DESIGNING THE

CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE

Chapter 6
MZMS Sept 2014
 CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

 Customer experience is the customer’s

direct and personal interpretation of, and
response to, their interaction and
participation in the service process and
it’s output, involving their journey through
a series of touch points
 Operation managers need to try to build
the right clues and messages into the
servicescape and try to design the
customer’s journey to create the right
experience and emotions
The Experience Statement
• First critical stage in designing the customer
experience is to develop and experience statement

• Customer experience statement is the description

of the customer’s experience and the outcomes
from the point of view of the customers

• It need to be written in an outside-in way

• Eg: Parcel Co – the experience statement is about

the service received, how the customer will feel as a
result of their experience and the benefits they get
from the service
Emotions
• A critical part of the experience statement is the identification of the
emotions the organizations wants their customer to feel, the emotion that
their customers will want to feel as a result of the service

• As operation managers and designers it is helpful if we can become more

mindful of our emotions. This better enables us to understand how our
service may be affecting others

• Although most managers believe they, and their customers, make decisions
based on rational argument, most decision is driven by more emotional
responses to situation

• Our responses to feelings of emotion are swift and strong but if positive can
create powerful emotional bonds between customer and organization, and if
negative can create lasting emotional scars in customers

• Few organizations have articulated and agreed the emotions they actually
want their customer to feel, despite the fact that all their customer will feel
emotions as a result of their experiences with them
 HOW CAN
SERVICESCAPE BE
DESIGNED

Clues – create a message for

the customer during their
Servicescape – physical
When operations managers experience of the organization
surroundings of the service and its service
build and their facilities they
include both physical and
need to ask about more than
informational environment
the size, type, number and Clues are indicators, stimuli and
which a service is both created
location of those facilities; they signals, anything a customer
and provided; it is the
also need consider their impact can hear, touch, see or smell
environment for both staff and
on the customer’s experience that have been built into the
customers service to provide particular
message
 Clues in the servicescape might
include location of the building and
The clues can be design into the its size
(servicescape), the people
environmentor the service process/ The décor and the type of office
experience furniture will provide particular
message about the nature of service,
the likely experience and also its cost

People clues might include the

uniforms, dress, demeanour of the
The process or experience clues are
employees which will provide
those that are designed into the
particular message about their
customer’s journey
approach, trustworthiness or
success
 Influencing Customer Behaviour
• Customers’ behaviour, and their
experience can be determine by the
service scape (its ambience, lighting,
décor or music)
• Servicescape also influence the
nature of the interaction between the
customers and between customers
and employee (Eg: seating
arrangement may encourage or
discourage a conservation)
• The existence of queue, in some
countries, encourage customers to
modify their behaviour
• The design of equipment or
information interfaces will also have
an effect on customers’behaviour
Influencing Employees
• Just as the physical and informational
aspects of a service environment
influence customers, they also
influence employees and affect their
experience of their organization
• Appropriate environment results in
approach rather than avoidance
behaviour by employees and as a
result they are more committed to
the organization, stay longer, and are
more able to carry out their roles
effectively
HOW CAN MANAGERS DESIGN
THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY

 The customer journey is the series of steps they

take and the touch points they have as they
experience the service process
 Some task and activities may be located in the
back office, remote from customers, while other
tasks or activities take place in the presence of
the customers
 FRONT-OFFICE
PROCESSES
 Front-office interact directly with customers and will be visible
to them and create the customer’s experience

• Customer interacts directly with a service employee.

Face to Face • These encounters may be an essential elements of the experience
and contribute directly to customer satisfaction

• Typically employed by contact centers to provide advice, complaint

Telephone handling or order-taking activities
• Provided by a central resource and may be provided at lower cost

Internet Service • The internet can provide access for customers at all times and
enables them to request information or to order products and
and Other Remote services as when they wish. Other remote location include ATM
Location machine
 BACK-OFFICE
PROCESSES
 Back-office processes operate at a distance from
customers and are largely invisible to them

