Experience strategies in the back stage

Abstract Experience is the starting point of service design. Service design focuses on interactions, temporal processes and, among others, on human-centered design of digital and non-digital service encounters. Furthermore, service design heavily addresses backstage activities, too, and shifts the focus from customers and service touchpoint solutions, to concern peoples’ roles, relationships, as well as organizational structures and competences. This paper focuses on employee experience and backstage perspective as a strategy to advance experience competence within organizations. We elaborate this perspective by introducing three service design projects led by service design consultancy called Hellon. These projects aimed at developing and facilitating human to human interactions by utilizing tactics familiar in experience design, human-centered and participatory design. We conclude the paper by introducing experience steps as a framework that shows a strong connection between customer and employee experience.

Author Keywords Employee experience; customer experience; service design; design games; human-centered design

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Experience Design Meets Service Design – Method Clash or Marriage? workshop in conjunction with CHI’18. April 22, 2018, Montreal, Canada.

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Kirsikka Vaajakallio Hellon Pursimiehenkatu 26, 00150 Helsinki, Finland Kirsikka.vaajakallio@hellon.com Anna Pyyluoma Hellon Pursimiehenkatu 26, 00150 Helsinki, Finland Anna.pyyluoma@hellon.com

Zeynep Falay von Flittner Hellon Pursimiehenkatu 26, 00150 Helsinki, Finland Zeynep.falay@hellon.com

Tuuli Mattelmäki Aalto University Hämeentie 135 C, 00560 Helsinki, Finland tuuli.mattelmaki@aalto.fi

Introduction Service design is often defined by three main characteristics: focus on user/customer experience, coordination through systemic and holistic approaches, and co-creation with different stakeholders. While these characteristics are continuously relevant, during the recent years, we have witnessed how service design practice has expanded from its original starting points. Following Sangiorgi and Kimbell’s (2017) view, service design field can be introduced through three focus areas as follows: interaction paradigm with the focus on service encounters and experiences; co-creation paradigm with the focus on collaboration and networks; transformation paradigm with the focus on organizational, social and systemic change. Typically, these paradigms do not appear separately but are somewhat intertwined in service design practice.

Companies are increasingly competing with creating and predicting superior customer experiences. Focusing on customer experience at the front stage and the relevant touchpoints is the first step to success. However, the backstage needs attention, too. The best results in customer experience can only be realized with thinking employees as the assets to be treasured. There are clear signs that companies that have acknowledged the link between the customer experience and employee experience are more successful (Jaatinen et al, 2017 citing Watermark’s customer experience ROI study from 2015). To show how this is done in practice we will in the following walk you through three projects with distinctive challenges that address employee experiences. They all represent examples from the perspective of a service design agency’s practice. (see more at Hellon.com)

Developing building blocks for enabling the best possible customer experience Stockmann department store has been known to represent the best customer service in the field. The company’s sales personnel are guided to follow a particular service model in their work, but to respond even better to current customer needs the model required updating. As the updated model was created, it was realized that in order to be successful the renewed system needed to be implemented and integrated into the everyday practices of sales employees. Hellon was invited to develop an innovative personnel training to serve around 3000 sales people in nine different department stores. The training aimed to facilitate the effective implementation of the model and competence, and eventually, further improve customer experience. Similar to many experience design projects, the research started with observing current situations. Once ideas for alternative solutions were created they were tested and further elaborated with representatives of the personnel.Special attention was given to the emotional impacts of the training (e.g. inspiration, excitement and amusement).

The outcome for the innovative training model was called The Diamond Game, and it follows loosely the design games framework, as defined by Vaajakallio (2012), and the principles of participatory learning. Throughout the game session, challenging customer service situations are simulated in a playful way addressing different stages of the sales process. The game aims at building participants’ capability to solve tricky situations and change their behavior to better

Figure 1 The Diamond Game training model being used

address customer experiences in the long run. It aims to create confidence in sales staff’s own problem-solving skills, critical thinking, self-expression, as well as willingness to be engaged, that are the key to adopting new skills. Correct answers are not passed out, sharing experiences is encouraged instead. The Diamond Game supports developing a work identity that has the authority to act according to the employee’s best judgement. Thus, it supports greater autonomy of employees, brings elements of creativity to work and helps employees stay motivated.

Rethinking performance discussions In many organizations development discussions take place regularly to ensure that employees are able to achieve preferred performances. In the City of Helsinki a recent study revealed that only 39% of the employees and supervisors found the time used for development and performance discussions useful (Jaatinen et al, 2017). In order to use the time more meaningfully, Hellon was invited to rethink this

challenge and renew the performance and development discussions at the city organization.

To start diving into the challenge 35 volunteers from 18 different city offices, were invited to a creative co-design workshop to unfold the practice, identify problems and to dream about possible solutions similar to any UX design project. Based on the insights including wishes for flexibility and customization for surfacing themes, a solution was created. The solution is a game like toolbox with theme cards, templates allowing the employee and supervisor to choose the topic and structure their conversation along what they find meaningful at that moment.

Several prototypes were created with different solutions regarding the game logic, visual design, and contents of the theme cards. Once the prototypes were ready to be used they were tested by the volunteers, and even with new volunteers that showed up. The prototypes were tested in the city’s performance review discussions over the next four months and modified based on feedback and tested again with even more volunteers from various departments of the city. Both testing periods themselves created a positive hype around the project, and the enthusiastic volunteers swapped prototypes to gain more experience over the different solutions. This activity and enthusiasm shows great impact on the organizational level: the word got out and people were more than willing to embrace the new model. Based on the feedback the employees’ and supervisors’ motivation for the discussions improved. The new practice emphasizes genuine interaction,

personalization and flexibility, and paves the way to a new employee experience culture.

