. take place and to have the courage to embrace the future grow in their abilities to support a customer perspective and organisation structure that supports the design of of technology as a service. in providing service experiences, no matter which silo and transition between touchpoints to meet customer The time is now they sit in. needs and expectations at each phase of the journey. The need for service design is being driven by a combi­ The future of Silicon Valley is not about technology. In nation of customer expectations and organisational a place of boundless inspiration, innovation and inven­ As we mentioned earlier, there are many companies in We also have to help our organisations to see the growth. Customers are now expecting that companies tion, we have the responsibility to introduce the new Silicon Valley that are facing these challenges head-on, path of transformation from products to services and serve them in more ways than just offering products normal. To create a future where the value we provide is and adopting service design as a core competency in their to understand what this might mean for managing and, to meet this demand, companies are now producing no longer derived solely from the products that we build, organisations. But this adoption of service design has yet both customer experience, as well as business process. a more diverse ecosystem of offerings for their but from the service that we perform for our customers. to become the norm. Silicon Valley is still a place built on This may mean leveraging service management practices, customers to interact with. This expansion of both delivering value through product-focused touchpoints. facilitating cross-functional collaboration by acting customer expectation as well as company offerings is

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experience and for each individual to start understanding Great Customer Experiences their role in delivering it. For Paul, CX required an significant transformation: Don’t Happen by Accident Developing a world-leading customer experience for “Airports, for too long, have been Dubai Airports at the crossroad of the world. considered just infrastructure businesses. Actually, we have a vital role to play in It was only two days into my six months of being the interim enabling a level of customer service that Head of Customer Experience for Dubai Airports that I was told certain airlines have already got right in “The crux of the problem is that building great experiences is the air but some airports have let them everyone’s responsibility but only one person’s job.” Customer Dubai Airports currently down with on the ground.” Paul Griffiths, experience (CX) was seen as hugely important, but the welcomes 80 million Dubai Airports, Gulf Business, July 2015. James Samperi is a Director development of ‘experiences' was still elusive. For an organisation passengers per year, making it at service design consultancy Engine. Since August 2015, made up of operations people, analysts and engineers, the idea the world’s busiest airport James has also assumed The CX ceiling the role of Interim Head of of being in the business of experiences didn’t yet resonate. One of the challenges in responding to the CEO was Customer Experience for Dubai Airports. He heads that CX was seen as a role of the research team who up a new and agile research As a Director at Engine service design, Across both airports, the challenge were tasked with measuring the quality of the current and design team focused I’d been helping Dubai Airports develop for CX is the same: how to maintain experience and then making recommendations on what stand their service, how it performs and why to care on delivering an innovative end-to-end experience that a CX vision for a year alongside the then- and enhance the service levels whilst to fix. Although the team was valued for highlighting about getting it right: losing customers is expensive. aims to change the paradigm head of customer experience. But, when accommodating an unprecedented what needed to be addressed, it very rarely gave enough I’ve seen CX create a mandate for change, build busi­ of the conventional airport. he left, it prompted Dubai Airports to increase in the numbers of passengers. guidance as to how to address the shortfalls and take ness cases and promote investment in service. ask me to continue leading the work. My Maintaining service levels wasn’t just advantage of the opportunities. Service design has benefited from organisations emphasis was to 'get momentum', moving critical for Dubai Airports, but equally The organisation needed CX to support them in that have a mature understanding of their CX CX from being an elusive ambition to significant for the airlines, as 70% of the making a more significant step change, and that would but have failed to make inroads into improving it a set of tangible activities and work passengers travelling through Dubai are require a different approach and service design was seen sufficiently. Service design then becomes a means streams that could make a difference to connecting. In real terms, this means a means of providing it. of enhancing that service so it works better, delivers our customers. that, for the 56 million passengers who better value and can be operated more effectively. have to wait, decompress and spend time CX and service design – a potent combination At Dubai Airports, we needed to find a synergy Dubai Airports before catching another flight, the airport As the temporary head of CX, my task ­became one between both approaches. Dubai Airports is the currently the is a significant part of their end-to-end of closing the gap between the ambition of ­developing busiest airport in the world, welcoming customer journey, too. There was a lot of a world-leading customer experience and people see­ Great experiences don’t happen by accident, 80 million passengers in 2015 and with focus on what Dubai Airports would do. ing customer experience as a means of achieving incre­ they are designed an expected rise to 100 million by 2020. mental gains. What Dubai Airports had in ambition it lacked Dubai Airports is also in the middle The size of the challenge led to For some time now, I’ve been a strong believer that CX in clarity of direction and an idea of what the of developing what will be the world’s Paul Griffths, Dubai Airports CEO, to and service design are two complimentary disciplines. ultimate destination would look like for their CX: largest airport, Al Maktoum, which challenge the organisation to become CX has been critical in cementing an understand­ both critical when you need to organise yourself will be able to handle up to 125 million passionately and singularly focused ing of the customer and the business as a service around delivering it. Service design offered a means passengers in its first phase. on delivering a world-class customer provider. It has helped organisations better under­ to developing the pathway and the end state.

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Service Design Airport of the Future workshop developing key concepts and solutions

Qualitative design research to understand

Illustration: Roger Mason Roger Illustration: customer needs, attitudes and behaviours to Dubai Airports The first step was to work with the organisation to As inspiration, we drew on other industries, from in­ air travel ­Customer create a clearly articulated and compelling vision that novative digital services such as Airbnb, animators and felt inspirational, tangible, ambitious but still attainable. storytellers Pixar and understood how Amazon and Experience The vision would be used to set a path from 2016 to Apple had both re-imagined retail. We also set specific vision wheel 2025 when the first phase of the new airport will be creative challenges such as ‘what if an airport made you completed. feel better than the flight?’ The experts bought their As designers, we were excited by the possibilities of own experience to bear, outlining trends in technol­ the future and well placed to manifest and interpret ogy within a 2050 timeframe and bringing to life the these possibilities into solutions for today and tomorrow. changing shape of travelling, shopping and work in the But now, with a vision articulated, we began to of each aspect of the current airport experience, Adopting service design gave Dubai Airports an future to influence the development of our vision. work with the CX team to develop a different way of ­depending on which customer’s perspective we’re advantage over using solely CX practice, as a design These workshops generated a series of visions that defining our customers. Informed by more qualitative using to view it. approach would enable them to strike the right balance were eventually refined into a single, more-grounded design research, customers are no longer described We have now been able to compliment the more between meeting their aspirations, whilst grounding and attainable target for the airport of today. solely through the lens of their reason for travel e.g. for generic customer data by segment-specific research it in an understanding of the constraints of an airport It would be hard for me to imagine how this leap business or for leisure but are, instead, defined through across the experience and to understand the relative operation and operating environment. would have been made without service design specific behaviours and attitudes towards travel. performance within each segment. This has provided practitioners, as they were able to lead the interpretation Customers are now described as ‘comfort junkies’, more actionable data for understanding today’s experi­ The design process became the vehicle for of a mass of inputs into the design of the experience of ‘escape artists’ and ‘experienced compromisers’ instead, ence and we have been able to address the problems developing compelling customer experiences all aspects of an airport. and their behaviours better described and understood. in a more targeted and informed way. For example, we The programme of work kicked off with a series of We were then able to articulate how the vision would now understand that the Wi-Fi service is particularly design workshops bringing together a cross section of Being inspired by customers and their worlds play out across the key touchpoints of the experience problematic for 'escape artists' who are power users people from within the organisation and with a suite We found that CX, for all its focus on customers, has a for each customer by creating aspirational journeys. of the Wi-Fi to self-serve and stay productive on the of external experts from outside the organisation to tendency to de-humanise people and make it much harder This has also fed back into today’s CX measurement move. This has now prioritised the improvement activ­ create an ambitious view of the future Dubai Airport. for the organisation to engage with their wants and needs. activity as we began to better understand the impor­­­tance ity and investment for Wi-Fi to cater for this group.

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Translating vision into action specifying how the various services and experiences One of the largest gaps at Dubai Airports has been could be made adaptable and scalable to meet the myriad AREA: FOOD & BEVERAGE / PROPOSITION: FOOD MARKETPLACE Product type: Alignment to the vision:

ic Enr ag ich turning CX strategy into action. CX teams had become customer and operational needs. M in y g a E d s y c The World Village r a e p v e E frustrated that the vision wasn't being realised in the For example, some concepts proposed using beacon Food s Marketplace A retail space where customers can find a variety of street food and ingredients, as Free PAYG Premium right ways or getting the traction they felt it deserved. technology: a means of identifying where a passenger is well as restaurants from all over the world. Service design was seen as a means of equipping via their smartphone to provide a series of personalised the CX team to go deeper into this detail and give them services. The team began to define a means of using a critical path to bringing any design to fruition. proximity technologies to create a series of ambient The most useful analogy I’ve heard is often explain­ services that could be tuned into and that would support ing designing an experience by talking about building a specific customer types. In one instance, for families, house. You could draw a picture of a house and give it to a children are provided with a headset that, when they builder and ask that it be built; the builder would scratch move through the building, they can follow a narrative Extracts from his head and ask for the architectural drawings. The that tells a story of a nomad travelling through Arabia. architect is necessary to take the concept through devel­ This narrative proposed to entertain children, whilst key design opment and to create the detail that means the house can helping their parents by keeping children engaged and documentation actually be built. prepared for the operational pinch points like security for illustrating Example: Working with the CX team, Engine set about detailing and immigration without it bei ng confusing or scary. Vendors in Dubai’s Global Village - which has unique handmade global the service design including developing a detailed view of The same technology has been proposed to cater for key product items, multicultural entertainment and cheap street food from 26 Example: the service and its supporting ‘architecture’ required for the vast number of customer that are travelling for the different countries (mostly from the The World Village, Dubai Airports and service region) and two continents. customer journey example. its delivery. first time and who cannot speak English or Arabic. 63 As well as detailing the products and services a Using a different channel, they are able to tune into a concepts customer might encounter, the design team focused on pre-recorded airport guide that steps them through the

airport in their own language, no matter how niche, within and outside of Dubai Airports with airlines and therefore improving their anxiety and comfort. other stakeholders. This service ‘architecture’ has become an organising Much of the CX team’s recent efforts have been reem­ Characteristics& needs framework to start building a programme of work for phasised from reporting and research to working with Escape Artists developing a compelling customer experience, as it different development and operational teams across the defined the experience but provided the master plan business. Identifying existing work that is already driv­ Regular travellers who have their own routine through the airport. They often travel in business class, use the lounge for the necessary partnerships, enablers, functions ing in the right direction, what needs tweaking, working facilities when it suits them, and will move freely between standard and exclusive facilities to pick and choose what suits and products that combine to create the airports cus­ into the gaps and most importantly identifying what them best. Travel discretely escaping the hustle and bustle at tomer experience. needed to be stopped. every opportunity, either to get work done or to relax after a busy working day. They tend to be cash rich and time poor. For the first time there was a vision with a directive point of view sitting at the heart of it. One that wasn’t a The changing face of customer experience at

Emotional needs Functional needs generic way of improving the ‘any airport’ experience Dubai Airports

/ Seamlessness and the ability to / Speed, convenience, privacy, but one that was very much of Dubai Airports, whilst Through a close collaboration, the customer experience escape are paramount. connectivity and access to" up-to-date information. satisfying the needs and desires of customers. at Dubai Airports will be the product of both service / They need to feel respected vrather than looked after, enabled / The ability to optimise their experience For the first time we had a plan so the CX could be built. design and CX approaches. rather than pampered, with at a whim and respond to changes in people on hand to assist only if circumstance. The Escape The current Dubai Airports CX team are now bet­ needed. Creating the right conditions and collaborating ter equipped to take more of an active role in driving Artist persona, Makers – It’s great when Breakers – It’s terrible when consistently improvement projects through to implementation using / There is a comfortable and quiet / They are not able to access the space where the Escape Artists can facilities they want to. outlining their The vision, customer types, products and service service design as their guiding framework, as well as make time as they wait. / They are stuck in places where there’s ­con­cepts and the service architecture have been used their own enhanced CX tools to monitor and manage / They can arrive just in time and zip no escape, such as the gate lounges. behaviours, straight through to the airport into as critical assets for guiding collaboration across Dubai improvements in today’s airport. The relationship is a / Getting interrupted by staff, noise or their flight, without having to wait other passengers when they are attitudes and around. Airports and guiding development activity. It has given harmonious one and one that can only ultimately benefit 1 / © Engine Service Design 2015 / enginegroup.co.uk working or relaxing. needs the CX team the tools to drive the right conversation all of our customers.