These
These processes
processes dodo not
not Eg:
Eg: Cheque-clearing
Cheque-clearing Some
Some organization
organization areare
have
have the
the complication
complication of of process,
process, computer
computer repair
repair shifting
shifting activities
activities from
from
the
the customer’s
customer’s presence
presence process,
process, preparation
preparation of
of the
the front
front office
office to
to the
the
and
and are
are frequently
frequently more
more food
food at
at restaurant
restaurant back
back office
office
efficient
efficient as
as aa result
result
 Reasons why organizations might wish to move activities from front to
back office:

Common back office

processes serving a
variety of customer-
facing processes provide
cost and consistency
benefits

Moving processes from

Expensive technology front office to back office
may require scale to reduces the need for
justify its purchase immediate response to
customer request
 RISK AND THE CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE

 The risk may take a number of forms:

In some Going on May arise from

Psychological Risk
Financial Risk

Physical Risk
situations, it adventure a number or
may be difficult holiday or flying sources. It may
for the in an airplane come from the
customer to clearly entails customer’s lack
assess the some physical of confidence
extent of the risk or competence
risk.
  There is also a wide range of customer variables that
will complicate the customer experience

Customer Mindset
Customer Mood
Nature of the service may
reflected in the state of Personality Clashes
mind of the customer Linked to customer
mindset, in that people
who complaint might be Some people simply don’t
expected to be angry (vice get on. They seem to take
versa) an instant dislike to each
other, or there is
something about the
other person that reminds
the of another difficult or
dislike character
 DESIGNING THE CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE

 The key to good service design are about taking

customer, outside-in, perspective and
understanding the whole service process
 S EV ER A L TO O L S AN D T ECH N I Q U ES HAV E B E EN
D EV ELO P TO HE L P T HE CU STOM ER ’ S J OU R N E Y
AN D I N F LU E N C E TH E E XP ER I EN C E T HE HAV E:

Walk-
Emotion
Through
Mapping
Audit

Customer Customer
Journey Experience
Mapping Tools and Analysis
Techniques
 Customer Journey Mapping

• Basic but important tool in

customer experience design
• Journey mapping is the process of
capturing series of touch points
that the customers encounters
during a service or set of service

Arrive
Arrive at
at Check
Check in
in with
with Wait
Wait inin Meet
Meet with
with Wait
Wait for
for Have
Have
hospital
hospital receptionist
receptionist waiting
waiting area
area consultant
consultant scan
scan scan
scan
Walk-Through Audits

• Audit undertaken by staff,

managers or independent
advisors, acting as surrogate
customers, can help evaluate and
improve the service and the
customer’s experience
How easy was it to No spaces Plenty of spaces
park the car? 1 2 3 4 5

How did the store Disgraceful Very clean/tidy

look? 1 2 3 4 5

How attractive were Uninviting Very attractive

the displays? 1 2 3 4 5

How soon were you 15 mins+ 10-15 mins 0-5 mins

assisted? 1 2 3 4 5
Emotion Mapping

• Simple but powerful extension

of journey mapping and it
captures the emotions felt by
customers as they move
through the journey
 Felt welcome Felt respected, Felt relief
and expected, cared for, and that checks
made to feel at well informed were
ease underway

Arrive at Check in with Wait in Meet with Wait for Have

hospital receptionist waiting area consultant scan scan

Feeling anxious and Irritation at long

apprehensive about wait, Worried by the Felt out of
the illness, and Embarrassed – questions and control. I am
confused about could overhear frightened by just a thing in
where to go discussions with the suggested the hospital
other patients treatment machine
Customer Experience Analysis

• Referred to as service transaction analysis or STA

• A development of the walk-through audit and emotion mapping
• It incorporates the service concepts, the customer experience, the various
touch points in the customer journey and an assessment of each
• Comprises six key stages:
• The service concepts need to be agreed and specified
• Mystery shoppers, independent advisors or preferably managers and
their staff walk through the actual customer’s journey to assess how
customer assess each touch point
• The interpretation as to why the customer or surrogate customer arrives
at this evaluation is entered into the message column, which describe the
deliberate or inadvertent message provided by the service
• The final column records the emotion felt by the customer during the
experience
• The assessment of +,0 and – are joined to give a very visible profile of the
transaction outcomes and an overall evaluation is entered at the foot of
the table
• Working from this sheet, service designers, managers and staff can begin
to understand how customer might interpret the service process and
then to discuss improvements that can be made
 Organisation: Real estate agent Service concept:
Process: Buy a house Prestige properties with excellent service for the
Customer: Purchaser discerning purchaser

