Building a good service or product isn’t just about users; it also involves the organization we belong to.
When we hear about services, what does it mean? According to the book Good Services by Lou Downe, a service is something that helps users achieve their desired outcomes. It simply helps someone accomplish a goal, big or small. This could range from simple tasks like getting a cup of coffee to more complex activities like filing taxes.
Services are everywhere in our lives, from using public transportation (with an on-time arrival rate impacting user experience) to getting to work, to taking care of our national IDs (where a streamlined process can save users significant time). When you look at these services, you’ll notice they all help you achieve something. You might think that “the most important thing for services is the user.” That’s right, but there are several other factors to consider, or the service might become worse for users. These factors include efficiency, accessibility, and reliability.
From Lou Downe’s book, we know that a good service is good for three groups: users, organizations (meaning it’s profitable and easy to run), and society as a whole. Considering this, have you thought about how organizations can impact the user experience when people interact with their services? For instance, how a company trains its staff or how it designs its website can significantly influence the overall user experience.
It’s true that understanding user behavior, needs, and challenges when using services is crucial. However, we also need to ensure our staff or internal organization also thinks about making things easier for users and shares the objective of helping them. Staff should be trained not just in technical skills but also in empathy and problem-solving to better assist users.
Organizations have their own objectives they want to achieve. However, not all leaders understand how to implement these objectives in a way that benefits both the organization and the users. Objectives are often broken down into targets or KPIs (key performance indicators) for various roles, sometimes without any discussion with the people who will actually be carrying them out and who may have better insights than the leaders themselves. This lack of communication can lead to inefficiencies and missed opportunities for improvement.
The Cost of Disorganization
This disconnect can be costly. A [Customer Experience Management (CEM) industry report] (CEM industry report) found that companies with poor customer service lose an average of $461 per customer due to wasted time and effort. Disorganized internal processes can also lead to delays and errors, further frustrating users. For example, miscommunication between departments can result in lost paperwork or duplicated efforts, which can be incredibly frustrating for users.
For example, the book Good Services mentions a company that set a strict 7-minute limit for customer service calls. While this target seemed efficient, it actually hindered users from fully explaining their complex issues. Valuable time was wasted on identity checks, surveys, and other procedures designed to meet company policies, rather than addressing the user’s needs. This rigid approach did not allow customer service representatives to fully understand or resolve user issues, leading to dissatisfaction.
While completing a call within 7 minutes might be an achievement for the organization, for users it can be frustrating if it doesn’t resolve their problems. Imagine you want to use their service to solve an issue impacting your revenue, but instead of problem-solving, they only take your complaint, say they’ll get back to you later by email, and then end the call. This kind of experience can make users feel undervalued and ignored, leading them to seek alternatives.
Of course, you’d be frustrated and might consider stopping using the service altogether since the customer support didn’t offer the human assistance you needed to solve your complex problem. The problem isn’t with the users, but with how the organization incentivizes and encourages users to achieve their targets. This means the organization needs to be aware of this when making targets and objectives for staff. They need to incentivize staff in a way that doesn’t harm the user experience. This could include setting targets that focus on problem resolution rather than call duration.
The book Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Perri also points out that if a company only focuses on outputs, the staff will only focus on achieving those outputs, not the outcomes. This means they might focus on how many features are developed and released or how many backlogs are cleared in Jira, rather than on real business outcomes like revenue, customer churn rate, or customer satisfaction — things that could improve the user experience and help users achieve their goals. By focusing on outcomes, companies can create more meaningful and impactful services.
Since the foundation of services is helping people do something, poorly designed services from an internal perspective can lead to an unsustainable business. If users have a bad experience, they will leave, and the three pillars of a good service — being good for the user, the organization, and society — will not be met. Therefore, it’s crucial for organizations to continuously evaluate and improve their services to meet these three criteria.
The key takeaway is that while providing for users is important, it’s easy to overlook our own internal systems. We created these systems, so it’s important to keep them running smoothly and make interactions with them as seamless as possible for users. This includes regularly training staff, updating technology, and gathering user feedback to make informed improvements.
