R&D in products is often clearly separated from production and sales of the products. R&D can happen in isolation from other aspects of the operations, and also in isolation from customers.

An engineer and industrial designer can design a new toy without meeting a single child (customer). After the toy goes to market, feedback will eventually trickle back from the market. This then triggers the …

“[In service design] the only one to see the big picture is the client.” said John Holager, Senior Service Designer, live|work at the Innovation and Service Design conference, 29 Jan 2010, Malmö, Sweden.

This is a wonderfully simple and revelatory observation that made so much immediate sense!

Most businesses are divided into specialised departments and divisions, each focused on their own little specialisation. Service design is an activity …

Services are seldom valued properly, especially when it is provided as part of a product which is bought on a cost vs benefit basis.

Consider the technical advice provided by reviewers and shop assistants. Customers don’t value this – they will buy from the cheapest online retailer. Similarly, few clients will willingly pay for the technical support and education provided by web developers. Or the business consulting ideas …

“If society values customers and employees, service will be valued.” says Eva-Karin Anderman, head of research, Almega.

She said this in response to a question from the floor on how government and other agencies can introduce policies or mandates to encourage society to value service. The understanding is that a lot of time, service is not valued, especially when the service is attendant (and thus seen as …

As I have spent several days thinking about and talking to people about service design, I thought it timely to highlight a post I wrote several years ago about attention and services.

A service business is not really about the quality of service, but rather the quality of the attention paid to customers. … the demand for quality attention giving services will increase – therapists, counsellors, escorts, personal assistants… …

Service design has two aspects: technical execution and relationship building.

Technical execution is about making the mechanical bits work. For example: the aircraft takes off and lands without unnecessarily killing anyone on board.

Relationship building is making people feel good about the process. For example: hot pre-flight towels, good in-flight movies and service with a smile.

Technical execution is easier to plan, implement, and measure. In many cases, good execution is …

I had the unfortunate cause to visit the Eye Centre and Surgery in the Gleneagles Medical Centre in Singapore several weeks ago.

I turned up on an extremely busy Friday afternoon. The small waiting area was packed. The small staff was clearly fully occupied. Patients were being moved between the different treatment rooms and diagnostic stations. Staff were calling out to each other. Patients were milling around. In addition …

I have just had the best customer service experience in a long time.

Where: Eagle Boys Pizza at Perth International Airport.

When: Just past midnight on 10 Feb 2009.

How: The person behind the counter was happy. Genuinely, authentically happy. She was the essence of cheerfulness and life-is-good-ness. I could not help but smile. This is despite having had no sleep the day before, a long hot day, and …

If you want something from someone, you should think about giving them something first. This has to be done with the genuine desire to help of course; and not a half-arsed attempt to create guilt by manipulation.

I walked out of Phuket airport recently and stopped to get my bearings. A nice woman came up to me as asked if I needed help. She came across as genuinely …

I had the dubious pleasure of meeting possibly the worst travel agent ever recently.

They made me feel stupid. I came with information. I knew what I wanted to do, the sorts of place I wanted to be at, and my budget. None of this seemed to be useful as all they wanted to know was the specific geographical location. And when I (not them) listed some possible options, …