We are going to make /
made a great app that does this and that.
We are building a
website that will help people with….
Our new device will
enable people to….
These are phrases that are encountered at many
conferences, meetings, tradeshows, get-togethers on service design.
A huge proportion of people who (claim to) do
service design or customer experience focus their work and their speech on the
technology they are working on and how great and mesmerizing it will be for
their consumers / users.
Naturally,
the ground-breaking, paradigm-shifting technology will enable organizations to
be consumer / customer centric…
Although I am allergic to buzz-words, I think
that the big issue is not the use of fluffy words that everyone pretends to
understand.
The big issue is the over-emphasis on technology.
Good (profitable) service and great experience
are as much about technology as Rembrandt’s paintings are about the canvases and
paints.
It’s obvious that without paints and canvases
any painter, including the great Rembrandt, would not be able to create a
masterpiece. Nonetheless, good painters draw very beautiful sketches with just
a piece of paper and a pencil. It's the same with technology and great service.
One can have good service without too much technology being involved.
Even in the case of Service Masterpieces, technology is simply a tool.
It’s about giving a good feeling not about how you do it.
For example, a restaurant stores the phone
numbers of frequent (loyal?) clients and when one of them calls to make a
reservation, the receptionist answers with “Good day Mr. X, how many will you
be this evening?” instead of the typical “Good day, restaurant R, how may I
help you?”.
The increase in customer satisfaction with the
experience of making a restaurant reservation is not due to some fancy
technology (caller ID to be precise). Rather it is because someone (apparently)
knows him and (apparently) cares about who he is.
Technology is, not seldom, overused while disregarding the human
component.
For example, there are some elevators which
have the control buttons on the outside.
Basically, when you call the elevator, you have
to type the number of the floor you are going to. The elevator arrives and you
enter into it. The doors close and it takes you to where you commanded it when
you were on the outside.
I am sure that there is a good reason for this;
it might be energy use optimisation.
However, the designers forgot to take into
account a very basic human feeling and need.
Once you enter the elevator, you are in a closed
small metal box without any control.
That’s pretty freaking, right?
Where the buttons are placed might not
influence too much the technology part, but having the buttons on the inside
gives you a sense of control. It’s the person who controls the machine and not
the machine controlling the person.
We see the technology, but we don’t see the fundamental human truth.
More than 80% of information acquired by humans
is received through the visual sense. Our vision is pretty amazing and we rely
on it.
There is a draw-back of human vision:
Human vision is great at seeing what is in
front of our eyes, but it is horrible at seeing what is behind the salient
(shiny) object.
Several years ago, a technology company (with a
fruit name) began selling mobile technology devices. There was and still is a
lot of buzz around this company and its products. Recently, this company
reported the highest profit for a quarter in corporate history… and that amount
is in the same league with the GDP of
small countries.
Hundreds of business and technology analysts commented
on the success of the company and its products. The emphasis, naturally, was on
technology and the products’ features: touch screens, apps, memory capacity
etc.
Yet, I haven’t heard anyone speaking about the
fundamental reason behind this company’s tremendous success. This reason is not
technology; rather it is a fundamental
human truth.
Without going too much in the depths of
evolutionary psychology, the fundamental truth is that all humans have a need
to communicate (advertise) themselves on the social and mating market(s).
This is true for other creatures as well, but
there is an essential difference between humans and other creatures. Whereas
many animals advertise their mating value through conspicuous and costly
features such as the peacock’s tail, humans advertise their mating (and social)
value through behaviours and ornaments.
In a nutshell, the company mentioned above
managed to create and sell peacock tails…
It was not the first one to do so, but it managed to become an icon of
self-advertising. The most interesting thing is that this company manages to
create (and sell) peacock tails that
are self-degradable, thus creating the conditions for re-purchase every (other)
year.
Whenever a new generation of the product is
launched, both the company and its clients talk about the technology progress and
the new features, but this is only the surface…
The fundamental truth is that
An “i Peacock’s Tail 5” is
sexier than an “i Peacock’s Tail 4”
Happier Customers & Higher Profitability through
Behavioural Science Applied in Service Design
