Top 5 Reasons Why Successful Leaders are Investing in Service Design

1. Service innovation needs to be approached holistically*

The thrust of management theory and practice over the last century has focused C-level and mid-level management on developing their business around efficiency, causing many large organizations to get stuck in siloed thinking. As more leaders recognize the value of becoming a customer-centric organization, they realize the importance of looking at the business through their customers’ eyes. Customers don’t see silos. They see the organization as one entity.

For business leaders, investing in Service Design breaks down siloed thinking and helps internal stakeholders look at the customer’s experience from a holistic end-to-end journey perspective rather than a fragmented, touchpoint focused viewpoint.

Note: A study conducted by McKinsey across different service industries showed that most customers weren’t fed up with any one phone call, field visit, or other individual service interaction—in fact, most customers didn’t much care about those singular touchpoint events. What was driving them out the door was something the company wasn’t examining or managing—the customers’ cumulative experience across multiple touchpoints, multiple channels, and over time. (Want to save time and effort while increasing the efficiency in Journey Mapping? You would probably benefit from our most recent eBook. See below for details.)

2. Your services are an expression of your brand

Your services are the primary way customers experience your brand. What you do, how you do it, and how they felt during their experience is what customers remember about you. If you seek to improve your brand image, redesigning or innovating new services that enhance customer experience is a promising place to start. And for that, taking a Service Design approach will identify pain points and turn them into opportunities for delightful experiences with your brand.

3. Excellent services create customer loyalty- which is far better than a mere transactional relationship with your customers

An emotionally engaging service offering is the reverse of the above. It fosters extreme loyalty. Customers see the service as adding value to their lives and price does not become the sole driver as it often does in a transactional engagement. One of the primary objectives of Service Design efforts is to create an exchange of value between customer and provider so that customers engage in other or additional services.

4. It’s about the future

What worked for your customers in the past or even now may not be helpful in years to come. The marketplace is always changing. If you haven’t already, you need to co-develop products and services that will best meet the needs of your customers in the future. This is what a Service Design approach does best – ideate, prototype, test and develop services for the future. Incremental changes lead to near-term solutions but innovation usually requires bold leaps forward. Leaders need to take a step back and reinvent their service. There’s no better way to do this than investing in a Service Design approach.

5. Publicized Service Design efforts inspire organizations

As people in your organization experience the powerful effect of a Service Design effort, it creates an appetite for innovation in other areas of the organization. It creates momentum and ignites culture change. If you still aren’t convinced of the value of investing in a Service Design effort for your organization, should I mention that you can get excellent ROI for Service Design efforts? Stay tuned for the next blog post in this series: The ROI of Service Design.

We’d love to talk about your questions, doubts, fears, or previous experience with service design. Feel free to reach out to anthony@thestratosgroup.com and we can set up a time to discuss.

……………………..

* If you’re looking to save time and gain deep, actionable insights through journey mapping,  “The Complete Guide to Co-creating Journey Maps with Your Customers”