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Links and Reflections: 19 Jan 08

The Best and Worst Customer Service from Business Week
"Why are some companies champs when it comes to providing customer service and others, well, chumps? We've created this forum to encourage readers to share their most recent customer service experiences—good or bad. And if your experience wasn't good, tell us how you resolved the situation. So join in!"

Clearly just launched but potentially a good source of stories, but why not harvest your own...? Here's personal reputation management from Rapleaf -  and outsourcing your customer service to your customers at Getsatisfaction - ( Via ).

More great research mojo... from Sense Worldwide
An example of one of the current crop of emerging research tools to engage with users on their terms, allowing them control to contribute when and where they wish.



This time Sense Worldwide want your night time party tales - I love to party , following the  I love my format. Just complete 10 quick questions and your name will appear at the end of the book they're producing! The 'I love my chair' book's available on lulu is small and rather nice.

Nice when we share tools and methods don't you think?
Engine  give us insights into the tools and methods they use when designing services. I particularly like the look of Desktop Walkthroughs. Why not give it a try and let them know how it works out?

Apple get it right... designing for specific activities,  not demographics
Again from Business Week; Apple's approach isn't about targeting hipsters, says Donald A. Norman, a professor at Northwestern University and author of The Design of Future Things. Rather, the company's design genius lies in its dedication to making simple, elegant devices for specific activities, not demographic types, he says. Its early markets were learning and publishing; now they're creativity and entertainment. "The proper way to design is not to target an individual type of customer. You want 100 million customers," says Norman.

If they're so good, What should Apple do next?
Business Week asked an eclectic group of analysts, designers, innovators, educators, and marketing experts for their opinions on what products, services, and experiences Apple might set its sights on next. Predictably, suggestions ran the gamut from the highly improbable—a ride on the Apple subway anyone?

A peek behind the 'Service Curtain'

Came across this little card in a large retail outlet recently, I don't know if it was the language or the context but I kept this unintentional little artifact.

I can only guess it's a secret instruction from Quality Assurance to Shelf Managers about some error or omission. It was, however quite puzzling abrupt switched from my browse and shop mode.

Point is, I don't think I (as a customer) was really meant to see it. In fact given my confusion with the tone of voice (mixing formal 'Wrong capacity' and polite / humorous first person 'Please correct me'), I think the communicator was also confused.

So what happens when we get an accidental peek behind the curtain of a service and become privy to it's inner workings? The mis-placed sideways glance shared by hotel check-in staff... the 'staff only' door left ajar.

Surely the service provider could turn this to mutual advantage - an opportunity to demonstrate trust, authenticity, attention to detail perhaps? I'm reminded of auto service centres where the customer is invited to stay and enjoy the spectacle, to share in 'popping the hood'. What examples can you think of?

In services, the curtain is always drawn sightly open.

Just goes to show that equal attention needs to be paid to both backstage and front of house experiences.

The people bit of Service Design and Going Native

I'm attracted to this article in November's Fast Company magazine. Alex Frankel quite literally goes 'native' in order to understand the value that front line employees play in adding value to the brand. His book, Punching in: The Unauthorized Adventures of a Front-Line Employee is published in December through Collins.

In the design of services,  it often comes down to the role you expect your employees to play, and Alex worked (or tried to work) at Gap, Starbucks, UPS before finally landing a spot on the shop floor at Apple.

Me? I've been a lift boy, delivered carpets, sold hi-fi, worked on company exhibition stands... not much and I'd be the very first to admire the people skills required in retail.

And it's far more than just selling. Retail is detail - as I've heard.

These days truely great retail has more in common with the emergency room than the sales floor - triage, diagnosis and even empathy, are today's skills in understanding your customer - and building a (valuable) long-term relationship.

Apple apparently employ Position: Permission: Probe. which is where Apple co-workers explain to customers that they have some questions to ask, get permission to fire away and then just dig away to figure out which products will be best.