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2015 Service Design Global Conference 2015 servi c e de si g n g loba l c onferen c e

Service Design and Transmedia Storytelling: A Convergence of Practices

Transmedia storytelling refers to the practices of crafting a world of interrelated story experiences spread across different media platforms. Recently, transmedia storytelling has become popular in film, TV, video games and in advertising. It allows authors to create new ways of engaging their audiences. Service designers Sandjar Kozubaev (@sandjar) can learn valuable lessons and techniques from transmedia story- is a Futurist and Experience Designer at Sparks Grove, telling, because in many ways, a great service is a well-construct- an innovation and design ‘Hacked' official Capitol home page at www.thecapitol.pn division of North Highland ed narrative that extends across different forms of media. Worldwide Consulting. Sandjar combines his background in economics and design to help organisations imagine Transmedia storytelling principles Jenkins proposed seven principles of 2. Continuity vs. multiplicity spread across various forms of media in ways that takes futures and bring them to life. Figure 1 He is also pursuing a Ph.D. The Matrix franchise created by the transmedia storytelling. I will summarise Continuity refers to the unified story arc that reaches full advantage of the unique affordances of that media. in Digital Media at Georgia Wachowskis was a pioneer in transmedia them briefly here, but you can find more across multiple parts of the story. Multiplicity on the Institute of Technology. storytelling, a concept proposed by Henry information in many of Jenkins’ own other hand refers to the ability for a story or a character 6. Subjectivity Jenkins, a media scholar. The story of writings. 2 to be present in multiple incarnations or parallel Since the story is in a fully-fledged world, stories can The Matrix extended far beyond the films universes and the fans’ ability to retell the stories in be told from the point of view of a particular subject or themselves into anime series, video games 1. Spreadability vs. drillability their own alternative ways. groups of subjects. Each subject provides a unique, even and other media. Jenkins used The Matrix Spreadability refers to the audiences’ conflicting, account about an aspect of a story. This is as an example to develop his theory in his participation in spreading pieces of 3. Immersion vs. extraction subjectivity. influential book Convergence Culture.1 In content through various social networks. Immersion refers to the audience’s ability to peek into it, he described a new cultural era shaped Drillability refers to the process of (literally or metaphorically) a different world, while 7. Performance by how media content pervades vari- digging deeper into the content to uncover extraction refers to the ability to take parts of that world Sometimes fans don’t want to simply retell their versions ous devices and platforms and how the richer stories and back-stories that are not into everyday life. of the story, they want to perform it themselves. The audience seeks out and interacts with this present in the main narrative. performance principle applies to all sorts of these content and participates in its creation. It 4. Worldbuilding practices from cosplay, to roleplay and to fan videos. is noteworthy that the book was published This refers to the idea that stories unfold not just in a To illustrate these principles, I will use some of the

in 2006, a year before the first Apple 1 Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence Culture: Where Old particular time and place, but in fully-fledged worlds tactics used by The Hunger Games franchise, which iPhone was released. Ten years later, the and New Media Collide. New York University Press, with their own rules, culture and logic. is a based on the bestselling book trilogy by Suzanne principles of transmedia storytelling are New York Collins. The story explores the trials and tribulations of 2 Henry Jenkins official website http://henryjenkins. as relevant as ever, not only for media org/2010/06/transmedia_education_the_7_pri. 5. Seriality young people in the fictional country of Panem, where producers but also for designers. html In transmedia storytelling, bits and pieces of the story are youth are sacrificed every year in a Gladiator-style fight

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Service Design Transmedia Transmedia story- at www.redbull.com, chances are that you wouldn’t know construction sets have almost universal appeal and Principles Storytelling Principles that this company sells an energy drink. The site serves command a premium price. In recent years, Lego telling and service as a media hub for a whole variety of experiences that embraced many of the practices from transmedia Spreadability/Drillability design: a comparison Red Bull creates. Even when you visit the product page storytelling playbook, which lead to extraordinary of principles (in this case, the U.S. version) at http://energydrink-us. success. User Centered Continuity/Multiplicity redbull.com/, the product is not what greets you there. For example, Lego licensed its toys to video game Instead, it is a picture of a stuntman standing on the edge developers who created a series of games based on the Co-creative Immersion/Extractability of a platform in the stratosphere, about to plunge towards Star Wars movies. The game recreated many of the clas- the earth. The title of the picture proclaims Giving Wings sic scenes of the movie in its own unique, whimsical tone Sequencing Worldbuilding to People and Ideas, a bold and challenging statement. so characteristic of Lego. It enjoyed great commercial One might mistake this approach to communication as and critical success and led to the creation of analogous Evidencing Seriality simply sophisticated branding. It is true that other drink games based on the Indiana Jones, Batman and the Harry manufacturers often employ similar tactics, a practice Potter franchises. In 2014, fans enjoyed The Lego Movie, Holistic Subjectivity known as lifestyle branding. In the case of Red Bull, a full-length feature film. According to Box Office Mojo, however, it is a direct reflection of who they are and what the film grossed almost $500m worldwide.4 All of these Performance they do. Form follows function. Red Bull has evolved activities contribute to the overall transmedia world of from being a drink manufacturer to being a culture Lego including its theme parks and, of course, its toys. maker of which the drink is just one part. The diagram The success of Lego and Red Bull can be attributed to below summarises some of these activities. many factors. Both of these companies are privately held to the death. The filmmakers created a whole series of and rigid. It tells us more about the common orientation The activities range from organising sports events and and it is difficult to say exactly how financially successful transmedia storytelling elements to engage the audience. of these two domains than it does about the similarity one-of-a-kind stunts to producing magazines and music. they are. However, these two examples demonstrate that In one of them, an ad campaign employed actual of the individual components. Two aspects of this On their own, they seem disjoined, but together they the principles of transmedia storytelling are applicable amputees as models to depict survivors of the brutal similarity in orientation are worth mentioning. First, create a transmedia story and the ethos of Red Bull. In not just in entertainment but in other domains, including games. In another, they created an official government both service design and transmedia storytelling are many cases, Red Bull doesn’t just sponsor these activities, service design. Reframing services as media and applying TV channel on YouTube, called Capitol TV, to spread concerned with creating and orchestrating experiences but actively develops and operates them. transmedia storytelling to service design, could open new propaganda. They also launched an official government that are largely immaterial. The material from which the The second example of transmedia storytelling and opportunities for service relevance, impact and growth. website, including a fictitious country-level domain at experiences are made is, for the most part, irrelevant. service design is The Lego Group, the creator of one www.thecapitol.pn. Towards the release of the third and Second, both practices arise from and thrive in a network of the most popular toys in the world. Like Red Bull, final instalment, the site appears to have been hacked of economic, cultural and social relationships. Services Lego is a unique company in its own right. The Lego 4 Source: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=lego.htm by rebels and leads the viewer to another site at www. became more prevalent in economies in the post- revolution.pn where a person can pledge allegiance to the industrial period. Transmedia storytelling became more rebellion and read about its key members. prevalent as a result of the media proliferation enabled by the networked computing. It is no accident that these A Comparison of principles practices have common techniques. At first glance, the applicability of theory and practice of transmedia storytelling appears limited to mass Transmedia service design entertainment. However, a closer examination reveals Outside of mass entertainment and marketing/ Lego Movie Generic many commonalities with service design. These advertising, transmedia storytelling as a fundamental Lego Movie Characters Toys commonalities are evident in the following comparison approach to value creation is rare. However, the Video Games of transmedia storytelling principles with five service following two examples show that it can be very Within Established Storyworlds (Star design principles proposed by Stickdorn and Schneider in effective. Wars, Indiana This Is Service Design Thinking. 3 The first example is Red Bull GmbH, the manufacturer Jones, Batman, Original IP Harry Potter) This comparison should not be regarded as direct of an energy drink of the same name. Red Bull is a unique company in its own right. It created the energy drink market long before other major players. However, what Toys within Established makes the company extraordinary is its transmedia Transmedia 3 Stickdorn, M., Schneider J. (2011) This Is Service Design Thinking. BIS ??? Storyworlds Publishers, Amsterdam approach to growth. If you visit the company’s home page world of Lego Theme Parks Many more media

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A team member presen- Breaking the Blueprint ting their prototype titled, Hybrid Tools for Future Services 'Stakeholder Impact Map', designed to help identify areas of mutual benefit between diverse groups of As designers, we have more stakeholders, fewer resources stakeholders and more demanding publics to contend with. We’re no longer concerned with only solving discrete or isolated problems, where the end solution can be predicted. In this new era of service design, tools are secondary to the problems that need solving.

