It contains the elements to Human-Centered Design, a process used for decades to create new solutions for multi-national corporations. This toolkit has been designed to hear the needs of smallholder farmers in new ways, create innovative solutions to meet these needs, and deliver solutions with financial sustainability in mind.

While many elements of the toolkit are specifically tailored towards the specific questions one faces when innovating with and for smallholder farmers, it is a valuable collection that makes the sometimes vague human centered design process more concrete and therefore transferable and reproducible.

What I really like about this toolkit is that it differentiates between the design team and the facilitators. I think this differentiation and the active nomination of facilitators is one of the unique aspects in design processes and the transfer of design knowledge.

I see a lot of potential to create Human Centered Design Toolkits a specific company and certain industries. It is really helpful to narrow the focus and create a human centered design toolkit for the automotive industry, telecommunications industry or financial service industry.

More information about the toolkit

[via Nick Marsh]

]]> http://www.customer-experience-labs.com/2008/12/15/human-centered-design-toolkit-from-ideo/feed/ 0 http://www.customer-experience-labs.com/2008/07/10/strategies-and-tactics-for-successful-service-recovery/ http://www.customer-experience-labs.com/2008/07/10/strategies-and-tactics-for-successful-service-recovery/#comments Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:18:57 +0000 Bernhard Schindlholzer http://www.customer-experience-labs.com/2008/07/10/strategies-and-tactics-for-successful-service-recovery/ It is easy to focus on creating always better and more differentiated products and services when designing for remarkable customer experiences. Maybe it is simply human, that we tend to not look at situations when a product or service fails (think positive!) your customer’s loyalty will be negatively impacted.

I see a huge opportunity for improvement and a chance to create remarkable experiences that create word-of-mouth marketing in situations when products and services fails – if sophisticated service recovery programs are in place.

Can you imagine one of your customers telling a friend:

"You know, the product (or service) of company XYZ broke down the other day. But when I contacted the company, they did everything possible to solve the problem in a fast and friendly manner and now it is fixed. I understand problems can happen, but I feel that this company is taking care of me."

Every service (human or technology driven) as well as product will eventually fail one day and put your customer in a uncomfortable situation. Smart organizations will understand this and develop a service recovery program which ensures that their customers are satisfied even after things have gone wrong.

When organizations plan to implement recovery programs it is helpful to differentiate between (1) the strategic initiatives that should be in place before the actual problem occurs and (2) the tactical activities that should happen after a problem has occurred and the customer contacted the company.

Let’s start with the strategic initiatives that will ensure that the right environment for remarkable service recovery is in place.

Anticipate the needs for recovery

Whenever you roll out a product or service, the people related with it are probably well aware of potential problems or obstacles that might occur. It is probably not so much arrogance than probably more wishful thinking that limits the ability of companies to foresee potential problems with a product. Accepting that even the best designed product or service will fail one day in specific situations is the first step. Anticipating potential problems will help organizations to be prepared when the first customer contacts the company with a problem.

Build an organization that is fast in decision making, and fast to response.

One of the key success factors to win back customers and restore their satisfaction is to act fast. While your front-line employees might be working hard (and fast) already, the whole organization that deals with service recovery has to be “designed for agility”. This includes clear escalation and decision-making processes. One key principle should be that the fastest decision-making happens when the front-line employee can make the decision. So the real goal is not to define better escalation processes, but to define processes that empower employees so that escalation processes are not necessary anymore.

Empower front-line employees

In most companies, the employees that are actually interacting with customers are the ones that receive the lowest salary in an organization. While increasing the salaries (compared to other competitors) is one way to attract and retain talent that is able to deliver exceptional service, empowering employees and giving them the freedom to do whatever is necessary to ensure that customers are satisfied is probably even more economically meaningful.

Train employees

Ensure that your training program includes not just lessons on delivering service when everything works out as planned but also to include lessons that teach employees to improvise or to set recovery programs into action if something goes wrong.

While these strategic initiatives are important to define the long-term direction of your service recovery programs, the "moment of truth" happens when a customer contacts a company and interacts with an employee to discuss the problem and possible solutions.

In these moments the following seven rules should be applied by employees that are actually interacting with your customers:

1. Acknowledgement

Acknowledge that there is a problem. It doesn’t matter whether the customer didn’t understand certain aspects that are obvious from an organization’s perspective. He is the one that has a problem and if you want to keep this customer he needs to be taken serious. If one tries to convince customers that there is no problem, you are actually telling them they are stupid. This applies also to situations when the customer is following the wrong steps to perform a task – never blame the customer.

