Woo Wow and Win Service Design Strategy and the Art of Customer Delight

Companies carefully craft the products they sell to customers, but rarely practise they give the same thoughtfulness to designing what could be the near disquisitional part of the sales procedure: customer feel. In the volume, Woo, Wow, and Win: Service Design, Strategy and the Fine art of Customer Delight, authors Thomas A. Stewart and Patricia O'Connell show businesses how they can requite customers positive "Ahhh" moments, instead of negative "Ow" experiences — all of which lead to "Aha" realizations by management. And pleasing the customer doesn't mean always giving in to what they desire. — Stewart, a former editor of the Harvard Business Review, and O'Connell, president of Aerten Consulting, talked to Knowledge at Wharton well-nigh these and other management insights in their book.

An edited transcript of the conversation follows.

Noesis at Wharton: Peradventure we can showtime with you, Patricia, for our kickoff question. What inspired you to write this book?

Patricia O'Connell: I confess I had never heard of service pattern until four years ago. I was working with a customer, the Savannah Higher of Fine art and Pattern, and they started talking about service blueprint classes, and I said, "What'south that?" And they said, "Service blueprint is when we teach people how to imagine and think through, and then design a client experience. People recollect about user experience. In that location'due south been a lot of emphasis on user experience because of all the accent on things going online. (But) when you walk into a restaurant, you walk into a hotel, you interact with a company, you go into the lobby of a business, every footstep of that interaction between yous and that company, that brand, that business concern, needs to exist designed in social club to give you a satisfactory customer experience."

And I thought, this is fascinating. I started looking around and realized that in that location was not a lot written on that for the service market. There's a lot most design for manufacturing. I realized that in that location was really a gap hither to connect the thought of service to strategy. And that'south where Tom came in.

Thomas A. Stewart: What inspired me to write the book was Patricia, obviously. But, seriously, one of the things that'south actually interesting is a lot of what we know virtually management comes from automobile assembling plants — [Edwards] Deming and Frederick Taylor and all of that. But when information technology comes to a service, these things need to be, can be, should be designed as carefully every bit products are. When you lot think nearly it, this is also the strategy connection. That's the difference, actually. And more and more — studies are starting to evidence this — the deviation is non the production or the service per se, it'due south not toll. It's the experience you lot have. What information technology's like to go into that restaurant? What it's like to work with that law firm? And it goes from B2B, B2C and in all areas. It also connects to what it'south like to go to that car dealership. That'due south really hard to copy. I can match you on price and I tin match yous on how many thread counts are on the sheets in the hotel. Only what it'southward like is a point of strategic differentiation that's difficult to beat out.

Knowledge at Wharton: I'd similar to come up back to the question of strategy in a bit. Simply what yous said reminded me of something really fascinating that I read correct at the showtime of your book. You lot starting time with this astonishing fact: Almost companies are not set up to design services well. And I was wondering why not?

Stewart: I recollect it's partly that in many respects the discipline is relatively new. In direction literature, managing services has been done past analogy with managing manufacturing for a long time. That's part of it. But I think then much of what companies do is well-nigh organizing internal operations. But when information technology comes to services, the act of production is with the customer. It'southward not in the factory and so we hand it to the customer. You're correct there with me when it happens.

"1 of the first clichés anyone hears who has ever worked in service of whatever kind is that the client is ever correct. That is non actually true." –Patricia O'Connell

O'Connell: The client is co-creating the experience. I affair we've got to say is products are about handoffs. Services are nigh handshakes. A service requires the participation of both parties. That is a very different thing than what nosotros know about products and manufacturing. That's why there has been so little written well-nigh information technology. The shift in our economy is now such that 80% of our economic system is services based. That is everything other than agronomics, manufacturing and mining. Then that is just about everything people take multiple interactions with every 24-hour interval, whether information technology'south B2B, B2C, whether it's something mundane, getting a cup of coffee, whether it'due south something really of import, calling your insurance company.

People so often confuse customer service with customer experience. Those are 2 very different things. Customer service is something yous do. Ordinarily information technology'due south designed around when something has gone wrong. Customer feel is the totality of my interaction with you, from the moment I starting time come up across your name … to when I'thou done, whenever our business is finished.

Noesis at Wharton: Y'all hear a lot about things like pattern thinking these days, or industrial blueprint, manufacturing design, or designing user experiences. How do you separate service design from some of these other buzzwords that you hear about design? Is that helping or hurting the situation?