Have you been on the receiving end of this transparent approach? Did it work? What are your stories?

Of course iTunes is a classic and often quoted super example of great Service Design, but it's easy to forget the nuances at work on the shop floor.

Training of Apple store employees is like the iPod user interface - carefully designed...

Apple store are almost over-staffed, so no one has to wait too long.

Apple staffers also hand out business cards like in a high-end or bespoke clothing store.

Such are the insights gathered when Alex worked on the front line; and it's not just authors or ethnographers who can benefit. Here in the UK Pret a Manger regularly sends out new exec hires to work the floor.

Maybe Service Designers should give it a go too, there's obviously plenty to learn.

Links and thoughts - late September

First - let's get the apologies over with. I'd not realised how much effort I was putting into regular posts and therefore how easy it would be to cease posting once work became all-consuming. Still, just excuses. Sorry anyway.

So a couple of links, one via Leisa - this one Demystifying Data Analysis where Rachel Hinman of Adaptive Path eloquently captures some of the techniques we employ to gain real actionable insights from research.

Next - again from Rachel, this time in conversation with an ex-colleague of mine at IDEO, Mark Jones (he's still there, I'm not) - on Service Design.

Now these techniques are shared by many creative folk in the innovation space - and I was lucky enough to help lead a project with London research and innovation consultancy, Sense Worldwide - actually worthy of a post of it's own, especially around their particular approaches to gaining insights. Great bunch of people too.

And of course Service Design is a particular point of focus, one I share with Engine, who I'm now working with.

As a freelancer it's interesting to compare and contrast these two consultancies with each other and, of course with IDEO, a point I will expand upon soon.

Links for the last bit of July.

As an experiment, I'm going with the short links approach to posting. So here goes...

iPhone product and AT&T service mess-up.
Good service ecology example of poor integration of front of house experience and back of house systems, cool product promise and dreadful service delivery.

Germs are in the details
From Steve Portigal's excellent and observant All this Chittah Chattah blog - this is an insightful look at simple but useful innovation ideas and how well they're implemented. This wonderful example - hand wipes for shopping carts and the contagious deconstruction of photographic evidence from the field.

Product and Service innovation (or not) amongst US cellphone carriers.
Another from NY Times' tech journo, David Pogue. Interesting with all the talk around the iPhone and what the other poor handset manufacturers and service providers are going to do in response. Get a decent people-centred innovation strategy say I.

Future of Mobile
Hurry hurry for tickets to November's mobile conference. I'll be looking out for Future Platform's Tom Hume and Daniel Appelquist from Vodafone - both of Mobile Monday fame and both of who I hope to speak more user and less tech ;-)

Ten reasons to throw away your cellphone
More anti cellphone tech advancement business from Wired magazine. 'Hell is other people's ringtones'.

David's myPhone and Mass Customisation

Lots of noise all around on Apple's iPhone and to be fair, until I get my hands on one and experience it in the flesh and through a UK service provider; I can only wait in anticipation.

David Armano's post 'Introducing the myPhone' focused on what improvements he would make, like incorporating a slide-out Querty keyboard and a Blackberry-esque trackball.

My comment on his post was to focus on the Mass Customisation angle that I believed this spoke to. (not sure of blog etiquette  so here is  my comment in full:

Aha! Your myPhone, David could well be slightly different from my myPhone which I'm sure would be different again from my sister's myPhone.

What I'm excited about is Mass Customisation and that to me, is what 'myPhone' really talks to and, I believe, could be the next innovation around devices.

We've done it for cars, for houses, for Suits, for most PCs for ages; so why not cell phones?

Want a higher res camera? No problem. Trade the radio for a few more pre-loaded games? OK. A larger memory, certainly if you're willing to pay (I am). Want me to pre-load all your settings? Sure. Non-slip rubbery finish? Why not. Slide out 'real' keyboard like David Armano? You bet.