2. Empathy

Understand the problem from a customer’s point of view and also understand that he might be upset after a problem has occurred. While it is not necessary to listen to a customer when he starts cursing at employees, front-line employees should try to create an atmosphere that supports and enables a positive solution of a problem. Confronting the customer with his anger and frustration will not lead to an escalation of the problem, communicating that one can understand his situation will.

3. Apology

Saying sorry in the name of the company occurred is essential. Whether the employee should apologize in his name or in the name of his company depends on the context of the service recovery. If the employee (or a direct colleague) was involved when the problem occurred, he should apologize for himself. If the employee is in a call-center and a problem happened at a completely different location in the organization, he should apologize in the name of the organization – everything else is not authentic.

4. Own the problem

Taking ownership of the problem by the employee that is confronted with the problem (no matter in what position he is in) ensures that customers feel that they are taken care of. And even if your job is not to resolve the problem ultimately, telling customers to go somewhere else (and not "bringing" them there) sends the message that they don’t care.

5. Fix The Problem

Obviously fixing or at leasing trying to fix the problem for the customer should be the top priority. This might be easy in some situations (maybe just replacing the defect product) it becomes a challenge when the problem is not a real problem. Let’s say the customer was simply using the product in a wrong way, fixing the problem in such a situation means re-educating the customer so that he uses the product or service in the supposed way.

6. Provide assurance

When Customers get in touch with you to report a problem and to demand a fix their most important need is to be taken serious. Giving them a feeling of assurance that the problem will be sorted out and should (hopefully) not occur again will leave a professional impression and help rebuild the customer’s confidence a company’s products and services.

7. Provide compensation

If you want to make angry customers happy, give them money. Providing a refund, token or other compensation depending on the severity of the problem remains to be a powerful method for service recovery. Increasing the amount of money that a company pays to company to fix problems requires a rigorous control but it can indeed ensure that your customers are satisfied. It is important to note that just "handing out money" is not enough – if money is handed out unfriendly or even worse, in a tedious discussion with the customers, satisfaction will not be restored.

References:

Hart, C.W.L.; Heskett, J.L.; Sasser, W.E.: The profitable act of service recovery. Harvard Business Review 68 (4), 1990, pp, 148–156

Johnston, R.; Michel, S.: Three outcomes of service recovery: Customer recovery, process recovery and employee recovery, International Journal of Operations & Production Management 28 (4), 2008, pp. 79 – 99

Creation of value for customers is a critical task for marketers, particularly when developing new products and services or starting new businesses. This paper presents a new conceptual framework for marketers to ponder when exploring ways to distinguish themselves, in the eyes of the customer, from others in the marketplace. This framework is built on the strengths of existing frameworks. Possible applications of the framework in designing marketing strategy, recognizing new product opportunities, and enhancing product concept specifications are discussed.

They have developed a framework that includes several dimensions of customer value that adopts a strategic orientation in that the focus is on identifying categories of value that could differentiate offerings and not on identifying all of the specific benefits and sacrifices that may be perceived by consumers or customers. The framework is applicable to consumer and business contexts, and goods as well as services.

The four types of value that have been identified are

Functional/instrumental
Functional/instrumental value is concerned with the extent to which a product (good or service) has desired characteristics, is useful, or performs a desired function.

Experiential/hedonic
Experiential/hedonic value is concerned with the extent to which a product creates appropriate experiences, feelings, and emotions for the customer.

Symbolic/expressive
Symbolic/expressive value is concerned with the extent to which customers attach or associate psychological meaning to a product.

Cost/sacrifice value
Consumers and customers also try to minimize the costs and other sacrifices that may be involved in the purchase, ownership, and use of a product. Cost/sacrifice value is concerned with these transaction costs.

In the next step they identify five sources of customer value information, products, interactions, environment, ownership/possession transfer and identify possible value aspects for each type and source of customer value. The result are four pages of value aspects.

I have been looking for such a comprehensive framework already for quite a while because such a framework is indeed helpful in identifying the value of new products and services in order to derive their chances of becoming a successful new product or service. And I completely agree with the authors conclusion:

The customer value creation strategy framework developed in this paper offers a useful tool for specifying and illustrating value creation strategies, illustrating brand and organization positioning, identifying opportunities for new value creation propositions, and suggesting enhancements to the value propositions of existing products.

Download the full article here.