Score
Customer journey Messages Emotions
+ 0 -

Pre-contact Concerned
Good location  They are accessible/available Relieved
Good facilities
 Expensive but competent Cared for
Ignored
 I am not worth the trouble Irritated
Introduction
 They want to help me Pleased
Fill in forms
 I am just another punter Annoyed
No pen
 They don’t really care Confused
Nothing available
 What business are they in? Frustrated
Go on mailing list
 Try somewhere else Exasperated

Poor service design. Little thought for purchasers. Company is not

Overall evaluation customer orientated. Poor service.
 THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN
DEVELOPING THE CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE

 Technology particularly information technology

plays a key role in many service innovation
resulting in often significant changes to the
customer experience
 The vast majority of significant service innovation
leading to new customer experiences are linked
to information technology
INNOVATION AND THE ROLE
OF INTERNET

 Many organizations have restructured their

operations to provide electronic based services
for their customers and suppliers
 E-Commerce has challenge traditional business
model and has created new ways for accessing
customers and providing different customer
experiences
 Give customer much control as information and
prices and services offered are more transparent
 E-SERVICE

 E-service is the delivery of service using new

media such as PCs but also via other technologies
such as digital TV, mobile phones and PDAs
 For customers this is a very different experience
with greater choice and shopping information
gathering available from home or office
 PRINCIPAL ADVANTAGES FOR SERVICE
PROVIDERS INCLUDE:

 Immediate Access For Customer

 Local Business Becomes Global
 Opportunities For Building Brands
 Give Perceived Control To Customers
 Making Information Available To Customers
 Linking Service
Immediate Access For Customer

• Customer can visit websites at any time of day

Local Business Becomes Global

• Small business can now compete globally without

investment in physical sales network

Opportunities For Building Brands

• The messages it conveys, the information it contains, and

practical issues such as how easy it is to navigate, all
present opportunities to support the brand position
Giving Perceived Control To Customers

• Customers can browse websites at their own discretion

Making Information Available To Customers

• Websites allow the organization to make vast amount of

information available for current and potential
customers

Linking Services

• Opportunities exist to build links between websites of

complementary service providers
 OPERATION
IMPLICATIONS

 The movement to e-service has many important

implications for operations management,
including how the web can add value, the
changing nature of customer relationship,
changing service quality factors and the
importance of website design
 STRATEGIES FOR
CHANGE

 Key steps in developing e-service strategy:

 Upgrade the current service interaction
 Improve existing web-based experience by improving response
times, automatic acknowledgements, improving navigation of
sites

 Understand Customer Segments

 Identify likely users and the services that can be best offered to
them via web

 Understand Customer Service Process and Interaction

 Identify the service processes, activities, costs and value to help
make decisions about the best parts of services to make web-
based
 Define the roles of live interaction
 Identify the tasks best suited to live interaction and
those best for automation

 Make the key technology decision

 Do not put off purchase decisions since doing so
may improve competitive position

 Deal with the tidal wave

 Be prepared to deal with significant increase in
customer interaction associated with web-based
services
 Customer Training
 Develop ways to encourage customers to use the
appropriate channels for the appropriate services

 Channel choice
 Make decisions about ‘brick versus click’; a variety
channels of communication or web only, or telephone
and web

 Web Relationship
 Exploit the web experience to build relationships with
customers and convert them from browsers to buyers
DANGERS OF THE INTERNET
SERVICE

 Building High Expectation

 The immediacy of internet access ha many benefits.
Customer place their order in minutes but wait weeks for
delivery

 Focusing on the website at the expense of operational

structures
 It can be too easy to focus on more intriguing and
interesting font-end systems for interacting with customers

 Not Managing Service Recovery

 Internet based services must develop new strategies for
managing customer complaints