Stewart: I don't know if you separate them. You might integrate them. But I think that'due south i of the things that's interesting. Nosotros were talking to Tim Brownish of IDEO (innovation and design business firm). He said that if y'all recall near it, the ATM, which is fifty years onetime this year, was one of the first cases where people had to design in a thoughtful way how the customer interacted with the user interface. Before that, the user interface of the banking concern was the smile teller backside the muzzle, and that person did all the touching and reckoner generating, all the piece of work with the depository financial institution systems.

So design thinking is a fashion of budgeted problems. Industrial design is a manner, of course, of making cute and functional designs. And service design takes design thinking and some of the sort of aesthetic industrial design and says, "How do we use that to employ to this train journeying, this ATM experience? What are we trying to convey with the look and feel of what's happening in our interaction in the store, in the office or any information technology might be?"

O'Connell: Something nosotros include in service design is also service delivery, considering design without the ability to execute on information technology is meaningless.

Stewart: That'southward function of that handshake.

Cognition at Wharton: In the course of researching and writing the book, which are some of the companies that you lot encountered that are really expert at this? Could you offering some examples? And what can others learn from the mode they went nigh this exercise?

O'Connell: One of the classic examples we use to explain service blueprint really quickly is Starbucks versus Dunkin' Donuts — who's a Starbucks person, who's a Dunkin' Donuts person? People unremarkably have a very potent preference. Ostensibly they're both selling the same affair. They're selling coffee. But that'southward non [all] they're selling. They're selling two very unlike experiences. Dunkin' is a take hold of and go. There'south a reason the slogan is 'America runs on Dunkin.' The logo is very hot. Hot pinkish, hot green.

"Focus on delight, and please is meeting expectations every fourth dimension." –Thomas A. Stewart

Starbucks is much more about being relaxed and leisurely. It's not for the person who wants to become up and go. And there were new companies similar [personal stylist] Sew Fix, which have evolved. At the time that we were doing the book, it merely did women'south clothing. It now includes men. Edmunds, the car buying service, has evolved so much. They're a great instance of a company that has just kept on evolving. They started as almost a [Kelley] bluish book [listing of used car values.]

Stewart: We also looked at an airline, Surf Air, which is a subscription, all-yous-can-fly air service on the West Coast in California. We looked at a hospital system, ThedaCare, in Northern Wisconsin. These are some of the trickiest; we all know how bad the pattern of medical care services is and these guys are applying the Toyota production system to redesigning infirmary services. Then we looked across a whole spectrum.

But the Starbucks/Dunkin' example is wonderful. Nosotros were talking to an audience in Seattle in one case and asked for a testify of hands, who'south a Dunkin' person, who's a Starbucks person? If y'all think virtually information technology, it's really interesting. At Starbucks, the seating is laid back, and at Dunkin' there are little stools if there's anything at all. And so these are examples of how you're selling coffee. Yous're selling better than boilerplate coffee. Only what y'all're doing is creating two very dissimilar experiences, and people are in one camp or the other. In that location are non very many people who say, "Whichever's closest." They take a preference. And that preference is because the experience is unlike, and it's designed that style very consciously on both sides.

O'Connell: I recall i of the fun things that we also discovered — intuitively we believed this, but our research bore it out — was that the principles of service design hold across industries.

Knowledge at Wharton: At that place are [five] common principles that these companies seem to follow, which makes them adept at designing effective service experiences. … The first is that the client is ever right, just to brand sure the customer is right for you. Could you explain?

O'Connell: 1 of the outset clichés anyone hears who has ever worked in service of any kind is that the customer is always right. That is not really true. If I get to McDonald's, I accept no business asking for a hamburger medium rare. That'due south not what they are designed to practise. I am the incorrect customer, maybe just at that moment. There are times I'm perfectly happy to go to McDonald's and get what'due south on the bill of fare. Merely if I want something very specific and custom-made, that's not the identify for me to go.

If I desire a luxury shopping experience, I should not become to TJ Maxx, just as if I'yard looking for a bargain, I shouldn't go to Barneys. And so, in those circumstances, I am not the right client. It is incumbent upon both the client and the company to ensure, and that's part of that co-creation we were talking nearly, that companies do two things. They have to make up one's mind who the right customer is, and be diligent well-nigh serving those customers well. And they as well have to be skilful about communicating who they are. That's with everything from their branding to the style they await, to the experience that you have when you go along their website, or whether you go into their store, the people you encounter.

You know there'south a very different feel when you walk into a Hyatt Regency versus an Andaz, which is another Hyatt make. Andaz is their hip, sleeker brand where everyone'due south sort of dressed in black and someone's going to check y'all in with an iPad. Go into the Hyatt Regency, and there'southward going to exist a big, ornate desk and people in one-time-fashioned uniforms. And those are ii different experiences. If I'm looking for the sleek, hip — I want to feel cool — I shouldn't be at the Hyatt Regency. I'll get a very different kind of experience. It will be a luxury feel, but it will exist very unlike. And then customers so as well have to sympathize what they are ownership. They need to recognize whether or non they're the correct customer in a given situation.