“Market research methods for innovation development (via archive.org)” is a paper written by Dennis List from the University of South Australia which looks at the variety of established and emerging market research methods for researching innovations. The methods are grouped into (1) understanding customers, (2) idea generation, (3) concept testing and (4) estimating market size, growth and composition. The methods for each group are:

Understanding customers

• Empathic Design
• Observation
• Customer visits
• Ethnography
• Alien interviewing
• ZMET (Metaphor Elicitation)
• Codiscovery conference
• Information acceleration

Generating Ideas

• Brainstorming and synectics
• Templates of product change
• Morphological analysis
• TRIZ
• Nominal group technique (NGT)
• Scenario planning
• Lead users
• Secondary research
• Lateral Thinking
• Ignoring customers

Concept Testing

• Storyboarding
• Customer Idealized Design
• Charrette
• Usability testing
• Consumer clinics
• A-B testing (formal experiments)
• Consensus groups
• House of Quality / QFD

Estimating market size, growth and composition

• Test marketing
• Delphi method
• Expeditionary marketing
• Tracking surveys
• Simulation
• Forecasting
• Monitoring, response techniques

Each of the methods is explained briefly and limitations are discussed. Most important the article provides further references for each of the methods.

Download the full paper via archive.org.

There is a group of brand consultants and cultural anthropologists alike that believe now that it is not the actual research itself that is the problem. It is rather about how research is often misused, what type of design concepts and stimulus are tested, and how data is analyzed that is most often at fault. When used correctly, research shouldn’t stifle creativity but rather offer designers stronger inspiration and focus.

The authors further explain the advantages and challenges of modern market research methods (ethnography, focus groups, quantitative eye tracking, online testing) and deduce 6 golden rules for market research.

1. Focus on testing communication effectiveness vs. design appeal.
2. When testing, make allowances for familiarity.
3. Market research is an art, not a science.
4. Focus on what consumers like about the brand or product first.
5. More is definitely merrier. Do not test designs in isolation.
6. Never ask consumers how they would improve a design.

Read the full article.

Companies have been harnessing the social sciences, including ethnography, since the 1930s. Back then executives were mostly interested in figuring out how to make their employees more productive. But since the 1960s, when management gurus crowned the consumer king, companies have been tapping ethnographers to get a better handle on their customers. Now, as more and more businesses re-orient themselves to serve the consumer, ethnography has entered prime time.

They also published a nice playbook with best practices on how to apply anthropological research in a corporate environment. (Click on image for full view)

The ten methods are :

1. Take a neuroscientist to lunch (yes they are serious )
2. Tap into your community
3. Organize to integrate knowledge, not isolate it
4. Choose forward-thinking partners and customers
5. Develop a shared framework to sort the trends from the trendy
6. Form a posse on the future
7. Diversify your teams, not just your workforce in general
8. Get off the beaten trail
9. Beware traditional research
10. Watch the games people play, and the people watching games

Read the full article.

When we talk about a sales person, some people think strictly about the person that is walking from door to door selling insurance or newspaper subscriptions. Yet this view is too narrow. When you are giving a presentation to your boss about your latest project or a new business idea and trying to get funding and additional support – this is just as much a selling process as selling life insurance is. And even convincing your girl- or boyfriend to go on a certain weekend trip is a selling process .
This list is based on the book with the same title, which can be bought online here. In the following article I want to give you a quick overview of the mistakes and how to avoid them:

No. 1: Not being obsessed

The solution: Forget about input and how much time you have invested. Focus on the output of your work and maintain a commitment to results all the time.

Mistake 2: Not Listening to the Prospect

The solution: Never interrupt your business partner. Try to identify the key facts, isolate the underlying problem and ensure that you are sending the right message. The message is that you are there help.

Mistake 3: Not Empathizing with the Prospect

The solution: Realize that you are not the most important item on your prospects agenda and try to see the whole situation with the eyes of the other person.

Mistake 4: Seeing the Prospect as an Adversary

The solution: Do not approach the sale with a confrontational attitude but rather try to get the other person to work with you on finding a solution.

Mistake 5: Getting Distracted

The solution: When you feel you are drifting away focus again on finding a solution to your prospects problems. Do not become disoriented by negative comments or remarks from the prospect.

Mistake 6: Not Taking Notes

The solution: Write down everything the prospect says. This way you not only ensure that nothing get’s lost what is being said. And I also shows the prospect that you are serious about what he is saying.

Mistake 7: Failing to Follow Up

The solution: Ensure that you send professional looking thank you notes in key points of the sales cycle.

Mistake 8: Not Keeping in Contact with Past Clients

The solution: Get in touch with your past clients again and remember that they already know the way you work and what you can offer. This significantly reduces the acquisition efforts next time they are in need of your products or services.

Mistake 9: Not Planning the Day Efficiently

The solution: Ensure that you are planning your days and measure your actual performance against it.

Mistake 10: Not Looking Your Best

The solution: Ensure that your image reflects the one of a sharp, well-groomed, successful person when dealing with prospects. Forget everything you have heard about “decision are made rationally”.

