Category Archives: Service Design

Why understanding Data & Service Design will be a key skill of the future CMO

I read two interesting articles about two months apart, one from livework, a leading Service Design firm in the UK who were arguing with great insight I thought how Data was the new Oil.

Both Ben Reason and Jeremy Walker from livework argue that:

“Data, whilst valuable, is a commodity, and an easily replicated one at that. Therefore as it becomes more widely available its value will drop. Businesses with data products often prop up the price with additional fields of information but this is simply another type of devaluation as the customer is getting more for the same price. We have helped our clients achieve the opposite – more revenue for less data – by developing services around the information. These services provide additional value to customers by understanding how the data fits their business.

This is where the process of refinement comes in. We need to refine the data into services. And these services need to meet the needs and issues of the businesses that information providers hope to sell to. The issue is that, whilst the geek in all of us gets very excited about raw data, business customers are more interested in the immediate challenges that they face. These challenges will be things like effective marketing campaigns, back office productivity or asset management etc.”

The other article was from Forrester Research and Dave Frankland. He also agreed with the livework team:

“According to Amazon’s former Chief Scientist, individuals will generate more data in 2009 than in the combined history of mankind. Think about the implications for your marketing and overall business. On the one hand, it is possible to know more about every prospect and customer, and to improve their customer experience based on what you know about them. On the other hand, it’s very easy to drown in the exponentially growing stream of data. Customer Intelligence (CI) professionals sit at the nexus of this data explosion, while also dealing with tectonic shifts in customer behavior, and an increased demand for marketing accountability.”

Dave goes onto say that given the strategic value of the CMO role, he believed that the next generation CMO’s will come from the Customer Intelligence discipline. That’s not to say CMO’s won’t continue to care deeply about the brand, and the emotional connection that they create with their customers. But, as they struggle to engage with empowered, connected customers who have limited tolerance for marketing, firms will elevate CI within their organizations to influence mission critical business decisions with data-driven insights. These CMOs will help their organizations to focus on customer value, and use it as the connective tissue that causes all marketers and business units to pull in the same direction.“

And that’s where we tie the knot and arrive back at how Service Design can and should play a key part in this process. Its the ability to focus on customer value first and then use this data to develop new and better services that create value for both company and customer. Have a read of both articles which I have linked to above.

Customer Experience – How EBay Is Winning With Bid to Enhance CEX

Becomes More ‘Hands on’ With Better Search, Service, More Fixed Prices

How do you rejigger an $8 billion company to catch up to rising customer-experience expectations that have passed it by? That’s the task facing eBay.

ebay

In the 11 years since the dot-com darling went public, the e-commerce world grew up — but eBay looked stuck in its 1.0 past. Unlike Zappos, which built a name using customer service as marketing, and Amazon, where shoppers can log on and find virtually anything at a clear, set price, eBay didn’t control the fulfillment chain. That often leaves its customer service, a component key to branding, at the mercy of its sellers. Moreover, it was riddled with auctions, a type of transaction that has garnered less and less interest from the mainstream consumers who account for much of the $130 billion in annual online-shopping sales.

While the company’s marketplaces unit, which includes eBay.com, is in the middle of a three-year turnaround plan to fix those problems, “I doubt they can ever catch up totally [to competitors like Zappos and Amazon],” said Larry Witt, an analyst with Morningstar. “They can’t directly control the customer experience, though they can influence it.”

Yet that’s exactly what eBay has set out to do. It’s giving top buyers and sellers access to a phone service seven days a week and allowing them to submit queries online — a service being expanded throughout the holiday and 2010 to more sellers and buyers. It’s hired talent to improve its search-technology capabilities to make eBay more consumer-friendly and has begun incorporating user feedback more quickly. And it’s taking steps to add more fixed-price options for its customers.

It all adds up to what Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay marketplaces called “a sea change in customer service,” going from “an offline function to much more hands-on.”

Part of that charge is being led by Christopher Payne and Dane Glasgow, search technologists brought in from search startup Positronic, and Hugh Williams and Eric Brill, who arrived from Microsoft. They have reshaped the process in which eBay works: When you used to search eBay for an item, results would be listed by auction-expiration dates, with ones expiring soonest showing up first. Now, it’s taken a nod from Google, which pioneered the use of quality factors in its paid-search ranking system to improve the kinds of ads and offers people see.

Beyond auction
Today eBay search looks not only at auction end date but also rewards the stature of the seller, factoring in things that matter to buyers: the price of goods, the reputation of the seller and free shipping offers. The improved site functions, paired with a broader selection, will improve the overall experience, Ms. Norrington believes, which should actually end up cutting back on the need for customer service.

