Transforming service experience through human-centric design
CONTRIBUTING to the overall improvement in service standards witnessed in the Singapore economy last year has been the customer-centric approach increasingly being adopted by businesses and other organisations, according to experts.
"Singapore companies have been working very hard at improving their service quality. As you know, it's challenging due to the labour constraint, but companies have been coming up with very innovative ways of delivering quality service given the labour issue," says Sheryl Kimes, Professor of Operations Management at Cornell University School of Hotel Administration and Visiting Professor of Decision Sciences, National University of Singapore.
"Yes, I would say that Singapore is on the right track. I am constantly impressed with how seriously companies here take service quality and customer satisfaction," she told The Business Times.
The key issue is to design the delivery of services around what customers want. "By empathising with their needs (perhaps through personas and customer journey maps), companies can determine ways to better meet customer needs.
"Of course, the challenge with this is how to do this in an efficient manner given the labour constraints that most companies are facing. If customer needs are better met, satisfaction will most definitely increase," says Prof Kimes, who participated in a panel discussion on transforming service experience through human-centric design at the release of the latest CSISG findings.
Without an organisational-wide focus, human-centric design initiatives are doomed for failure. "Human-centric design often represents a different way of thinking to many companies. Typically companies focus on operational efficiency and productivity. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with this, but if the needs of the customer are not included in the equation, customer satisfaction will suffer and as a result profitability will decrease."
But finding a sweet spot between organisational efficiency and customer empathy is not easy. "Meeting customer needs is one thing, but doing so in an efficient manner is another issue. That being said, I've seen many examples here of companies putting customer needs first and then determining innovative and effective ways to meet those needs in an efficient manner," says Prof Kimes.
The challenge for companies is to make the big leap from achieving customer satisfaction and translating it to loyalty. "As discussed during the panel discussion, customers seem to be quite a bit more fickle these days. They have a wide variety of choices and may not always stay with the same company. To me, there are three things that a company can do to help turn satisfaction into loyalty: One, understand what their customers want; two, develop ways to effectively meet their needs; and three, give them reasons to return to the company."
A key financial sector business leading the charge into transforming the service experience through human centric design is DBS Bank. Says Raju Nair, managing director and regional head of customer journey experience: "If you see across the sectors whether it be healthcare, education, banking, there is a shift from the institution and its products/services to a focus on the patient journey, student learning and development journey or customer banking journey respectively, in enabling their life goals and day-to-day living needs. There is a shift to designing around your key target stakeholder and their needs, and this customer-centric approach is the way to go."
DBS believes that a customer's journey encompasses his experience from beginning to end rather than at a single point of transaction. "This is why we have adopted human-centred design, a discipline of developing solutions based on our customers' perspective rather than the limitations imposed by our systems and processes," says Mr Raju, who was also a panellist at a discussion that followed the latest CSISG release.
"We have a deliberate design process of deep immersion to drive empathy, understand and frame the customer problem and 'job to be done'. We then use iterative experimenting and testing with the customer using prototypes to shape our solutions. We have also invested in strong design capabilities to translate these customer journeys into engaging digital user experiences, meeting both the functional and emotional needs of the customer."
At DBS, across all its business initiatives, the bank applies this journey-thinking and treats every business goal as an outcome of designing and delivering a customer journey that addresses the customer's 'job to be done' need, he adds.
Another organisation which is focusing on transforming the service experience through human-centric design is the Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) as guest satisfaction is one of its key performance indicators.
As part of its commitment to deliver the best Sentosa experience to all its guests, SDC has brought all its guest services units under a newly formed integrated marketing division which includes its branding and communications, business promotion, guest services, sales and marketing, as well as events and programming functions.
"The amalgamation of these departments will strengthen our end-to-end guest-centric approach in the delivery of the best Sentosa experience," Lynette Ang, chief marketing officer, Sentosa Development Corporation told The Business Times.
"We recognise that every component in the service chain is crucial to enhancing the guest experience. Be it the need to invigorate our people in providing the best service, or to constantly innovate our products in the face of increasing competition, or to improve our processes both internally and for guests. Over the years, we have been working hard to rejuvenate Sentosa's service charter through several initiatives."
For instance in 2015, SDC introduced the Customer Journey Ecosystem Mapping initiative to ensure that a systemic (ecosystem) view is adopted while identifying guest pain points for re-design consideration. At the Faber Peak's Spuds & Aprons restaurant in Mount Faber, it did a guest journey mapping that allowed it to identify critical guest touch points in order to intentionally create "wow" guest experiences. It also enabled the team to identify potential "combustion" points for preventive action.
Ms Ang says other initiatives taken have included applying human-centric design thinking principles in developing and enhancing the guest experience. For instance, at the Port of Lost Wonder, using the design thinking approach, SDC was able to look into details such as specially designed, two-panel toilet cubicle doors that protected the privacy of its young guests in the cubicle and at the same time, allowed them to see the accompanying adults just outside the cubicles.
SDC has also customised an in-house, seven-week design thinking programme for staff, to develop organisational capability to resolve challenges and approach opportunities in a human-centric way.
Ms Ang says that for businesses to effect an organisation-wide focus on human-centric design as a strategic imperative, leadership is the key. While the team driving guest experience creation and guest satisfaction may develop programmes like Design Thinking and Customer Journey Ecosystem Mapping to build organisational capabilities, senior leadership must rally behind these initiatives.
"Their executive sponsorship indicates the importance of these initiatives, and their presence at such programmes underscores that senior management is devoting time to these initiatives. In addition, a cross-functional, collaborative culture is also essential to effect an organisational-wide change; in this instance, a shift towards a human-centric design as a strategic imperative.
"In Sentosa, senior management support has allowed us to nurture a collaborative community culture," she adds.