Mistake 11: Not Keeping Sales Tools Organized

The solution: Keep your sales tools (i.e. briefcase, sample cases and other material) organized since they need to reflect you professional image.

Mistake 12: Not Taking the Prospect’s Point of View

The solution: Understand the challenges your prospect is facing, then isolate product benefits and highlight these for the prospect.

Mistake 13: Not Taking Pride in your Work

The solution: Stand behind the product and your company with pride. Even if there might be things you don’t like with your product or company, focus on the positives and talk with others about what you do for a living.

Mistake 14: Trying to Convince, rather than convey

The solution: Forget about making the sale using high pressure sales tactics. Demonstrate how your product or service addresses the prospect’s relevant concerns.

Mistake 15: Underestimating the Prospect’s Intelligence

The solution: Try to be a information broker and work with the prospect to identify problems and find workable solutions.

Mistake 16: Not Keeping Up to Date

The solution: Once the sale has been closed ensure that you keep up with customer, monitor relevant publications to detect key trends and share this information with your customer.

Mistake 17: Rushing the Sale

The solution: Don’t try to speed up the sales cycle but try to find the pace that’s most appropriate for your prospect. Speed is not important, but the right timing.

Mistake 18: Not Using People Proof

The solution: Increase your credibility by highlighting previous success stories and encourage your prospect to talk with current customers.

Mistake 19: Humbling Yourself

The solution: You bring a certain set of skills and knowledge that the other person can benefit from. Therefore work with the prospect as a partner, not a supplicant.

Mistake 20: Being Fooled by Sure Things

The solution: Forget about potential sales in the future, but focus on building your customer base today.

Mistake 21: Taking Rejection Personally

The solution: Develop resilience and self-assurance when confronting rejection.

Mistake 22: Not Assuming Responsibility

The solution: When faced with no as an answer ensure that you fully understand where you have gone wrong or what mistakes you have made in the presentation.

Mistake 23: Underestimating the Importance of Prospecting

The solution: Improve your prospecting skills and work everyday to find new customers.

Mistake 24: Concentrating on Negatives

The solution: If obstacles arise approach them with a positive frame of mind and avoid negative habits such as complaining and gossiping.

Mistake 25: Not Showing Competitive Spirit

The solution: Your sales presentation should not be a battle, but ensure that you are fighting as much as you can for each and every new prospect.

Update:

While reading my RSS feeds I stumbled upon an article at the Business Opportunities Weblog titled “The key to trade shows is follow-up”. This corresponds with Mistake #7 in this blog post. Here is the full post.

If you are interested in finding more about improving your sales techniques I recommend reading the following books (click on them for more information):

These are chapters in building your brand (and spreading your idea) that can not be written ahead, but in a follow-up post, he comes up with a solution: rewarding brand-building behaviour.

In order to ensure that your customer are using your product in the right way or that the correct brand message gets delivered all you have to do is come up with incentives for rewarding brand-building behaviour. Diego comes up with a few examples for the Prius case and this exercise can be done for any product, service or brand.

Now the question is, how we can create ideas for rewarding brand-building behaviour? Let’s try it with these steps:

1. Identify “good” and “bad” brand-building behaviour situations
2. Identify situations, that would increase the status of your customers
3. Now mix them up and reward “good” brand-building behaviour and provide an incentive for not pursuing “bad”

The result would be a guideline (of course you don’t call it like that ), how to use the product or service and how to “life” the brand. The result is an “army of brand ambassadors” – which would open up countless new opportunities.

This could be an independent software developer producing some customized software application, a biotechnology entrepreneur trying to sell his potential blockbuster medicine or a musician playing music on the street.

The problem is that most of us are very focused on ourselves. What we have, what we do, what we can offer and what we want to get form that. When you catch yourself thinking “What can I do? What can I offer? How can I sell what I already have?” you should step back and take a look at the big picture again.

Here are some questions that should help you in this process:

1. What exactly is it that I am offering?

2. Who could be interested in that (a.k.a. Who are my customers)?

3. Why should anyone care about my offering?

4. Does my product or service increase anyone’s overall performance?

5. Does my product or service decrease anyone’s costs?

6. Are you really sure that your answers for 4 & 5 are realistic?

7. Why exactly should anyone choose you or your product and not someone else?

8. What could you do to improve the performance or decrease costs for someone?

Don’t get me wrong here. With these questions I don’t want to be overly pessimistic. All I want to do is to think about your business not from the point of “What’s in it for me?” but from the point “What’s in it for them?”. Because at the end of the day, everyone is thinking more about himself than they are thinking about you – so you better give them a good reason to do business with you!