“You’re beginning to see some of the differences,” she said, of the upgrades eBay’s new tech-savvy hires are making. “It’s about making sure the buyers have great-quality sellers and items surface. It’s making sure the search experience is one suited to what the buyer is looking for.”

In order to increase the quality and variety of goods on its site, eBay has also lowered sellers’ fees and is focused on adding fixed-price options. Several years ago, the mix was 80% auction and 20% fixed-price sales. Today it is almost evenly split, and, in the future, eBay expects 70% to be fixed and only 30% auctioned.

Not all of these changes have rested well with sellers — an important and powerful constituency for the company. However, it has taken pains to communicate developments to sellers through e-mails, discussion boards, seller summits, web seminars, web radio Q&As and small group dinners.

“A lot of the changes were necessary. Hardcore eBay sellers are not happy with them, but they were necessary,” Mr. Witt said. “Take search, for example. You want to bring up products people are looking for. Delivering more-relevant results is the most important thing they had to attack.”

Positive results
And the changes, which have been communicated to consumers through a mix of events and media outreach, have instilled more confidence in the site. “There’s no question that eBay is safer than it was 18 months ago,” Ms. Norrington said. “Two big proof points are that our highest-quality sellers are growing substantially beyond e-commerce, up 14% in the second quarter in the U.S. And where we use a net promoter score, we’re seeing good results on trust and confidence. Our top buyers are buying more than ever.”

Wall Street is taking notice. In the past month, a number of Wall Street analysts have upgraded eBay’s stock. UBS, one of the firms issuing an upgrade, said that it believes the company’s marketplace business has “turned a corner.”

What you can learn

Remaking a business that’s as entrenched in the consumer psyche as eBay takes a lot of hard work, some risk-taking and a bit of chutzpah. Here, a few tips on how to tackle it.

Invest in talent. It’s a tough economy and eBay, like everyone else, is hurting. But that hasn’t stopped it from bringing in well-regarded tech talent.

Don’t be afraid to cut loose dead weight. Yes, eBay has angered and even lost some sellers, but the changes it’s making are rewarding its best sellers and best customers.

Look for partnerships that will upgrade your image. Teaming up with fashion icons Narciso Rodriguez and Normal Kamali on fixed-price lines instantly elevated eBay with the influential fashion crowd.

Don’t lose sight of the end customer. Both sellers and buyers are essential to eBay, so it added customer-service features to benefit both groups.

Communicate change consistently. To avoid seller confusion when it makes changes, eBay now rolls out changes twice a year, instead of on an ongoing basis. It gives sellers 60 days notice, and it reaches out in mass communications, as well as one on one.

Using customer input to co-create at a grassroots level

Kingston Estate. London UK

Service Design Network Touchpoint Edition 2 out Now

The Service Design Network has just released its second  Service Design Journal. A great issue which landed in my inbox last week. To get the full content you will need to sign up for the Service Design Network which is well worthwhile.
The second issue of Touchpoint, the sdn’s Service Design Journal, is out now! Entitled “Health and Service Design”, this brand-new issue features articles from Service Design and/or healthcare experts such as Julia Schaeper, Lynne Maher and Helen Baxter (NHS), Lavrans Løvlie (live|work), Ben Reason (live|work), Mark Mugglestone (NHS) and John-Arne Røttingen (Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services), Tine Park (Designit) and Christine Janae-Leoniak (Mayo Clinic) as well as interviews with representatives from these areas.

SDN Touchpoint

SDN Touchpoint

This issue of Touchpoint will explore the individual, social and economic relevance of health systems and the potential for of Service Design to redesign and reinvent service offerings, service processes and service interactions. If you would like more information on SDN Journal please click here

Service Design and Iteration and co-creation is connecting the broad field of

I thought this was a nice and short presentation on some of the useful techniques and processes in use at Proto Partners and other Service Design firms.

Using Service Design to Create, build and monetise Customer Loyalty

I read some research  a few days ago from www.researchandmarkets.com which I reposted on Twitter yesterday. It talked about critical lessons in delivering a great customer experience, with one of them being that our brands are only as strong as their weakest link. Customer loyalty can disappear quickly with a single negative experience.

The research showed that consumers/customers may not frequently visit your brand’s web site, but once they do, a frustrating interaction can lead to a lost customer. Perhaps even more frightening is the opportunity to lose a customer at the call center, where too many companies in the study saw their experience ratings drop compared to other touch points. Yet the opportunity to strengthen the customer relationship exists along every step of the brand value chain, particularly when one step leads to another.