Figure 2 Redesigned performance discussion templates

Developing experience design competence The Bank of Ireland started a transformation programme with the aim to shift the paradigm from customer focused to customer centric organization. Hellon was involved with supporting a service design programme that focused on experience design. Over 8 months’ time the programme activated 36 top managers of the organisation to transformation journey with workshops, mentoring, and team assignments addressing real life customer experience. Throughout the programme the experiential learning was supported by theories of service design and support in terms of methods. Furthermore, the programme engaged senior management to seek for obstacles that prevented the organization from achieving customer-centricity with the aim to create a momentum for the paradigm shift and to drive the cultural change. This ensured the continuous and systematic implementation of customer-centricity and the service design approach.

Figure 3 Cross-functional team building quick and dirty prototypes

During the programme cross-functional collaboration and problem solving created a more holistic understanding of customers and their needs. The programme created change in the following areas: it facilitated creating a true understanding on what customer centricity meant and how to apply a service design approach to support the company’s overall business goals, the service offering was redesigned to ensure empathy towards the customers. Finally, with key recruitments for a leader and a team dedicated to the topic, customer experience become a core focus area for all product & service change initiatives and lifecycle reviews. In sum, this major change towards customer experience was realized through a strategic commitment, education and experience to support both the organizational and personal transformation and organizational competence building, as well as cross functional problem solving for the benefit of the customers.

Discussion In the examples above, we have painted a picture on how experience design is in the core of service design practice. However, these examples consciously bring forward an alternative perspective that focuses fostering employees’ abilities in doing their work in a personally meaningful manner, and supporting, in the end, serving others in best possible ways. We also wanted to highlight how the human to human interactions and capability building are relevant focus areas in experience and service design. The attention to what we here refer as backstage strategies and employee experiences, does not address only direct face to face interactions with customers. It also needs to be considered in strategic and systemic levels. The strategic level deals with the objectives and visions, the systemic level includes processes, roles, responsibilities and tools.

As introduced earlier in this paper the application of service design has expanded from creating interactive service solutions to focusing co-creation and to transformation. Experience design, i.e. studying and understanding people, and designing solutions that start with this understanding, is continuously in the core of service design whether we focus on cultural shift in an organization or fruitful interactions in service encounters. In this paper we wanted to highlight, that experience design in service design requires attention to both, customer experience and employee experience. To communicate this we, at Hellon, utilize a

framework that follows roughly Danish Design Centre’s Design ladder (2011) but extends to look at how a lasting transformation to a customer-centric culture affects both customer experience and employee experience on multiple levels (See figure 4).

The easiest and fastest level to achieve is the Product level. In the Product level capacity building within an organisation is minimal and all development and design processes can be outsourced. There is minimal understanding towards what customer-centricity and customer or employee experience means and development is isolated and sporadic.

Figure 4 Hellon framework depicts how the organization's maturity in customer experience is connected with the maturity in supporting and developing competences in organizational empathy. This is what we refer as backstage strategies in this paper. Note that in order to move up the steps on the Customer Experience ladder you first have to cover the corresponding step on the Employee Experience ladder. For example, to reach the Strategy level an organization needs to have maturity in Product and Process level on both sides of the ladder, on Customer Experience and Employee Experience. Employee Experience thus becomes a prerequisite for Customer Experience competence development.

The second level of transformation towards a customer-centric organisation culture is the Process level. It requires longer temporal commitment to design exploration, some co-design efforts from the organization’s part, and some awareness about customer experience and its connection to employee experience, but the projects and development might still remain fragmented.

On the third level, the Strategy level, a significant amount of internal capability on customer-experience starts to form, and the value of customer experience as a driver for business has been recognised and shows in budgeting. Customer experience drives strategic decision-making. In our experience, moving to this level is difficult, and requires considerable attention to employee experience and competence building. Then experience design is being applied within organisation for improving the employee experience and internal service structures.

The fourth and highest level of transformation is the Culture level. The value of customer experience and its connection to employee experience has been internalised on all levels of organization from top to bottom, and it drives meaning to the work of all. CX shapes the company’s strategy and vision, but also the everyday actions of employees.

The framework has proved to be fruitful support in the projects described above. The focus on experience as a backstage strategy focuses on people, practice, leadership and competences. The most impact seems to happen when a transformation is a long-lasting

process and affects all levels of the organization - not just the customer touchpoints.

Acknowledgements We thank all the organizations and people who have been part of these projects discussed in this paper

References 1. Danish design centre. Retrieved Feb 2, 2018 from

http://danskdesigncenter.dk/en/design-ladder-four-steps-design-use

2. Hellon. https://www.hellon.com/#case-studies. Retrieved Feb 2, 2018 from.

3. https://www.hellon.com/project/we-designed-a-training-model-to-put-stockmanns-renewed/ Retrieved Feb 2, 2018 from

4. https://www.hellon.com/project/service-design-transformed-bank-of-ireland-from-customer-focused-to-customer-centric/ Retrieved Feb 2, 2018 from

5. Jaatinen, M., Vaajakallio, K. and Belgeonne, M. 2017 Business impact through employee experience design. Touchpoint. The Journal of service design. 8. 3. SDN. 32-35

6. Sangiorgi, D. and Prendeville, A. (eds) 2017. Design for service Key issues and new directions. Bloomsbury publishing Plc. UK.

7. Vaajakallio, K. 2017. Design Games as a Tool, a Mindset and a Structure.” Doctoral diss., Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Finland.