Cognition at Wharton: What y'all just said reminds me of some very interesting inquiry that has been going on at Wharton in the marketing section, led past professor Peter Fader on client centricity.

O'Connell: Who we interviewed for the book.

Stewart: He actually does make that betoken, that customer centricity partly depends on your own center of gravity, also. That yous want to discover the right thing. We did a mini-survey of some professional person services firms. And one of the things they said is a big problem is that they are lured from their sweet spot by clients who inquire them to do things, because they want to exist customer centric, but the client's sort of putting them on the wrong foot. And information technology'due south hard to say no.

Our 2nd principle is: don't surprise and delight. Just delight. Information technology expands or is some other turn of the creepo around that idea. One of the things we realized is that people say, "Surprise and please, surprise and delight." Our signal is, focus on delight, and please is meeting expectations every time. Now if you desire to put a maraschino cherry on top of the sundae, fine, but become the sundae right. The problem with the surprise and delight thing is it starts putting the monkey on the individual employees' back. And it doesn't focus on reliably, robustly delivering on those promises that you brand and that your customer expects. I think information technology was Frances Frei at [Uber] who said that if you're doing this, you're almost institutionalizing the inability to do what your customers expect constantly. And and then that's our 2nd principle.

"Great service should non require heroics, either on the part of the employee or the customer. … It's near consistency." –Patricia O'Connell

O'Connell: The third principle is that bang-up service should not crave heroics, either on the part of the employee or the client. So this is an extension of what y'all were merely talking about. It'south about consistency. When I'm delivering a service — so now I'm in the company's seat — I demand to know what I'm doing, and I should be able to do it reliably, repeatably, scalably and profitably. When y'all starting time requiring heroics, information technology means that something is going wrong with the pattern.

I'm not talking about emergency situations. Of course, you deal with emergency situations. Just if you lot find yourself constantly running effectually similar a burn warning has only gone off, something is wrong. You are either not designing your services properly, you're not communicating the expectations appropriately to the customers or you are existence lured abroad from your sweet spot, and that'south a strategy problem. And so heroics are an indication to you that something's wrong. From the client's perspective, information technology should non be impossible for me to go what y'all promised me. [When you live up to promises] we call those "ahhh" moments. That "ahhh" moment is when a customer knows he's in good easily.

Knowledge at Wharton: In contrast to those "ow" moments?

O'Connell: And so the "ow" moments are the things that companies need to look at. Those are the things that customers complain almost. That is a signal that something is wrong, either for some reason yous are alluring the incorrect customers or y'all don't have your services designed in such a way that information technology's easy for customers to get what they want, need and have a right to expect from you.

Stewart: Are you easy to practice concern with? I mean, it's a simple question and most companies don't actually systematically inquire it.

Cognition at Wharton: And what is an "aha" moment?

Stewart: An "aha" moment is when I go it. I, as the seller, say, "Aha, I know how this works. I see the hurting bespeak. I meet the 'ah' moment. I know how to fix the pain signal. I know how to create the 'aha' moment. I understand what nosotros're trying to do here and how to design it." This is getting complicated in a world of omni-channel.

This is the fourth principle: Yous've got to exist able to evangelize to your clients or customers at every indicate on the journey, and on every aqueduct. So whether I'thousand on the web, on the phone, in their store, it should experience like I'm in your hands. This — what people are at present sometimes trying to call a post-aqueduct globe — is critical, and we run into all kinds of companies screwing up. In some cases, it's because they're still dealing with old computer stacks. Sometimes it's just a technical result. Sometimes information technology'south an issue of silos and failure to make handoffs.

"You've got to exist able to deliver to your clients or customers at every point on the journeying, and on every channel." –Thomas A. Stewart

Classically, for a long time, it'due south been an issue of the analog guys and the web guys, who just don't connect. That's complicated even more, considering it's not just the stuff under my command every bit a seller. But in service environments, I'thousand commonly working in an ecosystem. Information technology's bad plenty what the airlines tin can practice to me. Then add the TSA (Transportation Security Assistants), the airports and the traffic in the transportation system to the airport. There'due south a whole ecosystem built effectually these things. So i of the biggest challenges in service design is to piece of work with ecosystem partners where you may not take dominance, but to try to sort of collectively work together to create an experience that you lot all desire to create for the customers you desire to serve.

O'Connell: The fifth principle is yous're never washed.