The study by researchandmarkets.com  showed that a positive call center interaction that includes an introduction to valuable online services can leave the consumer satisfied after that one call, but more engaged with the brand over time. A web site that helps customers navigate the instore shopping experience can pay brand dividends far beyond a satisfying online interaction.

The biggest challenge facing service organisations today is delivering a consistent customer experience. The amount of ways a customer can interface with the organisation has rapidly increased. There’s no system to ensure front line employees deliver the right experience every time. There is no skillset and toolset designed to efficiently deliver new and better services.

You may have the greatest product or service in the world, but if your customers are let down at any point in the chain, it’s all academic. Most companies I work with are extremely confused. They’ve tried everything they know, but it’s not working. Using a Service Design firm helps them figure out what it takes to succeed in profitably delivering a great customer experience.

This research by researchandmarkets.com piqued my interest and reinforced for me the value of Service Design and it’s contribution to ensuring that companies deliver a seamless and consistent customer experience for the purpose of creating, building and monetising Customer Loyalty. There are other types of companies that look to  create a “great customer experience”,  but more often than not, it is one or two isolated “customer experiences”. The more I examine successful Service Design case studies (both our own and others) I realise that it is the ability to deliver consistency across every touch-point  is the true and unique value that Service Design provides service based companies.

or visit Proto Partners here

Giving Service Design an Australian voice

After working on Service Design projects for the past 12 months, I thought it was time to write an article on Service Design for a market(Australia) where Service Design is in its infancy when compared to most other professions and Service Design markets.

My intent was not to break new ground in the study of Service Design, more so to draw upon the knowledge that I have accumulated by both observing and practicing and provide those readers of Fast Thinking magazine (Australia’s answer to Fast Company ) with an easily understandable point of view on the value of Service Design. As the first article published on Service Design in this part of the world, it will be interesting to see the feedback.

You can download a copy of the article here

or visit Proto Partners here

at your service

The Demand for Service Innovation & Service Design

I sourced this from the University of Cambridge paper titled Succeeding through service innovation published in April 2008. It is just a section from the beginning but i thought it was compelling. More so because it explains that although Services are not new in any way, the level of complexity attached to them has risen significantly, it is is this which is now challenging many organisations as they seek to compete with their competitors that have not only embraced the complexity, but also delivered it in a consistent  manner.
Growth in service

The growth of service activity across industries is now widely recognised. However, is it really anything new? Service is as old as the division of labour and has been provided in various forms since record keeping began. Indeed writing records was a form of service! What has changed, however, is the scale and complexity of service systems –configurations of resources that create and deliver value to stakeholders through service activities.
Service systems are growing rapidly and have become an ever greater part of value creation in modern economies. We are paying proportionally more for services in the form of experience, advice, information, assurance, infrastructure and leasing, and proportionally less on growing, building and owning physical goods. And more than ever before, we are constrained by natural resources and have to achieve the triple targets of effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability. The rise in complexity is partly due to the expansion of our values in social, ecological and political dimensions.

The full report can be accessed.here

or visit Proto Partners here

My Service Design dominated Wordle map

I have resisted the urge up to now, but at the end of long day visually mapping the methodology that we use at Proto Partners, I needed some slight escape. Here is my wordle map which does a good job of demonstrating our focus here at Proto Partners -  using  Service Design to help companies create services that deliver great experiences that improve company profitability.

ppwordle

The original in case someone would like it, is available here

or visit Proto Partners here

Service Design customers are delighted by

I know Obama fever has settled down somewhat, however standing for a positive change for not only America and the way it engaged with the rest of the world was long overdue and very welcome.

Even here in in Australia, there are millions of fans of Obama and his administration. As a business pioneering Service Design in Australia, I draw encouragement from his “YES WE CAN” cry, in fact, I have recreated it on my homepage of my Mac.

I was looking at the “CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN” poster the other day and decided to reformulate it for Service Design,  creating a “SERVICE CUSTOMERS ARE DELIGHTED BY” poster. I am not sure where I will use it and I don’t have any Service Design rallies that I am attending in the near future, but what the hell. The sentiment is right, we are all trying to delight our customers by providing world class and flawless service at every customer touchpoint. We are trying to delight them, thereby increasing their loyalty and their individual and collective profitability.

SERVICE WE ARE DELIGHTED BY

And the Original

the Pres

Let me know what you think?

or visit Proto Partners here