What innovative service delivery models can you create with design thinking?

An iterative process focused on understanding users' needs, challenging assumptions, and redefining problems to create innovative solutions. It involves a human-centered approach that empathizes with users, defines problems creatively, generates multiple ideas, and iterates through prototyping and testing to arrive at effective solutions.

The real origin of design thinking is from thinking like designers when creating solutions to solve problems. It's popularized to the mainstream thanks to Steve Jobs and Apple that showed the world that good design is not how it looks, but how it works.

1. What I have found to yield better results is first understanding the customer's need way before presenting in depth what you offer. 2. This then births an opportunity to tailor-make a solution that will meet the customer's needs. 3. The solution should however be within the capacity of the organization. So as not to over-promise and under-deliver. 4. Finally, get the customer's feedback and see the areas to improve on. After all, don't we all need repeat customers and referrals?

Design thinking is a dynamic mindset and process, embracing problem understanding, user empathy, ideation, prototyping, and iterative testing. It defies linearity, fostering adaptability and continuous learning from feedback. Collaboration is key, involving diverse teams to generate innovative solutions. Beyond a method, it's a culture that thrives on breaking boundaries, promoting user-centricity, and cultivating a constant drive for improvement and adaptability.

A perfect customer experience is the culmination of a series of interactions that not only meet but exceed customer expectations, leaving a lasting positive impression. It is the seamless integration of various elements that collectively create a journey characterized by satisfaction, delight, and loyalty.

Design thinking is particularly useful for service delivery because it places emphasis on understanding the users' experiences and needs. By empathizing with users, service providers can uncover insights that lead to more effective and tailored services. It encourages innovation, helps in creating user-centric solutions, and can lead to improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Design thinking is instrumental in enhancing service delivery, acknowledging its dynamic and multifaceted nature. By deeply understanding customer needs and considering diverse elements like timing, location, and emotional nuances, design thinking transforms the abstract into actionable solutions. Through iterative processes, including prototyping and user testing, it ensures innovations are not just theoretical but resonate with real users. This approach fosters scalable, sustainable enhancements, aligning service delivery with evolving customer expectations, and measuring impact for continuous refinement.

In CX it's all about building a rapid feedback loop. The critical part of the feedback loop that you got to have are build and learn. The whole point of design thinking is to build, and put it out there, and learn what's working and not working. CX has a critical role in observing, prompting and collecting data.

- Understand the needs and experiences of users by engaging with them directly. - Clearly articulate the problems and challenges faced by users based on gathered insights. - Generate a wide range of possible solutions without limitations. - Develop scaled-down versions of the solutions to visualize and test. - Gather feedback by testing prototypes with users and refine solutions based on feedback.

Utilizing design thinking for service delivery involves a tailored, adaptable approach. Start by framing your challenge as a focused question. Thorough research, encompassing user insights and contextual factors, lays the foundation. Ideation follows, generating solutions that add tangible value. Prototyping brings concepts to life for real-world testing, employing methods like user testing and analytics for validation. Launching into the market is a strategic move, closely monitoring performance and impact. The iterative loop continues, driven by insights and feedback, ensuring continual improvement in line with evolving objectives and user expectations.

- Collaborative platforms where customers and service providers create solutions together. - Offering services through subscription models for convenience and regular engagement. - Using artificial intelligence to tailor services to individual preferences. - Bringing services directly to communities through mobile units for accessibility.

Here are a few examples of innovative CX delivery models. - Domino's Tracker allows customers to track their pizza order in real time from the time it is placed until the time it is delivered. Managing expectations of give them peace of mind and allows them to plan their meals accordingly. - Amazon's Go stores use AI and sensors to enable customers to shop and checkout without having to interact with a cashier, which creates a fast and convenient experience for customers. - USAA's self-service insurance claims allow customers to file and manage their insurance claims online or through the mobile app, which gives customers more control over the claims process and makes it easier to get the help they need.

Innovative service delivery models leveraging design thinking abound across industries. Netflix, employing design thinking, tailors content based on user preferences, experimenting with formats and business models. Airbnb enhances user experiences through empathetic design, streamlining bookings, and innovating additional services. Uber, guided by design thinking, identifies and addresses customer pain points, diversifying its service portfolio. These examples showcase the transformative impact of design thinking, elevating customer engagement and satisfaction in diverse ways.

I strongly recommed just rolling up your sleeves and starting to talk with your users / customers. Do some user research to gain insights on the issues you’re intending to solve with your service. Apply what you learn into solution ideas - in a way that’s feasible for your goals. Test your ideas early, and iterate and test again, as many times as you can. It really is no rocket science!

- Include members from various departments to bring diverse perspectives. - Conduct in-depth interviews, observations, and surveys to understand user needs. - Generate diverse ideas without judgment to encourage creativity. - Develop prototypes and test them iteratively with users for feedback.

Don't do this alone within your CX team. CX is x-functional. So co-create internally with x-functional teams, and even externally with customers and partners. When you co-create, you are getting them involved to understand the context, build the solution together, and how to test them - while all in alignment and bought-in.

To embark on your design thinking journey for service delivery, start by immersing yourself in the principles and methods through various resources like online courses, books, and podcasts. Cultivate essential design thinking skills—empathy, creativity, collaboration—using available tools and exercises. Put theory into practice by tackling a real or hypothetical service challenge, following the defined steps: define, research, ideate, prototype, test, implement, and iterate. Leverage online platforms, communities, and events to showcase and refine your evolving design thinking process. This hands-on approach ensures a dynamic and impactful integration of design thinking into service delivery.

- Implementing a feedback system to gather user insights. - Conducting user journey mapping to identify pain points. - Introducing a pilot program for a new service based on user feedback.

We usually design services from an ideal perspective because we are familiar with our internal processes and business intricacies, yet true innovation in service models necessitates a broader perspective. It's crucial to consider how these services will be implemented in real-life scenarios, particularly from the standpoint of those facing disadvantages or challenges, and this is where design thinking r human-centered design comes in. This shift in perspective enables the design of services with a heightened focus on accessibility, convenience, and efficiency. When innovation centers around these principles, service delivery not only becomes memorable but also sustains its impact over the long term.

I would preferably use a combination of methods here, CSAT, NPS (VoC) and then journey maps to pinpoint the scope of improvement. - NPS is a late marker and a loyalty indicator and gives results when a bad experience or event has already happened. - Whereas CSAT is a satisfaction score and helps deal with improvisation as it gives us results before the event has occurred and can prevent damage control. -So to find areas of improvement one need to use a combination of CSAT/NPS and with the findings from both map it using a journey map and bring a impactful positive change.

We employ design thinking to create innovative service delivery models for a specific reason: consumer behaviors are constantly evolving on an hourly basis and competitor strategies are rapidly changing. One key focus of our discussions revolves around the Gen Z consumers who known as highly innovative and tech savvy, who are the latest addition to the consumer base. To effectively achieve success in this dynamic landscape, I propose two approaches: 1. Engaging Gen Z school leavers or college students in the design thinking process: 2. Utilizing predictive AI to anticipate future consumer needs: