Scrap Customers… and growing a service business

No, I’m not suggesting you scrap your customers. Far from it – I’m actually talking about the easiest and most cost-efficient way to grow your business…keep your existing customers, sell them more and make them advocates of your service.

“Service companies have their own type of scrap – customers that don’t come back”. I’m not sure who said that it made me think of one of my personal favourites in the world of business improvements – design-led thinking.

It’s actually a pretty simple concept which takes the principles and process of the more long-established product design (such as identifying customer needs through systematic observation) and applies that thinking to services – so service design enables businesses to design the service they provide to their customers to create a wow factor.

I would sum the process by saying that it is all about “walking a mile in your customers shoes”.  Recognise that your customer has three main stages in their experience of your business – before, during and after the service they receive. Picture yourself as one of these customers and imagine, step by step, each and every action and interaction they have with your business along this journey. From when they first come into contact with you to when they are long gone.  What are the key touchpoints this customer has with your business? Where are potential pain points? More importantly, where can you introduce key moments of pure joy for the customer where you exceed their expectations  – these are the ones they will remember and pass on to others.

This is all about delivering a customer-centric service proposition in a seamless and holistic way so that the whole experience and journey makes them want to come back for more (customer retention) and become your best marketeers for your service (new customer acquisition).  Given that more and more products are now being sold as a service (how long has Software-As-A-Service been around?) or experience this is becoming increasingly important.  And it is not only an offline concept – user experience online draws a lot from service design too.

I’m sure we all have examples we can think of when you have experienced highs and lows of a service as well as seen missed-opportunities by service providers for customer satisfaction. Think about your company and run through your customer experience – there is always room for improvement.