Chris Ferguson is the CEO of Bridgeable and leads strategy At SDGC15, we hosted a workshop designed touchpoints alone are not suf- and design projects with some of the world’s largest and that sought to explore this idea. The ficient. For example, an organisation may most innovative organisations session began with a provocative state- have done a great job ensuring their web- in Canada, the US and Europe. His work with the team at ment: tools alone aren’t the answer. site gives prospective clients the informa- Bridgeable has been hon- We asked participants to put problems tion they need to make an informed pur- oured with numerous awards first and tools second, tasked them chasing decision but, if the service agree- and he writes and presents regularly about the intersec- with breaking the tools they were most ment they are asked to sign is convoluted Looking at our most leading-edge projects, we’re customers don’t meaningfully differentiate between who tion of human-centred design comfortable with (namely the service and difficult to understand, all of that starting to see what’s next. Design has evolved, from manufactures their cell phone, who ships it, who regu- and business strategy. He blueprint) and asked them to create a work at the touchpoint level is wasted. a practice oriented towards the solving of discrete lates the industry and who ultimately provides the voice holds degrees in biology and entrepreneurship. hybrid tool that could be used to address problems, to a mindset for thinking through complex and data service they’re accessing. Instead, they see it as a meaty systemic service challenge. The work of service designers today organisational arrangements: from nodes to networks. a bundle of cohesive and deeply interdependent elements is largely concerned with organisational Now, we see our work increasingly oriented towards that can make or break their experience as custom- What follows is an overview of the transformation: optimising internal pro- constellations of services and intricate assemblages of ers. As service designers, it’s our job to build alliances workshop, including some of the thinking cesses, policies and structures to ensure actors (e.g., competitors, manufacturers, regulators, between these competing interests, breaking apart the used to structure the session. that the back-of-house and front-of-house government organisations, lobby groups, etc.). At this tools of the past to address the challenges of the present. are aligned to the needs of people using level, successful service delivery requires coordination Seeing the big picture: from services. In this regard, service designers between organisations that, in themselves, have their Assembling hybrid toolkits touchpoints to service systems are venturing into the area of organisa- own organisational arrangements to contend with. In addressing these more complex problems, we’re work- Chad Story holds a dual role In the early days, re-designing touch- tional planning and design, the traditional Service design can be used to bring these organisations ing towards the development of toolkits rather than tools: at Bridgeable, both as an employee and researcher- points made up the bulk of service design domain of management consultants. This into closer alignment: sharing resources, coordinating collections of components that can be recombined and in-residence. His research projects, as we’re accustomed to making work requires more complex tools reflect- regulatory reviews, ensuring legislation is of mutual hybridised into bespoke tools that address the particular examines how design artefacts or because our clients wanted to ing journeys across many touchpoints and benefit and accounting for the life-cycle costs of pro- climate in which a given intervention needs to flourish. infrastructures can facilitate publics participation in see immediate results. The tools we used touching on the fiefdoms of a diversity of duction. We envision contexts in which the interests of This approach requires the borrowing of bits and pieces social innovation. He is reflected this, tracing simple journeys stakeholders (e.g., Finance, HR, and IT): different groups are held in balance: each organisation, to from a variety of established tools. For instance, combin- currently a PhD student in through one or two touchpoints. What service blueprints or touchpoint maps are some degree, is dependent on the success of others. Take, ing multiple experience maps within a single blueprint, the Communication & Culture program at York University. we’ve learned since, though, is that well- great examples of these kinds of tools. for instance, a typical telecommunications company: overlaid with current and future organisational initia-

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tives. This conscious approach of carefully selecting menting a new service that would give parents access “A great exploration of the different as designers sits at this nexus: between systems. components in response to the needs of the system is to their child’s Electronic Medical Records (EMR). tools required for complex service We make connections and forge alliances between paired with a problem-finding practice oriented around The ­service would enable parents to keep track of data, competing interests. The tools needed for this work co-creation. These hybridised toolkits are used to facili- such as a child’s growth milestones and immunisations. problems compared to more tame ones.” must be as fluid as the challenges that are upon us. tate dialogue between participants in structured design In this scenario, the government agency responsible Workshop participant. We must think beyond static artefacts, predictable workshops. In contrast to traditional service design tools, for overseeing the project assembled stakeholders from problems and closed systems to embrace the largely used to communicate information in the form of the private and public sectors to examine the systemic hybrid and contingent nature of services today. static artefacts, this hybridised approach encourages par- implications of launching the service, namely to mitigate down, prioritising the information most relevant to the ticipants to present conflicting points of view. The tools any disruptions in existing healthcare delivery. group of fictitious workshop participants. They also become a space where stakeholders collect, sort, and syn- Teams were given 15 minutes to break apart a set of began to identify gaps in the information. For many, thesise knowledge, working through problems together. partially complete service design artefacts and build these unknowns became the jumping-off point for the their own hybrid tool, with instructions, that could structure of their hybrid tool. One group, for instance, Co-creating tools for future services be used to facilitate and collect data in a multi-stake­ developed a 'Stakeholder Impact Map', a canvas used to To give workshop participants a taste of what this new holder workshop. identify competing or complementary areas of concern approach might look like, we asked them to co-create a related to the project. The hybrid tool became a more hybrid service design tool that could be used to collect The challenge was messy and difficult. As expected, neutral space where participants could project their information at a large multi-stakeholder workshop. groups struggled at the beginning to make sense of disagreement and dissent without offending other Participants were asked to imagine a scenario in which all the existing data and artefacts that were given to stakeholders. Looking at the canvas from afar provided they had just joined a design team tasked with imple- them. Slowly, though, they began to break these pieces a necessary framework to assess where areas of mutual benefit might exist.

Perhaps the most ambitious prototype presented was titled 'Service Tube'. The creators proposed building a physical space (3D) wherein workshop participants could travel down a series of corridors A participant that would prompt them to think through complex presents a 3D questions related to the challenge. The physicality of prototype titled, this approach is particularly unique in that it draws upon the embodied knowledge of stakeholders as they 'Service Tube'. encounter various provocations within the space. A physical space that workshop The hybrid tools proposed by each group highlight the importance of the sociocultural contexts in which they participants will be used. We know that design is political. This is could navigate even more true as we take on more complex problems. together In taking part in the workshop, participants were exposed to the possibility that their work operates beyond the walls of a specific organisation, and has an effect within a broader constellation: interlocking networks of people, processes, artefacts that are relationally tied to one another. Our work

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New Program Framework

Transition-oriented Design for Interactions Designing for interactions between people, the built (designed) world, Service Design and the natural environment

Products Design for Design for Transition Social Communications Service Social Design & Natural Environments Innovation Worlds The School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University has restruc- tured its design education from undergraduate to doctoral Design within current Design for alternative Design for systems business models economies level change degree programs within a strongly values-based framework. This is a response to both changing professional practice conditions

and a desire to see designers take more responsibility for lead- Design Tracks Areas of Design Focus Context for Cameron Tonkinwise is the ing large-scale social change toward more sustainable futures. Sub-disciplinary specialty Inform courses, projects & research at all levels in the school All Design Director of Design Studies And represent increasing depth of socio-temporal context and Doctoral Studies at the In this restructure, the principles and practices of service design – School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. Cameron’s co-creation of value over time – are made central to all forms research focuses on the way systems of shared product of design, rather than service design being a minor addition to use can reduce societal ma- terials intensity and re-embed other design practices. economic interactions in cos- mopolitan social contexts. Design is the art and science of aspire to their good designs becoming But it is also the case that several large-scale con- Horst Rittel when he famously developed the idea en­hancing the quality of life. To this end, ‘timeless classics', which only happens sequences of modernisation are coinciding in escalat- of ‘wicked problems', multivariate challenges that the profession often claims to pursue if our societies stop changing. ing ways: resource constraints and climate change, only have argued-for temporary responses, not ‘good design'. Good design is not necessar- It is cliché to insist that our global income inequality and long-term debt crunches, solutions. To put it in a more designerly way: to ily considered to be an ethical or political consumer societies are these days ageing populations and infrastructures, globalisa- observe what cannot be expected in a changing value, just a measure of the most appro- undergoing accelerated rates of change. tion and refugee migration, etc. These crises demand system, you must nevertheless begin by looking out priate design for a comprehen­sively In fact, many aspects of our everyday lives that designers think in longer time horizons, even as for certain things: to understand such systems, you understood context. The modern practice seem remarkably unchanging: doing the it feels as though our future options are collapsing. must make interventions with specific objectives. of design tends to believe that a well- laundry, preparing meals, commuting, What you start searching for or seeking to accomplish researched, well-tested, well-crafted meeting, all seem resistant to radical dis- Design can therefore no longer hope to meet the will have to change as you make sense of these design will not only delight customers ruption, so far. A sense of things ‘speeding requirements of any one context without taking shifting contexts, but you must begin with well- with more convenient ways of living up’ perhaps comes more from informa- into consideration the sets of changes that will hap- articulated aims and evaluative criteria. To negotiate and working but also maxi­m­ise resource tion technology connectivity. As many pen to that context, and its adjacent contexts, with complexity, you must proceed purposefully toward productivity for both the corporate products and so their associated practices an increasing pace. This is easier said than done. a clearly articulated end that you value, and yet sponsor and society at large. have converged into one kind of screen- you must also be able to modify your goal as your based device (of varying sizes), we seem to One of the primary challenges is that negotiating actions reveal aspects of that complex situation. One of the key factors that is often left experience change at a small-scale more interrelated changes over time cannot be done in a out of any evaluation of ‘good design’ often as our interfaces are modified by neutral fashion. Systems change can only be approached Megan Neese, an alumnus of the CMU School of is time. Quite the reverse, designers regular system upgrades. with clear value positions. This was recognised by Design, recently made this point in relation to her

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work with an innovation unit at Nissan investigating just for each design one at a time, but with respect The CMU School of Design is working with a model that gap but, in the end, it remained rare for the connected forms of mobility. In order to get a handle to a number of connected designs over time. Such that foregrounds four aspects of transition design: designer to have to ‘suffer’ what they had designed. on the complex ecosystem associated with the future of systems tend to be more bio-regionally specific, yet Transition designing, by contrast, begins with the the ‘smart car', Neese argued that her team needed to also more diverse than existing capitalist ways of i) Vision – modernist designing worked toward strong assumption that the designer is part of the system that impose boundaries (place-based) and establish values resourcing our societies: ‘cosmopolitan localism.’ visions of radically transformed societies. A complete they are redesigning. The role of distanced expert for ideation and decision-making (sustainability). rebuild of the environments in which we dwell, including is not possible. It is precisely because designers are 2) Transition the mass distribution of new kinds of goods into those always already implicated in the design context that The School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University At the moment, 'transition design' is a placeholder name environments, was supposed to create new kinds of more they need guiding visions and theories of change. has always been close to these design issues. While for an ambition, a vision of a way of practicing design rational human being. We now live in the unforeseen Richard Buchanan, who is most well known for that enables structural social change. Transition design consequences of those reductive visions being imposed iv) New Ways of Designing – the previous three having turned designers’ attention to Rittel’s work is the focus area for doctoral and faculty research at uniformly upon different bio-regions across the world. aspects of the model culminate in different ways on wicked problems, was Head of the CMU School the CMU School of Design. There is an articulated A consequence of our being post-modernist has however of designing. At the CMU School of Design, we of Design, communication and product designers, model of what it should entail, but this is something that been, it seems, a reticence by designers to develop rich characterise this generally as 'design for interactions'. and some of the first North American scholars will have to be filled out and modified as it is tested in pictures of the futures they see themselves designing Transition design is less the design of products, to teach service design, such as Shelley Evanson, variety of situations, and as effected transitions modify toward. We try to re-establish in transition designers the communications and environments and more the began to work with computer scientists on what we the nature of those situations. The intention is that the skill of thinking through comprehensive future scenarios, designing for multi-level, multi-stage change with now call human-centred interaction design. When CMU School of Design itself transitions in form and imagining multi-stage developments, but always with products, communications and environments. Terry Irwin became Head of the CMU School of focus as the field of transition design is developed. an alertness to how conditions are never predictable and Design just over five years ago, this expansion of the visions will need to change as we proceed. 3) Service Design practice of design into more dynamic, interconnected It draws on a range of existing research and Service design is diagrammatically at the centre of realms was renewed with a thorough curriculum initiatives, mostly outside of the practice and discipline ii) Theories of Change – when designers are the School’s curriculum because it is exemplary of the restructure, from undergraduate to doctorate. of design: ecosystem transitions and resilience, problem-solvers, they tend not to need an account new ways of transition designing. To this extent, we technological innovation policy and transition of how their design works, as long as it does. When do not see service design as another distinct practice There are three things to notice about the way management, transition towns and other distributed designers engage in complex social situations with the of design that happens to make use of product, interior the school has now organised its design education social innovations in response to climate change, aim of bringing about change, they need to be more and interaction design for service touchpoints. Instead, programs. transition economies moving into and out of consumer responsible for the moves they make. Because transition all designing is approached through the lens of service capitalism, personal life-stage and health transitions. designers are pursuing long-term transformations in design. This follows the paradigm shift effected by 1) Values-based shifting ecosystems, there are fewer opportunities service-dominant logic and the recognition that all value, The diagram aims to show that we cast all design These discourses together inform a multi-level, for evidence-based practice. Designers must, instead, even when centred around a material good, is co-created within a wider commitment to transitioning our multi-stage approach to designing. A transition design have a diverse precedent bank and a variety of by both providers and recipients. There are two key societies toward more sustainable futures. This is always aims to be more than a response to particular techniques for discerning patterns, both existing facets of service design that are crucial in this regard: not a contingent, supplementary aspect to designing, contextual need: it also aims to create a platform long-term trajectories and more current habits and something designing merely could or perhaps even for different kinds of lifestyles and work-practices. expectations. All this means an education that spends i) Improvization – designing something means should be sensitive to. Rather, this value is the Transition designs respond to current contexts in ways much more time versing designers in theories and giving it forms that can structure the use of that thing. overriding object of all designing: design happens that make alternative ways of resourcing our societies histories of social change and technological change. Designers cannot determine how their designs can be in service of transitioning toward societies that are more viable. Having implemented one design into a used, but their aim is, in most cases, to make the use more compatible with the limits of what we call shifting ecosystem, the transition designer can then iii) Posture and Mindset – designers have of something habitual. Service designers also aim to ‘nature’. The design of products, communications, follow up with subsequent designs that create pathways traditionally offered expert services to clients that in regularise service encounters, but because services are, environments and services involve the depletion of to those alternatives. This is not just designing for a the end benefit those clients’ customers. This mediated by definition, encounters between people, even when resources in the name of creating value. We teach present with a future, it is designing toward the second- relation to customers can put designers at a remove mediated by digital platforms that allow proxies to designers that designing always involves taking order futures that become possible and even likely given from the contexts for which they are designing. automate many aspects of the interaction, services have responsibility for negotiating that trade-off, not the future that present design establishes. Responsible designing uses social research to bridge unique elements each time. Service designers must be