That's really of import, considering it's not a static matter. People's expectations will change, products will change, markets volition change, your strategy will change, and you've got to accommodate to those things. In that location's a fine line between you're never washed, and, as nosotros were saying, distorting yourself exterior your sweet spot so that you're no longer recognizable as to who y'all are. That's why information technology really does come down to service blueprint needs to be part of the strategic fabric of the visitor. All these decisions most service are likewise oft lumped in with the client service department, where people call up of information technology only as a function of marketing. And marketing is certainly a department that has responsibility for helping to create the notion of what that brand hope is. But strategy is about deciding what that make promise is going to exist.

Noesis at Wharton: How tin doing service design well help you develop a really strong competitive strategy that can have you lot forward?

Stewart: We created in the volume a ready of 9 archetypes. They're basically expressions of value propositions. One of the archetypes is the Trendsetter. You know, we are the Apple of whatsoever manufacture it is. Another is the Deal. Nosotros're the Wal-Mart of any industry it is. Another is The Classic. We're the all-time. You know, we're the Mercedes of any it is. There are nine of them, and yous can find well-nigh all of them in every industry. Simply if you think about these archetypes as expressions of a value proposition, that means they are really a strategy.

Our strategy is to be the safety choice. Our strategy is to be the best, whatever it is. … Value proposition and strategy are pretty closely related. These help you envision how we're going to take that value proposition and manifest it in the feel customers have, and as well in the tangible testify of that experience, the look and feel, the things that customers can look at and say, "Yes, that's what this is going to exist."

When y'all're there, that'south actually a strategic chat, and having ane of those archetypes in mind, helps. I mean, strategy is partly the art of proverb no, correct? What yous're not doing and the customers you are not serving. And having those archetypes in heed helps you remember, no, this isn't the states. But this is us. We can practice this. And this is what it means for the system equally a whole and for the customers we seek.

Knowledge at Wharton: What are the biggest mistakes y'all find companies make in coming upwardly with service pattern?

O'Connell: Ane of the things we did is focus a lot on the companies who are doing it right, which isn't to say that at that place are merely happy stories out there. There are a lot of companies that aren't doing information technology right. But I think a few of the things that we all see but from our own experiences is people don't walk in the customers' shoes, literally. Y'all know, endeavor to be your own customer. That'due south part of how you find out if y'all're easy to exercise business with. People but don't think information technology through. Crazy things that you'll meet that just make no sense. Why practise I take to walk from here to at that place to become something washed?

"You're never done." –Patricia O'Connell

Ane of the cardinal things we've tried to practise with the book is aid companies feel empowered. In an age of social media, it's also easy for customers to just go online and tweet, "I've had a really bad feel with 10 and such," and then somebody in customer service goes, "We better reach out to this person considering … what if this goes viral?" Companies need to feel empowered to be able to make these strategic decisions.

Stewart: I of the biggest mistakes companies make is they confuse customer service with client experience. Customer service is at the end, and it's important to brand a good last impression. But declining to see the whole customer journeying and and then failing to make that as coherent as possible are two of the biggest mistakes that we see companies make.

Nosotros've mentioned five principles. It'south the violation of those 5 principles: Proverb yes to everything every customer asks you lot to do. Not being coherent. Non being innovative. Requiring heroic efforts or making your customers work too hard. The flip side of those principles is what we encounter too many companies doing all the time.

O'Connell: That and focus on surprise instead of delight. Why should expert service be a surprise?

Noesis at Wharton: Now, if companies desire to go meliorate at service pattern, what advice would you requite them?

O'Connell: They demand to exist willing to be honest with themselves. It is a gut check, and information technology'due south not always pretty. And I think they need to brand sure that it is going into the determination-level making of the organization.

"I of the biggest mistakes companies make is they misfile customer service with customer experience." –Thomas A. Stewart

Stewart: We've created a footling equation in Woo, Wow, Win: Customer delight is the product of the customer'south experience and technical excellence. Experience times excellence. And we put 5 points nether each one of those things. Empathy and engineering and the economics of information technology. And created a quiz you can take. I mean, a report card.

Beingness honest with yourself sometimes requires "permit's sit downwardly and audit." And that written report carte du jour is a mode to audit. You can sit down down and y'all can take [the examination] within your management team or a diagonal slice of the organization. Also, inquire some of your customers or clients to charge per unit yous and then you can get a study card. From there, you tin can begin to see what's wrong. Another idea is charting the customer journeying. Accept we looked at that journey? … What is my customer experiencing at each bespeak? What do we want the whole journey to be like?

O'Connell: When you're mapping, you have to map both onstage and offstage. What the customer sees, what the customer experiences and what's happening offstage to make it possible.

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Source: https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/designing-a-captivating-customer-experience/

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