So yes, flippery apart, mass customised  'myPhones' would be a great - no more 'almost the perfect phone'.

Can't wait ;-)

Which seemed to get a thumbs up.

Now if we build a little further on this and consider the service / experience angle by looking at the key differences between a service and a product.

For a Product, Mass Customisation is a major undertaking requiring a new product strategy, tooling, and marketing. For success, especially financial you might be looking at starting from the ground up (like Mymeusli) or not making any money at all. I think the auto industry is an example of having provided a good degree of Mass Customisation from the early days. Lego is showing success with Lego Factory.

For a Service, the very fact that our experiences of the service are all individual and different, that our needs, inputs and outputs are all different, points to services having Mass Customisation at their very heart. It's absolutely not 'cookie cutter' or production line like a product. In fact the very best services pride themselves on being able to match individual needs. If you think about Air travel (a classic Service) each and every aspect is customisable, from routes,  flight duration, booking, checkin, take off, cost, class, seat, meals etc. etc. again within certain limits (like the auto makers) and of course our individual experience (what we take away) will differ.

But what do you think?

Is product going in the direction of service and experience?

Tiny thing, Facebook.

OK, so it's my Birthday today and one of the cool things about Facebook is that you can see your friends' upcoming Birthdays. And no, I don't think there's any expectation for them to write messages - but a lot of them did write on my wall and create nice graffiti ;-)

In fact I got cards through the post, cards and drawings in person, calls on the land-line, calls, and texts on the mobile, plus a few deliveries to the front door. Phew - and on your birthday there can never be enough communications channels.

The tiny (very tiny) thing about Facebook was where and when it wished me happy birthday.

Now I got 'happy birthday' vouchers from our local Indian Restaurant (tick), I even got a happy birthday Email from Clairol cos I bought my wife some hair products for Christmas (half a tick, I don't have any hair, but it was my credit card) - so although we have all the data, there's no guarantee how well it will be utilised.

I like what Facebook does in flashing up pending birthdays a few days in advance and strangely (or is that serendipity?) quite a few of my new friends have birthdays around the same time as mine, which I never knew.

So, cutting to the chase...

What does facebook do when it's MY birthday? Well it tells all my friends (big tick) so I get messages on my wall (another big tick) but what does it say to me, the birthday boy? NOTHING, at least not at 08.00 this morning when like the slightly sad person I am, I check. Facebook 'knows' my date of birth  cos I told them- but that little box titled 'Birthdays' is empty. How come - what about me?

Doh! - and here's my point. When creating a service experience like Facebook and designing in all those little personal service gestures I would have put a nice little birthday greeting there - right in that box (with the heading 'Birthdays') where I expect to see birthday info like the reminders. But they didn't.

What they did do about 3 hours later, however was put it up above the News Feed stuff.

So what you say - they wished you happy birthday didn't they? And wasn't that 'news' Well yes they did, and in a way it was but on an emotionally charged day, it wasn't quite right enough and a real tiny, tiny thing made it wrong, all wrong.

By putting it where I expect to see 'news' and not where I expect to see 'birthday' and by posting it 2nd thing in the morning, for me they got the 'where' and the 'when' wrong.

So when thinking about the necessities of the core experience, yes they manage that very well indeed, they also manage to 'remember me' too but the 'surprise me' bit was badly delivered.

Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? Absolutely not - as it's these little details of the experience that are the ones that make or break it, attention to these aspects of the experience will begin to differentiate one service from another. The good from the excellent. This is what we mean when we start talking about 'Experience Design' - tiny, tiny details, often totally human-centred that designers need principles or some kind of 'design language' to figure out.

And when they're not quite right you get people like me posting long rants about it.

Even on their birthday.

Experience Design - locked down or thumb tight?

Came across this interesting and well written introduction to Experience Design on the Adobe site by Adam Greenfield.

It gives a basic introduction to the new discipline (as you might expect on the Adobe site) but it also raises some interesting points.

"(But) it turns out that experience design, as it is currently conceived, does not always lead to successful experiences. Ensuring that all phases and aspects of someone's interaction with a product/service ecology align with a singular vision requires a large degree of control. This, in turn, leaves little room for the self-evident (and lovely) messiness of our lives, and not much in the way of flexibility should the scenario of use deviate to any significant degree from that contemplated at design time."

So, how might we design an experience which is only 'thumb tight' (my phrase), which leaves room for the participant to play, input and in a way co-create the experience?

The article goes on to describe how the success of experience ecologies are subject to the 'house of cards' theory - where all is well except for one (often small) detail which ruins the whole experience. Sometimes this missing piece of the jigsaw is the responsibility of the service provider, like infrastructure or rolling stock. Sometimes it's people like us who are the cause.

"...a particularly acute issue wherever a designed ecology brings human beings face-to-face with one another. As things now stand, experience design's Achilles heel is customer service. A combination of low wages, disinvestment in training and deeper cultural factors has left American businesses without a large pool of workers motivated to provide customer service at the level routinely specified by designers. The result is that experiences seamless on paper break down the moment a human being enters the loop."

So in designing experiences, it pays not only the be empathic to the user's needs, but also understanding of the other actor's human issues, like employee training, and incentives. Not traditional design territory, but when you think about experience design in the context of designing relationship - then of course people, the 'actors', be they 'us' the users or 'them' are right at the very heart.

Extending the acting analogy a little further, the ability for staff and providers to go off script, to improvise, whether at a call centre or face-to-face in the store is another example where 'thumb tight' is better then 'locked down'.

Behind you! (part 2) - The ad agency of the future

Another good post on David Armano's blog; Logic and Emotion (note - he's just moved to Critical Mass and no I'm not on his payroll!) on the future of advertising, which is a hot topic for me at the moment.

Guys from Nitro,  Avenue A/Razorfish, R/GA and Digitas have some interesting things to say in this video about the agency of the future.

Highlight was probably the Nike + case study from R/GA and I'v e picked out some of what Nick Law, their CCO said which really chimes with the way I'm thinking and, I believe, a good example of the agency of the future in action:

"Nike + started with a simple observation - people love listening to music when they run".* So right from the word go, this is about answering consumer's needs then only partially met - which goes far further than traditional marcoms of agency 1.0. The work is also embedded in a simple truth - there's a buiness opportunity which helps to de-risk the whole project.

"...a completely new category where product, online experience and marketing are inseparable". I love this and believe this is where the future really lies: combining product with a usable, uesful and delightful experience and wrapping it all up in easily absorbed marketing. There's also the added bonus of word of mouth through the community and advocacy through the service / product artifacts.

Now another 'new' category  here (although I'm sure have been many examples over the years), a partnership, a collaboration not just between two mega brands (nike and apple) but also a partnership with the agency to provide true product, service and business innovation.

"Nike + is revolutionising marketing. Consumers expect more from a brand than static outbound messaging and nike + redefines how how a brand can reach it's audiences through meaningful personal experiences , two way communication and innovative technology." 

Key here is 'reaching audiences through meaningful personal experiences'. I've talked about this shift before - no longer is it about top-down one-way messaging, now it's about creating something genuinely useful that users will fall in love with and will make sense to the business. It's about core, not décor.

and this...

"...it's not an advertising idea, it's a technology idea... we're deliver a product. Once at this destination where the product lives then we can embroider the experience with more classic marketing and provide community - now have a different relationship with Nike than if they just saw a 30 second spot, an emotional experience and  change the way they behave with the brand and their products."

Not an advertising idea, a technology idea... but does that mean ad folks are equipped to come up with these kind of ideas? Of course! - but they need to start to 'think different' (as Lee Clow might put it). We might need a few new skills, people from a few diverse (non-ad) backgrounds. But this is a real way forward - this is about creating Value and that's what both consumers and businesses want. And the big problem with ad agencies right now is that they need to find new ways of creating value.