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disposed to working with more variability than designers When you design the activities of a to their apartment, I am very aware of the work I am provider to best meet their needs – the latter is a key to of artefacts and environments, whether material or service worker, you are designing their contributing to receive this accommodation service, a transition-oriented service designer: when you design digital. This tolerance is more appropriate for the way no matter how well service designed the interaction. the activities of a service worker, you are designing transition design seeks to evolve change over time. livelihoods; you are creating what they their livelihoods; you are creating what they will do for will do for much of their waking life; you This is the kind of systems insight that transition much of their waking life; you have the opportunity ii) Designing (for/of/with) People – all designing, designers bring to service design. To put it the other way to transition them to more meaningful work conditions. have the opportunity to transition them even when focused on the details of material products, around, consider the value co-creation slogan: ‘treating is done for people, to aid the practices of their everyday to more meaningful work conditions. customers as employees and employees as customers'. At CMU School of Design we are now skilling ser- lives. By contrast, service design, rather than the design If the former is the key to service design – help customers vice designers in the art of transitioning organisations of things for people, should not deny the responsibility to say and do the things that will allow the service toward these kinds of more sustainable futures. that accompanies the fact almost any service designing were advocating ‘sharing economies,’ and they were involves some designing of people. Service designers doing so precisely as part of ‘servicisation,’ the transition script interactions, telling people where to move and from selling products to selling the use of those products: what to say and do, when and how. Those people are what were called then ‘product service systems'. both service workers and customers. There obviously are limits to how dictatorial service designers can and The sharing economy has proven not to be should be. They must leave space for improvisation, as inherently good. Many digital platforms creating the previous point indicated, and their ways of dictat- markets for peer-to-peer services are eroding service ing interactions – through signs and furnishings and provider’s economic sustainability. Nevertheless, even uniforms, etc – are not precise. Even so, compared the rise of various forms of the sharing economy to all other kinds of design, service design is much does signal opportunities for societal transitions. more directly ‘of people'. This is why all responsibly And these again foreground service design. done service design projects involve extensive change- management processes. (See also Sangiorgi 2011.)1 What is distinctive about sharing-economy sys- Service Design Research tems are the ways in which participants can make explore | improve | innovate Transition design embraces these unique aspects of a range of contributions in exchange for services service design, taking responsibility for designing how besides money. Platforms lower the transaction costs people interact in order create new kinds of relationships for people wanting to ‘pay’ or ‘earn’ with time and and economies. Transition designers recognise the skills and/or equipment. This is an example of how, limits of this project, hence the emphasis on transition, in the School of Design’s curriculum, service design designing how people interact over time, structuring within existing economies blends into design for interactions but then restructuring them in the light of social innovation within alternative economies. the improvisations that are made within those structures. One consequence of the service designing of sharing- The Example of the sharing economy economy platforms has been a wider recognition of A decade ago, the current scale of people sleeping the ‘co-creation’ of value. Something that used to be in strangers’ houses with AirBnB and getting lifts a specialist insight of service design experts (though in strangers vehicles with Lyft could not have been has also been advocated to business more generally by anticipated. Sustainable design researchers at that time advocates of service-dominant logic) is now more com- monly present in every peer-to-peer economy interac- tion. When I make arrangements to meet my AirBnB

1 Sangiorgi, Daniela. 2011. International Journal of Design, 5.2. host at a time and place convenient to them to get access

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Start-point Touchpoint End-point Customer Journey Measures measure measure measure Adapting CX metrics for service design ? ? ? Figure 1: Visualising the assessment-based We present customer journey measures as an approach where approach customer experience (CX) metrics are made available and relevant for practitioners of service design. By ‘customer journey measures’, we mean a combination of quantitative and qualitative customer feedback that allows us to track CX in the context of

Asbjørn Følstad is Senior customer journeys. We describe our experiences from applying surveys. In line with this development, the NPS Customer journey measures Researcher at SINTEF, the includes only one item: on the basis of your latest CX metrics are typically employed for specific largest independent research customer journey measures in two business cases, both from the organisation in Scandinavia. interaction with the company, “how likely is it that you touchpoints (e.g., customer service) or at an overall He holds a PhD in psychology operations of a major telecom provider. would recommend our company/product/service to a company level (e.g., brand perception). However, service from the University of Oslo. His research concerns user- friend or colleague?” (Reichheld & Markey, 2011). designers are likely to require customer insight at the centred design, in particular, CX metrics in service design? for example, customer satisfaction and level of the customer journeys. Hence, to put CX metrics how to involve users in service For service designers, it is critical to likelihood to recommend. Seven in ten Qualitative follow-ups are increasingly being used. to work for service design, we suggest framing CX design and innovation. understand how customer experience had implemented the Net Promoter Score As CX metrics are simplified, it is difficult to know metrics as customer journey measures, that is, using CX (CX) evolves through the customer (NPS). Because both our example cases customers’ specific reasons for giving their scores. metrics as the basis for gathering and analysing customer journey. As the customer moves employ this latter CX metric, we discuss Hence, it has become common to supplement CX feedback at the level of customer journeys. The recent through the series of touchpoints and the NPS as an example metric throughout metrics with an open question where customers may developments in the field of CX metrics make this a actions that constitute the customer this presentation. However, the main speak freely about which aspects of the service really viable option: the simplification in CX metrics makes it journey, pleasant surprises, efficient takeaways should be transferable to other matter for their experience. Herein lies a wealth of feasible to implement these across multiple touchpoints, interactions, disappointments and CX metrics, such as customer satisfaction potential insight for service designers. and the qualitative follow-up questions provide frustrations all contribute to how the and customer effort score (CES; Dixon, richer customer insights. Before presenting our case

Knut Kvale is Senior Research customer experiences the overall service Freeman, & Toman, 2010). Duality in concern is seen in the parallel experiences, we briefly highlight three success factors Scientist at Telenor Research (Rawson, Duncan, & Jones, 2013). employment of metrics concerning the overall in applying CX metrics as customer journey measures. and Professor at the Service designers, while typically skilled The field of CX metrics has, in customer experience, such as the NPS and University of Oslo. He holds a PhD from the Norwegian in well-known qualitative methods recent years, seen three interesting satisfaction and metrics targeting threats to the ‘Quant-qual' questioning Institute of Technology. His such as observations, interviews, developments of particular intended experience, such as the CES (Dixon et al., While numbers are important, qualitative data are key current research interests are cultural probing and workshops, may relevance to service designers: 2013). While the ultimate aim of service designers to rich insights. Hence, when putting CX metrics to use customer journey mapping, customer experience overlook a potential useful source simplification, qualitative follow- and service companies alike is to deliver superior for service design, the metric should be seen as a step measurements and service of customer insight: CX metrics. ups and duality in concern. CX, many companies arguably do not. Hence, along the way to gather insight into the reasons behind design. After surveying more than 200 large companies need to measure both overall experience the customers’ scores, in other words, the root causes. companies across the world, Temkin Simplification in CX metrics is a and deviations in the service delivery process. The availability of qualitative follow-ups to a CX metric (2014) found that the vast majority of consequence of the observed challenge is therefore critical to its usefulness for service designers. these employ CX metrics pertaining to, in making customers respond to lengthy In NPS, the recommended practice is to offer customers

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a chance to provide qualitative follow-up in the form may be invited to report on customer effort in general data from large numbers of disappointed customers may From a service design perspective, this analysis of of a free-text response detailing their main reason for or, more specifically, on the number of calls made to provide several reasons between them, as well as insight customer journey measures shows that, even for a fault- giving a score (Reichheld & Markey, 2011). We refer to the customer service during the journey (see Figure 2). into how frequent these reasons are. This approach to handling customer journey that, by default, includes pain complementary use of questions, where the scores on a qualitative analysis may be somewhat challenging at first, points on the side of the customer, the CX throughout quantitative metric are interpreted through a qualitative Analysing data from customer journey measures as it is markedly different from the analysis of in-depth the process may be positive, provided the design and follow-up, as ‘quant-qual' questioning. For the service designer, the qualitative customer qualitative data from a small number of customers. In management of the service are properly established. feedback from ‘quant-qual' questioning is often the the latter form of analysis, each customer may generate The analysis highlights the importance of the early Assessment-based and deviation-based most useful part of customer feedback and also the multiple insights. In the analysis of data from customer identification of customers with long-term issues with approaches natural starting point of analysis. As we do not know journey measures, insights are drawn across customers, the company, as they will need particular attention to be To provide comprehensive insight into CX, it is beneficial in advance the customers’ reasons for their scores, something that makes it easier to generalise findings. turned into satisfied customers. to investigate both overall CX and threats to the intended analysis needs to be data-driven, where coding categories experience. Understanding overall CX implies an are developed from an initial review of the dataset. Case experiences Case 2: The impact of deviations assessment-based approach, where customers report Such data-driven coding may also be beneficial on a To exemplify and share experiences from our use of CX Service delivery sometimes leaves customers frustrated, on their overall customer experience at strategically routine basis, as it serves as a mechanism through metrics as customer journey measures, we present two due to pain points in the service process. These are important points in the customer journey, for example, which to identify emerging issues or opportunities. cases from an international telecoms provider: case 1 often seen as deviations, where the journey is not through the NPS with an open-ended follow-up. For demonstrates how CX measures at different points in unfolding according to plan. In Case 2, we complemented this purpose, an end-point measure is arguably the most Customers with different scores on the CX metric the customer journey increase analysis richness; case 2 our assessment-based approach to customer journey versatile, as it provides the customer with an opportunity typically have given different reasons for their scores. showcases the importance of including a deviation-based measures with a deviation-based approach. Specifically, to provide feedback on the entire customer journey. The Disappointed customers have different reasons to approach. in addition to having the customer assess their Ethnographical research with end-point measure may be supplemented with a start- satisfied customers. Hence, it will be important experience of the overall journey through an end-point Contextmapp point measure at the initial journey touchpoint or with to include in the analysis a stratified sample of Case 1: Experiences across the journey measure, we also asked customers to report on any calls touchpoint measures during the journey (see Figure 1). customer responses so that the reasons pertaining Measuring CX across the customer journey allows us made to customer service during the journey. For this to all levels of satisfaction may be identified. to see how experience evolves. We analysed NPS data specific customer journey, the ordering and installing Threats to the intended CX may be investigated (scores and free-text) from some 300 customers involved of a specific telecom service, we gathered data from through a deviation-based approach. Here, the While the reasons provided by a single customer in a fault-handling process. The customers responded some 300 customers at the end of the customer journey. customer is asked to report on deviations in the often are brief and superficial, the pooled set of data to the NPS when reporting the fault and when the fault Interestingly, we found that deviations in the form of expected customer journey, such as unexpected channel provides rich insights. While a single disappointed was registered as fixed. On this basis, we identified calls to customer service indeed affected CX, but not switches or calls to customer service. The customer customer may provide one reason for the score, the changes in customers’ scores and analysed their reasons necessarily in a negative manner. Rather, customers for the scores given at the start and end points. Our having their issues resolved efficiently tended to have an first finding was a real surprise: most customers did not even better experience from the journey than customers change scores much; they scored either high (this was who did not need to call customer service. When asked the largest group) or low throughout the journey. The for their reasons for giving a good score, customers were reasons given showed that, though customers clearly highly likely to report the treatment they received from experience annoyance when having to report a fault, customer service. However, issues that had been called in they may still retain a good experience throughout the but not resolved efficiently were truly detrimental to CX. journey if treated in an efficient and courteous manner. On the other hand, low-scoring customers often told These findings accentuate the need to design efficient ? stories of prolonged problems and multiple unsuccessful service recovery, so that service recovery becomes a Figure 2: Visualising attempts at fixing their problems. These problems positive driver of experience. Furthermore, it highlights Deviation could be outside the control of the company, such as the importance of complementing an assessment-based the deviation-based­ report faulty or poorly set-up equipment on the customer’s approach to customer journey measures with a deviation- approach end, but were nevertheless detrimental to CX.

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Service Design Network based approach, due to the potential importance of measures may be particularly valuable as they provide UK Conference service recovery, or lack thereof, for the CX. reliable customer insight at relatively little effort, something that enables its gathering and utilisation on Implications a more routine basis rather than only as an exploratory Implementing much-used CX metrics as customer effort in the early phases of larger design projects. In the 30 JUNE 2016 - LONDON journey measures may be truly valuable to service future, it may be beneficial to continue the exploration of designers as a source of customer insight from how CX measures, today mostly used by marketers, may Royal Institute of British Architects implemented service processes. To serve this purpose, also be employed for various service design purposes. questionnaire items reflecting simple CX metrics need We hope that our conceptualisation of customer journey to be complemented by qualitative follow-up questions measures may serve as a basis for such an exploration. for the customers to express their reasons for their scores. To strengthen their service design programs, companies may benefit from implementing CX measures References not only at the level of touchpoints, but also at the level - Dixon, M., Freeman, K., & Toman, N. (2010). Stop trying to delight your Join us for a day of stimulating and provocative talks and discussions on the impact of of customer journeys. In particular, the end-point of the customers. Harvard Business Review, 88(7/8), 116–122. service design across three key themes: social, business and the future. - Rawson, A., Duncan, E., & Jones, C. (2013). The truth about customer journey represents an important point of measurement. experience. Harvard Business Review, 91(9), 90–98. To enable the analysis of CX at multiple points in the - Reichheld, F., & Markey, R. (2011). The ultimate question 2.0; How net customer journey, the company may benefit from promoter companies thrive in a customer-driven world. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press. having a common approach to CX metrics and any data - Temkin, B. D. (2014). The state of CX metrics. Technical report. Waban, point needs to include a common customer identifier. MA: Temkin Group.

Though the response from a single customer rarely provides rich insight, the combined responses of larger numbers of customers do, by way of data-driven qualitative analysis. The responses of low-scoring customers tend to be richer in detail Louise Downe Joel Bailey Zeynep Falay von Dr. Nick Leon and also tend to concern a broader spectrum of Flittner Government Livework Royal College of Art issues, highlighting the importance of paying Digital Service Hellon particular attention to the responses from these.

As the CX is coloured both by the design and + 12 MORE AMAZING SPEAKERS orchestration of the customer journey as well as deviations from the expected journey, we recommend including measurement instruments reflecting both the overall experience and any unexpected customer effort or need for service recovery. Buy your ticket online: Looking forward www.service-design-conference.com/london Service designers are increasingly called upon both to demonstrate the benefit of their work, and also to Student and SDN member discount available. support the management and the gradual improvement of established services. In this context, customer journey #SDNUK16 @sdn_uk

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Design Toolkits for Customer- centred Transformation Helping organisations rethink their customer experience Intesa Sanpaolo Customer Experience Today, service design tools and methodologies provide a solid Playbook, example of framework for organisations to not only understand customer a hybrid user journey needs and develop relevant solutions, but also to change how they work, facilitating internal cross-functional collaboration and activating structured processes of customer-centred Gianluca Brugnoli is an transformation. In this way, design toolkits help organisations architect, PhD, Executive Creative Director at frog, meet their innovation goals in the short term, while they professor at the Design School There are three dimensions to consider when looking customer experience goals that are applied as criteria to of the Politecnico di Milano deliver and spread competencies that will enrich and shape at design toolkits as foundation for a new innovation evaluate, filter and prioritise design and strategic choices. and has 20 years experience in designing services and the internal innovation culture in the long-run. culture: integrated user experiences The following case studies show how the use of design for some of most important 1. Customer insights: design toolkits help effectively toolkits results in effective and efficient approaches to international companies. Customer-centred innovation is not only needed to bring customer experiences ground innovation in user insights. Although information customer-centred innovation. about bringing the user perspective closer to life. They include strategic resources, and data are already available, the challenge is often how to the various stakeholders involved in such as experience principles and design organisations combine those data to improve the service Intesa Sanpaolo co-creation program: new retail a project: it also demands a deep, end- processes, and practical resources, such experience. A toolkit provides simple assets to elaborate banking customer experience to-end systemic transformation of the as instructions and printable worksheets. on user insights, to quickly identify experience gaps and In 2014, leading Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo completely organisation and processes that make They are inspired by service design meth- to generate meaningful ideas. rethought the retail branch customer experience. The the final service experience possible. odologies, evolved and tailored to target key goal was to better meet new client expectations and Organisational transformation the specific strategic and practical needs of 2. Collaborative approach: design toolkits streamline needs across different channels, attract new customers requires a manageable and sustainable a specific organisation or market segment. internal workflows by creating platforms for effective and to address a new service strategy. The redesign of Roberta Tassi is Principal approach that can generate progressive Design toolkits can exist as digital conversations. When projects and ideas need to be the retail model turned out to be part of a broader service Designer at frog. She has led service design programs results over a series of iterations, which repositories as well as physical booklets. developed across departments, toolkits allow sharing design challenge concerning how the entire Intesa for healthcare and financial help organisations gradually learn and They are often first created to solve key reference frameworks and provide processes and Sanpaolo offering is delivered to the customers, as well as services clients in Europe, change. In that transition, service design one specific challenge that involves activities to effectively work together around specific how the organisation itself approaches innovation. Asia, Africa and North America. She is also the tools help by providing a structure that just a part of the organisation and are challenges. The co-creation project was conducted by a joint team author of the Service enables those continuous iterations, and then, in a second phase, consolidated, with a sequence of fast iterations, using various design Design Tools website and is ultimately drives towards the creation of a published and disseminated with 3. Strategic alignment: design toolkits provide customer tools to involve all the relevant stakeholders – from users a contract professor at Politecnico di Milano. customer-centred culture. the help of internal champions, to experience goals, guidelines and principles to keep a solid to employees, bank directors and internal managers – Design toolkits are customised sets of be applied to many other innovation and consistent vision throughout the various develop- to simultaneously rethink all service components and tools and guidelines that facilitate inter- challenges and to gradually impact the ment cycles. A toolkit can support decision-making pro- quickly prototype a new customer experience concept. nal collaboration around all of the aspects entire culture of the organisation. cesses by creating direct connections with a set of defined The design toolkit supported the following steps:

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1. Collecting and analysing customer needs: The methodology applied to that challenge is now GE Oil & Gas and a working group – composed of bank directors, in- well-understood inside the organisation and has become Transcanada, ternal managers from each department involved, the a solid foundation for many other innovation processes, Ideation Workshop, internal innovation team and frog design experts thanks to the important role played by the Intesa – mapped the customer behaviours and expecta- Sanpaolo Innovation Centre, as its internal owner and scenario modeling tions by creating user archetypes and analysing the ambassador. exercise (right side) key user flows for the current banking service. GE Oil & Gas co-creation program: design-driven and idea developing 2. Ideating and designing: the team used user innovation and partnerships and prototyping archetypes and flows to generate ideas around the Given the complexity of emerging technological materials (below) ideal retail experience and to finally identify a new challenges and the pressure to create new competitive conceptual model for the branch layout that could advantages by bridging product and service components, support several hybrid digital and physical interactions. GE Oil & Gas worked with frog to adopt a design-driven Starting from the envisioned scenarios, a step-by- process for partnering with clients and for providing step description of the experience was used to map custom solutions that could perfectly meet their needs. all of the service requirements and dialogue with the The process – a co-creation program that can be adapted various teams involved (IT, real estate, marketing to different client scenarios – allows GE Oil & Gas to and communication and human resources). engage their customers in a new way. Together they can outline effective solutions to selected problems, 3. Testing and prototyping: the new concept was increasing the long-term success rate of the relationship. built in a full-scale prototype to test the key service The toolkit that frog developed for GE Oil&Gas includes: 2. Insights synthesis and identification of interactions with real clients and employees, as well opportunities: once the data have been collected, tools as to train the bank personnel on the new service 1. Research planning and field-research guide: a set of such as journey and system maps are used to analyse key model and continuously support internal discussions methods and tools to teach GE engineers how to run field insights, pain points and opportunities. Those represent and feedback collection. The team identified ten research with their customers to better understand their clear structures to approach the analysis without getting key client missions to be verified with a role-playing problems and needs and directly gain insights on their lost in the technical details, allowing GE engineers to game that simulated the experience within the activities and behaviours. quickly navigate the complexity of data collected. retail space, bank advisor and client interactions included. During five weeks, over 300 people were 3. Idea generation: the key opportunities are finally involved in the testing and workshop sessions. used to engage the client in ideation sessions aimed The design toolkit developed for GE has been at finding solutions together that could work for both socialised through different platforms over time, The highly iterative and collaborative approach parties and could potentially become the starting including the internal UX Center of Excellence website accelerated the whole design process by keeping point for a new offering or contract. In this phase, that collects reference principles, processes and everybody engaged and aligned on the key customer the toolkit provides a set of co-design games to select high-level guidelines and a printable workbook that experience goals, streamlining decision processes from, according to what is relevant in that context. gives access to detailed instructions and templates. and giving a sense of control to all of the teams involved. Every department was an active part of frog's collaborative design process brought GE Oil the conversation and could easily elaborate on its & Gas together with their customer TransCanada own set of requirements, while also understanding to co-create a new product and secure an ongoing and embracing the key customer-experience partnership. The story of Nova LT16 gas turbine is principles defined with the new design toolkit. an example of how design toolkits allow teams to The process led to the creation of a new customer quickly develop new ideas grounded on real customer experience concept in only three months and to the needs, while building lasting relationships. creation of a fully functioning service prototype in the GE Oil & Gas and Woodside, next six months. Within one year of starting the project, Ideation Workshop (Karratha 1 Full case study – http://fro.gd/1KordXF Intesa Sanpaolo was able to deploy the new layout and 2 Full case study – http://frogdesign.com/work/ge-ux-centers- service model across Italy in more than 50 branches. Gas Plant) excellence.html

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Assessing the Perception of Service Design 8 1 The Impact of Satisfaction 7 2

Academic researchers agree on the difficulty of developing metrics and evidence-based frameworks for assessing the impact 6 3 of service developments. Understanding the complexity of such a challenge, based on a systematic literature search, we focused 5 4 on researching participant’s (practitioners and clients) perception and satisfaction of service design methods, techniques, and tools.

Maria De La Vega, Jagriti Methodology 1. ‘Ask how, not what’ Kumar, Chelsea Lyle and This paper reflects results from a study The application of service design is Rebecca Ngola are graduate students in the service design involving two phases. The first phase more important than how it is defined. program at the Savannah obtained quantitative input from service Interviewees and literature agree that College of Art and Design in design project participants about their service design should be adaptable Savannah, Georgia, USA. Their professional backgrounds satisfaction perception. The second and change depending on audience include graphic, interior, phase involved a qualitative study, mainly and application; “Ambiguity should be interaction and web design. based on interviews with service design embraced; a constant definition is not project participants, to further explore necessarily needed, or even desirable.”1 their perception of satisfaction about Whether or not service design is a service design projects. The low number process, a phase, or an approach is of responses from clients, and a hesitation uncertain. There is confusion around the of practitioners to share our study with meaning of service design and how it is their clients revealed a lack of trust. connected to approaches such as human- centred design, UX, CX, and design Discussion thinking. Since the latter is a familiar We synthesised 369 literature excerpts term, it is often trusted and adopted into from 19 research papers and discussions

from 9 interviews, which identified 31 broad summaries. These revealed 1 Blizzard, Jacqualyn, Leidy Klotz, Geoff Potvin, Zahra 8 key insights that support our 2 themes: Hazari, Jennifer Cribbs, and Allison Godwin (2015), 'Using survey questions to identify and learn more importance of trust and impact of about those who exhibit design thinking traits.' satisfaction. Design Studies 38: 92-110.

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the definition of service design because it “serves as a The relationship between clients and designers is challenges to making flexible service systems in dynamic Conclusion toolbox [that contains] ‘research and ideation methods for important for producing effective service cultures environments. The metrics for all projects are defined How do we create credibility and trust between the non-creatives’ and ‘structures the creative process.”2 within organisations. Empowering co-creative according to their unique scopes, client parameters, practitioners and clients in interdisciplinary, processes between these service design participants is a and indicators. The most challenging aspect of metrics global industries without a standard language or 2. ‘Don’t hate, collaborate’ challenge in large-scale service design implementation. is the measurement of non-financial consequences, measurement of satisfaction? “It is important to Practitioners and clients are increasingly aware Interviewee 2 proposes that failure to exchange such as loyalty, engagement, and satisfaction among understand how differences in service ecosystems that an interdisciplinary approach is obligatory for information and knowledge yields potentially stakeholders. There are disparities in the shared language across countries affect[s] the design and delivery service design practices. To collaborate and co-create unsuccessful results, due to the client or organisation of mea­surement techniques and existing methods of of services.”4 According to Interviewee 1, with the effectively, a common language must be cultivated to not fully understanding how to sustain their project measurement (NPS, KPI, ROI, SERVQUAL, etc.), but understanding of these differences, the service establish trust. Most interviewees of our study came solutions. Service design practitioners should be able to they don’t demonstrate how to improve services.3 designer is uniquely suited to communicate what to service design from a variety of different fields. transfer ownership of the solutions to the client in order still works within the relationship paradigm in a way When asked about the methods and tools that were to add value to the final service. Ideation workshops, 7. ‘Evolution for contribution’ that doesn’t refute established research methods but normally used, they responded that a single method collaborative immersion methods, techniques, and Changes are needed to advance the service design coexists in a positive way. The goal is not to be a design by itself did not work, and that integrating tools from tools, and the exploration of organisational cultural industry, and as designers, we should consider how superhero attempting to solve all problems, but to their previous fields were key. They also emphasised contexts with clients can support seamless integration we contribute to the shaping of this field. Our roles build partnerships across organisational, political and the importance of adapting the use of tools according of service design into their operations and business change with customer’s evolving expectations cultural levels in a climate of professional humility.3 to the project’s need and the client’s area of focus. strategies, yielding high satisfaction results. and innovation adoption rates. We need to acknowledge the pace of change and be adaptable 3. ‘Teach me’ 5. ‘Sharing is caring’ for achieving better service design solutions. Continuous research and interdisciplinary collaboration One of the most important and often overlooked hones the service designer’s ability to adapt to constantly collaboration tools for designers is communication. 8. ‘Expanding horizons’ changing complexities of service design projects. Communicating effectively leads to mutually beneficial Service design can broaden perspectives to target social “These self-learning practice[s] merge personal and co-creation sessions which foster empathetic and challenges and long-term sustainable changes that bring professional networks as people tend to ‘follow the good confident relationships between the client and service well-being and create value for society, according to examples of colleagues’, work groups, other teams and design practitioner, according to Interviewee 3. “Not only Interviewee 6. Service researchers ranked improving friends.”2 This begs the question: Is academia adequately is it important for the clients to relate to the project,” well-being through transformative service in socially preparing future service designers for interdisciplinary said Interviewee 6, “it gets them into a comfort zone.” relevant work as the highest priority.4 Generating collaboration? Additionally, is the responsibility on Using language and tools the client understands makes and measuring value to society over time is a defining academia or the industry itself? If so, this responsibility alignment with the design process much easier and factor in the way service design is implemented and may be the key to increasing practitioner performance, replicable at a faster pace in future projects. Establishing sustained. The time needed to research, test and which ultimately leads to client satisfaction. trust and allowing clients to understand and relate to implement service design doesn’t always fit with this design process from the start of a project increases client constraints, and it often tests the capacity (time, 4. ‘Help me, help you’ the chances of successful solutions.3 Demonstrating resources, and effort) of most clients, says Interviewee According to Interviewee3, “Design has matured to qualitatively and quantitatively how service design 5. It is essential to establish trust and be transparent the point where it has a high degree of business value.” impacts customer retention, loyalty, and advocacy help with clients from the beginning of service design organisations buy into service design more confidently. processes in order to build stronger relationships.

2 Schmiedgen, Jan, Holger Rhinow, Eva Köppen and Christoph Meinel, (2015), 'Parts Without a Whole?: The Current State of Design 6. ‘Measure the unmeasurable’ Thinking Practice in Organizations.' des Hasso-Plattner-Instituts There is an overwhelming consensus amongst inter­ für Softwaresystemtechnik an der Universität Potsdam. Technische viewees that the success of projects heavily depends 4 Ostrom, Amy L., A. Parasuraman, David E. Bowen, Lia Patrício, Berichte Nr. 97. Christopher A. Voss, and Katherine Lemon, (2015), 'Service Research 3 Løvlie, Lavrans, Andy Polaine, and Ben Reason, (2013), 'Service Design: on the specific type of project and its objective. Variance Priorities in a Rapidly Changing Context.' Journal of Service Research From Insight to Implementation.' New York: Rosenfield Media, LLC. in context, perspective, and metrics poses current 18 (2), 127-159.

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Giving Brands the Human Touch – and Gaining Customer Commitment

How can brands and service providers establish long-lasting relationships with consumers in a time of waning customer loyalty? Europa Bendig and Stefan Baumann of the Hamburg- based innovation research and consulting agency STURM und DRANG have tackled this issue in a baseline study entitled The line up of STURM und DRANG’s Stefan Baumann is Managing Committed. The results: digitalisation is transforming how we Partner at STURM und relationship online think tank included DRANG and is convinced bond – with other people, with objects and brands or with the that people can only be experts in media usage, interactive understood in their cultural companies we work for. The trend researchers have developed a contexts. A studied consumer design and digital strategy psychologist, he explores relationship model and framework that visualises people’s needs the changing consumption patterns of today in order to in different modes of relationships: a relevant new tool for brand develop strategic visions and management and service design. innovations for the markets of tomorrow. Every innovation starts with people. If – are what make life worth living and communities. The aim was to examine the desires People feel more like part of a larger network, yet people won't accept an innovation, such as are the source of human happiness. and behaviours evident in human relationships at the also feel increasingly unique. a new service or upgraded product, there Recently, STURM und DRANG beginning of the 21st century. Digitalisation confirms our feeling of being singu- is little hope for it on the market. Innova- conducted a baseline study, entitled lar. Intelligent algorithms provide us with custom- tion should thus always be approached Committed, to explore relationship models How digitalisation is changing relationships ised suggestions­ for movies, music and books. Writer and pursued from a people perspective. for the digital age, investigating bonding, Relationships and relationship patterns are profoundly ­Christoph Kucklick calls this phenomenon 'granulari­ That's why innovation is really always commitment and relationship behaviour changing in the process of digitalisation. The factors sation'.3 But the consequence of being singular means 'human innovation'. Whether B2B or B2C, among generations X, Y and Z. Extensive driving these developments are digital omnipresence, to no longer share a common denominator with others. Europa Bendig is Managing Partner at STURM und DRANG. in the end it's H2H: human to human. trend scans and meta-analyses were granularisation and multi-optionality. Consequently, we become socially incompatible. As a qualified architect and augmented by qualitative insight and In the digital world, we get options in abundance engineer, she is trained in When we talk about people, we are trend research with international experts Digital omnipresence is the phenomenon of stay- pointed out to us and suggestions of what might be the translating consumers’ diffuse demands into service and talking about relationships. Everyone and lead users using online research ing connected with friends and family at all times perfect fit. But as soon as we've found a suitable partner, product concepts that create knows how important relationships via the internet. This connectedness is changing human-centric experiences. are in our lives, and science in fact human behaviour, as it creates more contacts, con- Her passion lies in discovering 1 Waldinger, R. (2015). ‘What makes a good life? cultural insights and foresights confirms it. Recently, the Harvard Lessons from the longest study on happiness’. TED. tinuous communication and an always-on 'ambient 2 Kaplan, A. (2012). 'If you love something, let it go mobile: Mobile to inspire innovation that University Grant Study1, ongoing for Lecture. [Online] Retrieved February 11, 2016, from awareness',2 a term coined by economist Andreas marketing and mobile social media 4x4'. Business Horizons, 55(2), https://www.ted.com/talks/robert_waldinger_ 129–139. makes a real difference in 75 years now, again provided evidence Kaplan. Significant relationships often suffer, how- people’s lives. what_makes_a_good_life_lessons_from_the_ 3 Kucklick, C. (2014). Die granulare Gesellschaft: Wie das Digitale that relationships – not money or fame longest_study_on_happiness ever, at the expense of pseudo-close relationships. unsere Wirklichkeit auflöst. Berlin: Ullstein.

