#Weeknotes 22 (18 June) — What is a service and why experience design will never die

I finally got around to reading the book ‘Good services’. It’s an essential read if you work in the service design industry especially if in the public sector. One nugget from the book I liked was how it distils what a service is in a very human way:

The book ‘Good services’ is a great read highly recommended for service designers, especially those working in the public sector.

“A service…is simply something that helps someone to do something…to achieve a goal.”

As designers and service creators, we often work on services or products that help the human to just achieve a portion of their larger goal.

Say someone’s goal is to replace a broken fridge. There are a series of steps and tasks involved to complete that goal such as:

1. Determining if the fridge still has a valid warranty to get a replacement from the manufacturer (in which case involves finding the original receipt and right contact number)
2. Failing that, finding a reliable replacement fridge that would fit nicely in your home, has the right storage and energy efficiency ratings etc;
3. Purchasing the fridge itself
4. Removing the old fridge and installing the new

Completing a goal such as this often involve us engaging with multiple services at different stages.

It’s easy to solely focus on the specific service we’re tasked with: the channels it’s being delivered on; the usability; the marketing; and lose sight of the bigger goal a person is trying to achieve, which is often beyond our service remit.

Superior services tend to have a much better understanding of their audience journeys and the bigger goals people are trying to achieve. This is why many services invest in seemingly high-cost-vague-return features such as integrations with other 3rd party services. This is actually an advantage because by linking up with other services (especially those that also help people achieve the same bigger goals) organisations are streamlining that experience for people by making it easier and quicker for them to achieve their goal, setting their brand apart from their competitors.

We all interact with services regularly if not daily. There’s always something we need to do or accomplish that we can’t on our own. Acquiring groceries, banking, communicating with loved ones remotely, looking up information on the web, playing games, watching movies, etc all require a service, or a series of services working together, to be set up, hiding all the complexities behind the scenes, and ready for us to use (often at a price).

As long as services exist to help us achieve tasks in life and work, there will be a need to ensure these services run smoothly and well. Because if they don’t, someone else will. Just like how Monzo changed the way we bank in the UK and now consumers have new expectations from banking which is forcing the traditional banks to innovate in order to stay relevant and remain competitive.

Competition is good if it means better experiences for us consumers. And the basic consumer needs have always stayed the same: Set the right expectations; Make it simpler to use; Make information easier to understand; Make the service flexible; Make the experience consistent; etc. (Do refer to the ‘Good Services’ book for a much better written and comprehensive list of timeless service principles.)

One thing I noticed is that as services improve, our expectation of services would increase. This means we also have less tolerance when services fail us.

I had a subpar (to put it mildly) experience this week with my mobile plan provider, EE. I wanted to switch my sim to an eSim (digital sim card) so my phone can have dual sim capability that’d enable me to use my work sim at the same time. I’ve done this before with a previous phone and it should’ve been a straightforward task.

In my mind it went like this:

1. Visit local EE shop and ask the employee to convert my personal sim to an eSim;
2. I go home and replace the now old physical sim card with the work sim card (assuming the phone will recognise the sim and would work without much hassle)
3. I move on with my day

Reality was:

1. Visit local EE shop and asked the employee to convert my personal sim to an eSim;
2. Got told after half an hour there’s an issue with the system and I can either come back tomorrow and hoping it’d work then OR call EE and get the eSim delivered to my home which might take a few days;
3. Since there’s no guarantee visiting the shop again tomorrow will mean whatever the issue will be resolved, I opted for calling EE customer service as suggested;
4. I got home to find out I didn’t have my ID with me after leaving it with the EE employee who had to verify my identity. I was quite upset at this point. Not only was the issue not resolved, I have to go back to the shop to retrieve my card because the person didn’t give me back my ID right after my identity has been verified; I normally remember these things but I don’t think the responsibility to ask for their ID back, in this case, should fall onto the customer;
5. I went back to the shop to retrieve my ID;
6. I got home and called the 150 EE customer number as per the suggestion of the EE shop employee;
7. *Dials 150*; only to be greeted by an automated voice system. Which would be fine except none of the options presented related to the topic of eSims; I thought if I tried a few options, I’d eventually be connected to a human;
8. I was wrong. No matter the option I chose (fine I tried four as that was my limit) no human got connected; I tried to stay on the line hoping it’d realise that I needed human intervention. Only what waited me was the same female voice repeating the menu options two more times before disconnecting the call; I hate getting hung up on…especially by an automated system!
9. Frustrated, I googled ‘ee eSim’ and found a webpage with a specific customer support number and called there;
10. Finally I got connected to a live agent this time who was able to sort me out. The EE shop employee also failed to let me know there’s a fee for them to send me an eSim if I choose to contact the customer service line whereas sorting it out at the EE shop would’ve been free. At this point, I just want it all over and done with so I complied with whatever fee I was subjected to.
11. A day later the eSim arrived which was nice and quick. Possibly the best part of this experience.
12. I think you get the point at this stage.. and surprise! It’s not the end. I was about to find out that setting up the eSim following the instructions that came in the mail was also not straightforward..
13. Annoyed that the instructions don’t match with the menu on my phone;
14. Confused as to how to proceed, I opted to google the solution;
15. At this point I’m beyond frustrated in having to figure things on my own when it’s a clear failing on the service;
16. Relieved to finally set up my eSim;
17. Can finally move on with my day. Oh, wait. It’s already night.

What joy right?

I have no doubt we all had our share of similar experiences that leave us feeling depleted and our youth sucked away.

Design podcast host Debbie Millman echoes similar frustrations with subpar services.

Debbie Millman, the host of the podcast, “Design Matters”, (I highly recommend subscribing to her podcast about design and the world of creative culture), echoed a familiar frustration on Twitter.

There are still way too many services we get stuck with due to no better options available out there (yet!) and put us at the mercy of terrible inconveniences and frustration.

What’s certain is that the need for proper service and product design is still at large. There are still an overwhelmingly amount of services that haven’t got the basics down.

Design indeed matters. And it always will. It seems I have my work cut out for me for many lifetimes over!