"...a fun and active communication platform for the community."

You know, when I was a keen member of my local athletics club Croydon Harriers 20+ years ago, training for road and track races, the 1st London Marathon: I used pieces of string to measure training routes on the map, sung Clash tunes in my head - (OK, I occasionally put a cassette walkman in a backpack but mostly I was concentrating on the run too much).

I'd time myself best I could - but it was fairly unscientific and often quite a solitary experience (but actually I loved that) - funny how over the years running has become more of a communual, non-geeky, legitimate activity. That's progress.

Yup - back in 1980, I would have loved Nike +

(*please excuse any mis-quotes)

The obligatory 2012 Branding post

As the rants continue to flood the blogosphere, I'm getting asked for my opinion on the new marque for the London 2012 Olympics, designed by Wolff Olins.

I'm not going to focus on the design itself - that's being covered very well over at Logic and Emotion and at Coudal Partners (what is it with Chicago?) and elsewhere.

I'm going to look at some of the issues that I think this raises.

Nowhere to hide: the online launch and subsequent blogosphere frenzy is yet more proof that these days there's nowhere to hide. Brands are finding that transparency is all and that a groundswell of opinion either good or bad can be generated within the briefest amount of time and seemingly little effort. In this instance, maybe LOCOG and Wolff Olins might have been prepared for a backlash, with at least a contingency in case public opinion was negative. But they appear to have gone to ground. I can't help but wonder what effect this will have on Omnicom owned Wolff Olins. Today's consumers have a good memory, check out Krytonite who were eventually forced to replace product.

Who owns the Olympics? This raises questions around ownershipo and responsibility. Do the Olympics belong to the IOC in Lusanne or does it belong to the people of the World? Is the UK merely borrowing it, entrusted with it's safe-keeping for 4+ years? If so, what right do we have to change it's direction, it's essence, it's meaning? We, the public are stumping up cash so what say can we have in what it's spent on?

Reinventing the Olympics: Maybe there's a sub-text here. The Olympics needs to innovate itself, connect with new audiences, it's time to be a modern multimedia brand - more, much more than a sports event. So out with the old conservative and static, in with 'Dynamic, Modern and Flexible'. But that's just a hypothesis.

Olympics as cultural 'tool': If the Olympics is more than a sports event then it's long been used for other, loftier  purposes, national identity, civic pride, urban regeneration. In the 21st century it's a money-spinner and a cultural tool for re-stimulating a love of sport amongst the 'playstation generation'.

Communication tool: As a brand, the marque must serve as a visual communication tool. It must function to communicate effectively, appropriately and hopefully in a visually arresting way given it's symbolic nature. If this were 'art' not commerce you could say that 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder', but it ain't art - it's got a job to do, pure and simple.

That said, from a craft perspective and when seen alongside the marques of the next 2 games (and indeed most from recent games) it certainly breaks the conservative mold. My first impression was that it is slightly clunky, a little aggressive and I still have problems reading the '2012'. I don't hate it but nor do I love it. However it's very early days yet, and I'd like to think that WO know a thing or two about these things having created the identity for Athens 2004 and many other world class identities.

System not static: So the marque is only the start-point for a whole system, an identity ecology reaching out across multilple touchpoints over time and through multiple media. Part of the event that will enrich the experience (try and stop me going; the last thing I want is another press destroyed debacle like the Dome). That is when it will truely come to life, when it will sing and we'll see the marque's true colours.

So ask yourself, what could have been done better? For me it's this whole launch thing - the promotion has been badly executed. Us, the audience have been underestimated and over-looked. The language used is all too 'design consultant gobble-de-gook' and does nothing to help explain or suggest what's to come and it's tone is all too 'top down'.

So after an akward launch the rest of the journey, I'm sure, will be a success.