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a great apartment, or a fascinating job, we doubt the patterns as bonding with humans, what will make offers rather relationship partners for human-like interaction, recorded the longest customer service call in com- decision we have made. Making a move in one direction appealing in the future? like Lufthansa’s 'Bedtime Stories' service, which pany history, lasting an incredible eight hours. always means ruling out a host of other choices, leaving allows travelling parents to transmit personally us indecisive and non-committal. The viability of too Relationship Architect Map recorded bedtime stories to their kids back home. Collaborative Filtering is a tactic to cultivate many future roads just doesn’t leave enough time to come Drawing on the research, STURM und DRANG the relationship with chance-minded customers. to a well-founded decision. The abundance of options, or created a Relationship Architect map that structures The Chance Relation arises through possibilities By now it is part of Retail 101, which boils down multi-optionality, directly weakens commitment, which the research insights by relationship mode (Intimacy, and access. This relationship type is particularly to Amazon’s phrase: "You might also like...” is the basis of any stable bond. This multi-optionality thus Chance and Purpose) and mode stages (Initiate, characteristic of Generation Y: people between the ages weakens bonding. Cultivate, Hold). The map provides a framework for of 21 and 34. The chance relation is about searching In-group proximity is a tactic that holds relations At the same time, research also showed that desire for services and brands to create concepts and strategies for enriching opposites aligned around a common with customers in purpose mode. It fosters empower­ human ties is getting stronger: the more digitalisation to support relationships in the digital age. objective. Brands can provide a platform for bringing ment and a sense of belonging by creating sub-groups encroaches into our everyday lives, the more personal like-minded people together. The Audi Unite car- within the customer base, like career network LinkedIn’s contact declines, the less we are being touched. In The Intimacy Relation arises through shared sharing portal for private households is one example app Lookup where only co-workers within a company can between the screens through which we communicate and experiences and closeness. This relationship type is of corporate enactment of this relationship type. connect and share invisible to outsiders. the logic of algorithms, we long for faces and for surpris- particularly characteristic of Generation X: people ing, irrational behaviour. In short, we long for a human between the ages of 35 and 54. The intimacy relation The Purpose Relation arises through participation Practical application in service design element. is extremely personal, understanding and oriented and finding purpose. The very young Generation Z is The research results are especially relevant in Ser- How do these findings relate to brand and product around the individual. The significance in relation most active in networking with like-minded people vice Design, a field where the interaction and thus offerings? When bonding with brands follows the same to brands is that products are not just offerings but around the world, united by a common vision to the relationship with the stakeholder is at the centre. effect change. Such changes may be in the areas of In this context, the insights are applicable in two environmental responsibility, such as outdoor outfitter ways: The framework of three relationship modes Patagonia's move to get customers to repair damaged can be employed to assess and design touchpoints clothing items rather than throw them away. along the customer journey on a more general level,

INTIMACY-RELATIONSHIPS CHANCE-RELATIONSHIPS PURPOSE-RELATIONSHIPS Intimacy, Each one of the three relationship modes can be as it offers a first indication of the type of interac- split into three stages, depending on the customer’s tion most suitable for a product and/or service. 1/// / / Chance and relationship history (initiate, cultivate, hold). For Secondly, the Relationship Architect map works > Id + Incorporated + + Purpose: example, initiating a relationship requires approaches as a tool that offers enterprises practical methods Drama different from cultivating or holding a relationship. and strategies to create and maintain relationships 2/3/4 5 the three STURM und DRANG identified specific tactics for each with consumers and employees. > Hf Ka Sc Sb Human Kind + + + + Semi- Social + relation­ship Factor Acts Convenience Benefits of these stages, which are particularly suited for the In our non-committal digital age, true commitment cultivation of relationships in the given mode. 69718 0111 12 3 14 modes of the can only be achieved when human needs are met with

> Pp Sh Gg Sc Cc Ur Dp Sp Sh Brands interested in working in a structured way human empathy. The findings in the study and the Personal Safe Good Simple Choice Ultimate Distant Shared Stake digital age Profi ling Harbour Goodbye Contact Curating Reset Presence Progress Holding with the bonds of its customers could start examining translation into the Relationship Architect map help

15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 user groups by separating them into the basic relation­ to identify consumers' desires and requirements along

> Le La Rf Cv Wv Em Os Sm Mr ship mode followed by breaking those down further to each step of the customer journey. Designing brands Lived Local Revealing Complemen- Win-Win E‡ort Open System Mission Experiences Anchorin g Flaws ting Value Value Minimizing Sourcing Modding Re-call the specific tactics provided in the Relationship Archi­ and touchpoints with a human touch will make it

24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 tect. Here are a few examples of the specific tactics: possible to tailor products, services or organisational > Tp Pc Rb Em Cf Uv Cv Sa Ip structures that people connect with in the long term. Thick Predictive Romantic Easy Collaborative Updated Charismatic Secretive In-group Presence Caring Backwriting Matching Filtering Value Visioneering Aura Proximity Thick Presence, or moments of undivided attention, is a tactic brands can employ to initiate a relationship with customers who long for inti- Initiate Cultivate Hold Initiate Cultivate Hold Initiate Cultivate Hold macy. US shoe retailer Zappos, for example, has

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Maslow's hierarchy Self Actualization A servive that lives and thrives as the best version of a Interview with of needs framework itself that oers the greatest competitve advantage. applied to service Richard Ekelman Esteem Can the service sucessfully oer a consitent value exchange while having the self confidence to adjust and change over time without losing its core values.

In this issue’s profile, Touchpoint Project Manager Cristine Belonging A developed connection to the service’s parent brand. Does the service belong to the brand family? The service needs Lanzoni and publisher Prof. Birgit Mager speak with Richard to behave, look, and sound like a member of the family. Ekelman, Service Designer at Chicago-based bswift, and co- founder of the annual Service Experience Chicago conference. Safety & Support Enabling processes and technologies support resources like supply lines, hiring practices, and organizational room to grow. Measurements to know how the service is growing. Richard Ekelman is a Cristine Lanzoni: Richard, you have been for research. Then, I was recruited by Service Designer at bswift raising awareness of service design for Acquity Group, which is now Fjord, and and co-founder of Service Basic Needs to Serve some years now. In 2013, in Chicago, you got to Chicago. Experience Chicago, a Basic needs like fascilities, technology resources, and 501(c)3 charity dedicated founded Service Design Meet-up and leadership to raise the service over throughout it’s life. to accessible Service in 2014, Service Experience Chicago. Design education. He has Being one of the first people to graduate consulted for Fjord and How did your life and professional path from a service design grad program in Slalom and worked internally lead you to become a service design the U.S., I feel like it's a responsibility at Walgreens and bswift. He holds an MFA in Service evangelist? to spread awareness and to help people Design from SCAD. understand what service design is and Richard Ekelman: It was my time in the maybe even make career changes if that's Navy – I spent four years in the U.S. Navy what they decide to do. Or, if they're – that really made me think about how happy and successful in their current RE: It's a passion of the things that we do. We've been newspapers, so there's a strong community of content badly things are designed for a system. field, to add new things to their toolkit. lucky to attract a range of people from organisational strategists, which, I think, in the U.S. is the biggest There are so many things that are so And that's why I started the Service change managers that would not consider themselves miss in service design and customer experience. People important to people's lives that you can Design Meet-Up, and really just wanted designers too, and we're trying really hard to connect focus so much on the kind of things that you would be creative and can solve big problems. to get it going. Chicago is a great city, the with start-ups and small businesses in Chicago. Small traditionally associate with UX or interaction design or That's how I kind of started my path to design community is very, very friendly. businesses are hard because, even if we have an event, visual design. Those are all very important, but when one service design. I studied product design And luckily, thanks to the work that the it's hard for them to take time off from their business. thinks about content strategy, it's a way to think about at Pratt Institute for a year and I felt that Service Design Network has done over But just making service design accessible and creating ‘How to deliver the right message at the right time in a product design was really interesting, but the years, there is something to build evidence of it, in what they can do with it, that's really way that brings your brand to life across the moments of something that was not going to fit me on. Without that, I don't think we'd have what we focus on. a service’. Coming from a psychology background, I think long term. When I transferred to SCAD been able to do much of anything. that services can be approached like Maslow's hierarchy (Savannah College of Art and Design), I CL: And how do you see the current service design of needs: ‘Does the service have what it needs to live? discovered service design. I met Diana Birgit Mager: Probably you would! I love scene in Chicago? Does the service have self-esteem? Are you designing Miller and Robert Bau. The program was the idea that people feel devoted to the your service so that it is recognised as a part of your starting and it felt like a good fit, with my field and just because they were fortunate RE: In Chicago, it's interesting because we have a lot brand family? What is the personality of your service?’. background in psychology and a passion enough to get into it have energy to share. of industry that is looking for change. We have a lot of If you think about it that way, if you can support your

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service to reach self-actualisation, and that's the best RE: Right. I would say – and this is probably an unfair process. If you go to a service design conference, people Boston. There are great things going on in pockets, form that you can, it aligns more with services as life statement – CX is service design for people that don't talk openly about their failures and what they learned there's a pretty vibrant community springing up in the cycles. There is really no end, you're just always adjusting want to get their hands dirty with real problems. If from working with the people they were solving for. Also, Raleigh/Durham area, St. Louis, Minnesota, Pittsburgh to grow. Services need to be raised much like people do. you think about customer experience, to your point, the leaders in service design are so accessible. There's and many other places, but it has to connect to grow… it's easy to stay on the surface. It's easy to really not dig humility there. I feel like CX is very ephemeral and ser- BM: Interesting model, to apply Maslow to service. deep into the processes, the culture and the company's vice design is fundamental, you can focus on the end-to- BM: Yes, we have to build that map and figure out a strat- Especially since Maslow is, even in psychology now, fibre. Illustrating the difference like a swimming pool: end system and not just, ‘How can I sell you new things’. egy where all the different hubs in the United States work something that people do not really find super sexy shallow end, deep end. It's like bringing CX into the Service design is much better at sustaining the relation- together. We need to make sure that this energy creates anymore. But, I think it's good piece for conversation: deep end. When you're in the shallow end you can do a ships we form with the brands and services we live with. synergy. That's going to be a very exciting time. We thank ‘Is your service hungry? Is your service warm?’ lot of things that are fun without knowing how to swim. you for this really great interview. Very passionate! When you get into the deep end, you've really got to be CL: Based on this experience of yours, how do you see RE: Right. Maslow as a framework has weaknesses, but able to swim at different depths, on multiple levels. the future of service design in the U.S.? RE: Thanks for having me and it's a real honour to it's a way to think about services in terms of growth be asked. I also invite all readers to connect with the and learning. You don't have to know Piaget's stages of BM: In many cases, we say service design starts with RE: In the U.S., it's at a time when there are no small growing service design community here in the U.S. and development or Skinner's behavioural models to under- wicked problems and with open-ended projects. And service design firms. They've all been bought. There's so join the Service Experience Chicago 2016: Systems of stand the principles of raising good services that live and customer experience often has a clear briefing on what much need and people that know to ask for it are grabbing Care. A two-day conference focused on Service Design evolve over time. I feel Maslow is accessible in that sense. needs to be achieved, and that's quite a difference. Plus, it. And we have to see more cohesion within the United for healthcare and financial services as integral aspects I really like that the term ‘design’ is anchored in service States. Chicago, for design, is a big city that's ­really a of how we experience care. It will be hosted by General CL: In this issue of Touchpoint, we are bringing up the dis­ design. Because it makes clear, there is design. small town, but our ‘small town, big city’ is not neces- Assembly Chicago and Capital One on August, 25 – 26, cussion about the relationship between service design and sarily connected with New York, San Francisco, Austin, 2016. Registration at www.serviceexperiencechicago.com customer experience. What is your perspective on it? RE: Service design, at least in my experience, usually can start in any number of different ways. I feel like customer RE: I think largely that they are labels that will dissolve. experience looks at: ‘What are people doing? And how SDN members, A lot of people I meet in advertising or in marketing can we entice them to do something we want them to log into the SDN web­site to get might not know to call some aspects of their work do?’. Whether that's the right thing or wrong thing for a discount code ‘service design’ or might not know how much deeper the person in their relationship with a brand. I think for this event! they need to go to reach service design. In some ways, brands will end up realising that they have splintered the real difference is how the discipline is applied. CX is themselves trying reach people they don’t know. If they really just an evolution of advertising by another name. are not delivering their core service, then all of those If you think about: ‘We're designing for moments of a enhancing really nice – maybe even sexy design-type Systems of Care service, or moments of an experience’, however you call things – are really not that valuable because, at the end of it, it's largely the same end, but the journey makes all the the day, the relationship will suffer regardless of the how August 25-26, 2016 difference. Sometimes I think customer experience can cool enhancing aspects of the service might be. serviceexperiencechicago.com look a lot like service design, but the work lacks the right If the advertising community in Chicago had more of kind of research that reflects that initiative is designed an ethnography mentality, they would gravitate towards for what people, it becomes pretty clear it's not truly service design instead of CX, but they gravitate towards human-centric. Customer experience as it's practiced – CX because it is easier for them to sell repeatedly because at least from what I've seen in Chicago – can very easily they don’t solve any real problems. I feel like that's a be company-centric instead of customer-centric… personality difference between the people that practice service design versus CX. At a couple of CX events that BM: And ‘packaging’ instead of designing. Hiding the bumps I've been to, it's just advertising and ego. No one ever Presented by by making them look nicer, instead of avoiding the bumps. talked about their failures, what they learned in their

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A New Era at SDN

Some very exciting changes are taking place at the Service Design Network. Through­out the last 13 years, SDN has evolved from a network of passionate academics and practitioners, which shared thoughts and collaborated on small research projects, to an open community that we facilitate and encourage, creating evidence for service design as a strong and relevant discipline.

Today, SDN has become a strong I strongly believe that by New brand identity profiles are more fun and attractive community members we have. So we for service design as a strategic creator of content, publications, promoting service design, The difference is evident at first – they show more of the creative are opening up – we are embracing instrument and as a hands-on reports and initiatives. We’ve glance. We are giving a fresh and personality of SDN, and its members. everyone who is passionate and practice to improve and innovate become a really genuine and we will also strengthen modern identity to SDN. Implicitly, The Service Design Network has interested in service design. service experiences for users all over inspiring network that strengthens the market for our agen- this change also symbolises a new a continuously growing community the world. the idea of service design as a driver level of maturity: we have evolved of associated members – people The future of SDN, the future of The Service Design Network will cies, we will strengthen the for success in the public and private from a facilitator for the service that follow us, that join in our service design be the driver for this development. service sectors. opportunities for our aca- design community, to a curator and conversations and that are loosely Service design as a practice will We will connect the inspiring people, demic members, and we will creator of content. This is what the connected to SDN. With the new era accelerate its growth. It has been and we will equip our community Redefining SDN core values new brand identity, the logo and the of SDN, we want to embrace them growing continuously over the last with knowledge, methods and Throughout recent years we have strengthen the relevance of website stand for. and give them an official space as 20 years, but now it has reached the tools they need in order to sharpened our strategy. Our main service design industries. community members. And there is a point of massive acceleration. It successfully apply and evolve service purpose is to build awareness for More benefits for the an abundance of content for these becomes apparent when we see design. service design in the public and We will continue to facilitate community community members associated companies hiring more service private service sectors, and in the communications. We will continue The most evident benefit for our with SDN. designers, companies that are By Birgit Mager, President of Service world of policy makers. We have to curate platforms for exchange, members is that access to our digital The impact that we have building their own service design Design Network. grown to become, among other but we will, more than ever before, platform is a lot easier. The content as a lobbying organisation is expertise within the organisation things, a promoter of service design create content that is relevant for the is organised in a much more inviting strengthening the discipline of and companies acquiring service as a discipline. community and for the growth of way. Members can create and upload service design – this impact will design agencies. We see a growing service design. their content. The personal member be bigger the more members and market with many opportunities

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Service Design National Conference in Japan: ‘Evolution of Service Design in Japan’

SDN Japan Chapter held its 3rd Service Design National Conference on 23 January 2016, at Fujiwara Hall, Keio University. It was a full-day conference with 200 participants from various industries and agencies.

Three years have passed since the SDN Japan Chapter was founded, and since the basic concept of service design has become known in Japan. Meanwhile, a lot of companies have started service design projects and, therefore, this ence presented their global and local the agenda of service design in Japan conference was expected to share strategies, and shared their idea of from various points of view. A recep- outcomes and ongoing issues. service design skill development. tion party was also held after the Hideki Omiya from Recruit – the Also Hiroshi Yamaguchi from Dai conference, where participants could largest service business company in Nippon Printing Service Design Lab network and discuss their issues. Japan – presented their brand-new presented their three-year journey­ During this conference, we business named AirREGI, a virtual in the realm of service design. found out our common agenda and point-of-sale (POS) terminal service Besides these guests, international topics such as interdisciplinary and explained their vision and how speakers such as Jamin Hegeman partnerships, differences between they developed the ecosystem. Akira from AdaptivePath/SDN, Katrine large companies and start-ups, and Kudo from IBM Interactive Experi- Rau from GE, Alisan Atvur from the tacit knowledge of organisations. Novo Nordisk and Tenny Pinheiro Several ideas on Special Interest from Hivelab shared topics from Group (SIG) emerged from the the service design global commu- discussions and SDN Japan Chapter nity with Japanese practitioners. is determined to keep up its activity. There were also two panel discus- sions with speakers, moderated by Atsushi Hasegawa, Ph.D., is President of Concent. He is a member of SDN National Masanao Takeyama and Atsushi Chapter Board, representative of SDN Japan Hasegawa, the representatives of the Chapter and the co-chair of the Service SDN Japan Chapter. We explored Design National Conference in Japan.

84 Touchpoint 7-3 How can I read Touchpoint?

€ 1 | may 2016 | 18 vol 8 no

esign service d and CX: Friends or foes? Insider

creating value for service design global the conference quality of 2014 life.

SDN teamed up with its Nordic chapters to host this year’s global The conference offered great conference in Stockholm, Sweden. speeches and talks. Highlights Over 600 leaders and practitioners included Mark Levy from Airbnb from around the world joined us to talking about employee engagement, explore the theme Creating Value for Fred Leichter from Fidelity Quality of Life. Investments, Kigge Hvid on how the “This was a big collaborative design of services can improve life for effort. I’m very thankful to people, Nathan Shedroff on defining everybody that participated. It felt value, Shenyen, a Buddhist monk, extremely inspiring to be amongst talking about quality and time, Wim this great crowd and I believe we Rampen from Delta Lloyd sharing have a huge opportunity to improve deep personal insights and many life around the world with service more. Denis Weil held the closing design,” said conference chair Stefan talk reflecting back on the two-day Moritz from Veryday. event and sharing his perspective Enthusiasm for the event was on how service design can reach the great from the start, with tickets next level. selling out two weeks prior to the Aside from experiential opening of the conference. And many highlights like healthy food, artisanal participants said their expectations espresso, live sketching and yoga, an have been exceeded. “We put a lot of ambulance drove straight into the thought into the overall experience, venue to introduce the patient expe ensuring time and space to share, rience workshop. Some of the other - by Chris Ferguson, Chad Story encourage networking and participa- popular hands-on workshops focused Breaking the Blueprint tion,” added conference producer on empathy, defining the value of 47 Magnus Bergmark from Doberman. gap by Lynn Stott service design, waiting experiences by Asbjørn Følstad, Knut Kvale Prior to the conference, three and employee engagement. 17 Bridging the easures introduction seminars offered the Overall the conference 59 Customer Journey m possibility to get familiar with the atmosphere was excellent; basics, get answers from experts on participants enjoyed a global spirit questions and the value of service and vibrant sharing and networking design. SDN also hosted its mem- atmosphere. You’re invited to bers’ day with activities linked the check out and follow the discussion the journal of service design newly-launched Special Interest and reflections at the conference Groups (SIGs) focused on the areas website, as well as find videos of Printed copies of healthcare,Online finance, public service presentations. access and service design implementation. www.service-design-network.org

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Individual printed copies Full-issue PDFs can be can be purchased via the purchased via the SDN website. SDN website. Issues from our archive can be read online via the SDN Benefits for SDN Members website by becoming a community member for free, SDN members are entitled to a and may be read via Issuu free printed copy of each new website and app. issue of Touchpoint (p­ostage cost not included). Benefits for SDN Members In addition, SDN members receive­ a 50% discount on SDN members have access back issues (Touchpoint Vol. 1 to full-issue PDFs and articles to Touchpoint Vol. 6). at no charge, up to and including the most recent issue.

www.service-design-network.org About the Service Design Network

The Service Design Network is the global centre for recognising and promoting excel- lence in the field of service design. Through national and international events, online and print publications, and coordination with academic institutions, the network connects multiple disciplines within agencies, business, and government to strengthen the impact of service design both in the public and private sector.

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