A Glimpse At Service Design

As I drove up to a resort in the mountains of North Carolina last weekend as the guest of a mutual friend, I pondered how difficult it must be to run a professional association such as the one for community organizations focused on visitor-centric economic development.

Of the 10 trends in that field that were recently highlighted for 2014 by one of its truly best and brightest, all but seven should have been engaged by members two decades ago and another over a decade ago.

The speed at which organizations such as this can propel members forward is lugged down by the inertia of old schoolers or worse, those so so eager to appear smart they don’t have time to get smart, which is now research-proven to be an either/or proposition.

Running associations is a tough job, perpetually hampered by the lowest or slowest common denominator.

To me, only one of trends noted, “service design,” qualifies as new, and even at that it is a nearly three-year-old concept or re-concepting of a concept that emerged from EU-funded research at the Management Center of Innsbruck, a very entrepreneurial institution of higher education.

As it somehow so often does, last year the tourism agency in Durham, where I live in retirement happened to not only be one of the first dozen destination marketing organizations in the U.S. to be exposed to “service design” but as is its culture, among the very first to start integrating it into action.

At the basis of this new way of thinking about service is mobile ethnography.

Instead of filling out comment cards or surveys, now in a way that is much much more useful and consistent than social media chatter or facility ratings, visitors with soon be empowered with an app that is now in the demo stage called “myServiceFellow.”

It empowers a traveler to rate service at every touchpoint of the entire travel experience and then upload it at the end of the trip where it can be accessed, aggregated and analyzed by individual businesses or organizations also concerned with the equally important service spaces between commercial interactions.

This goes far deeper and far broader than ratings apps and it will peel back a layer undetected by the businesses involved, but more importantly, it will be far more useful to those concerned with the entire travel experience spectrum such as community destination marketing organizations.

If I had remembered to download the app prior to my trip, or looked closely enough to see how easy it was to use the demo,  I could have noted:

• When we stopped for breakfast in Greensboro, the desecration of a sea of billboards on that stretch of I 85/40 and that my significant other’s hash browns weren’t crispy as requested.

 

• How sad it was to see on arrival that instead of celebrating foremost the iconic 100-year-old Grove Park brand as an Omni Resort, the chain sublimated the Inn’s identity below the chain name, a source of disgust overheard several times from other guests.

   

• How a misspelling made it problematic to retrieve my Jeep from valet parking.

 

• How cool it was that wait staff fastidiously and subtly substituted a black napkin for a white one to avoid napkin fuzzies on dark pants.

 

• How a plugged up drain marred the wonderful walk-in shower experience in the spa wing.

 

• How neglecting to wipe the windows of finger prints interrupted afternoon views of Asheville in the valley below.

 

• How the only one of many stores at the resort to carry batteries had apparently been out of AAAs for a couple of weeks.

 

• How irritating it was at a stop for gas and coffee that a convenience store stocked flavored half and half but offered only powdered creamer to customers wanting regular half and half.

 

• How arrogant Fairway Outdoor Advertising is to flaunt digital billboards, contrarian to Asheville’s unique sense of place.

 

• How phenomenally beautiful and billboard free major parts of I40 are through North Carolina, and how hideous parts that aren’t have become.

“Service design” is predicated upon a deeper, more empathy-based type of research.  It is determined to understand consumer motivation not just behavior and to understand actual specifics and patterns, not just general recall.

Unfortunately though, I suspect it will still show up on lists of “new” trends for decades to come.

Serendipity Tales of Customer Service

I met another Reyn recently, only the second one in my lifetime.

We share a penchant for Harley-Davidson motorcycles.  The other Reyn heads marketing for Rommel, the new owner of the Durham dealership.  Knowing my former field was community marketing he pulled me into his office during a visit from their headquarters in Delaware.

Coincidentally, we both trace our ancestry in part to two of William the Conqueror’s knights, whose Domesday Book successors first used the derivation of our shared first name.  Each of those families made some ill-advised decisions back then.

When William the Conqueror’s son Henry I died without a living male heir, according to his wishes my ancestors supported his daughter Matilda for the throne.

After a struggle she lost out to her cousin who was crowned King Steven but by agreement, Steven was succeeded by Matilda’s son Henry II who ran into problems with Thomas Becket.

The other Reyn’s namesake was among four knights who followed through on a comment by the King and murdered Becket.  It only took another 800 years for us to connect on Facebook.

During my visit to the dealership, the other Reyn was confused after a day of meeting with media reps and because he follows Bull City Mutterings, thought I might be able to clear up some things that just didn’t make sense.

Rusty as I am I did my best and then referred him to Durham’s marketing agency where briefings of this sort are conducted for executives who are new to Durham.

Rommel is a Delaware company that took over the Durham dealership a few months ago and instantly transformed it into the best in North Carolina and one of the best on the east coast.

They also want to weave it seamlessly into Durham’s distinct personality so it is embraced as far more than Durham in name only.  This includes reaching out to the Durham metro area while fending off some devious poaching.

Hopefully, I was able to satisfy his interest in making the dealership embraced as far more Durham than name only but he had the right idea.

Like the developer I mentioned in a post a few days ago, the new Durham Harley dealership seems to have a ready grasp of the importance of community identity, especially in a community with a deep sense of community pride and a distinct personality such as Durham.

It is amazing how Harley dealerships differ.  I’ve visited many both across the nation and in North Carolina.

The staffing, the stock in both merchandise and parts as well as floor models and its service department in Durham under this new ownership group is the best I’ve encountered.  It’s been an incredible transformation in a matter of months.

I’ll finish this blog with another story about incredible customer service.  Years ago on a road trip, I stopped in a store called Earth Origins Market to pick up a supplement.

When I ran out back home, I tried to match the ingredients with some available in Durham but I couldn’t find anything that fit the bill.

So I jumped online to order a refill only to find that they have stores mostly in Maryland and Florida and none anywhere close to me.  I didn’t see a way to order their products online, so I used the “contact us” form to make a request about mail order.

Nearly instantly I received a response noting that unfortunately the only way to buy their products was in stores and there were none anywhere near North Carolina.

But the person responding to my email inquiry asked me where in North Carolina I lived.  I responded Durham.

He asked how many bottles I wanted and told me that if I would meet him in two days at the Sheetz near the RDU International Airport in Morrisville, he would have my supplies.

Turns out he lives in a small town south and further east and commutes down to Earth Origins once or week or so.  So I met him and picked up my supplies, although I think we must have looked somewhat suspicious in the parking lot.

With that kind of attitude, I have no doubt Earth Origins will continue to grow and expand, hopefully in Durham.

Driving Consumers Online

Shopping in stores is increasingly frustrating.  Saturday, I stopped by a Home Depot in Durham, North Carolina, where I live, to buy some garden supplies I couldn’t fine at my favorite store for those items, Stone Bros. and Byrd. 

While I was there I spotted some pillows and an area rug I needed but was told the rug would need to be ordered.

I waited for nearly an hour while the diligent person helping me was obviously stymied though saying little and resistant to suggestions from co-workers.  This person also stubbornly resisted asking her supervisor or a manager for help.

Finally, a work-around appeared to work and I paid with assurances my sales assistant would call the rug manufacturer on Monday to be sure.  Late Monday I received a voice mail telling me that the order was unsuccessful and I should order the rug myself online, losing 48 hours for my patience.

The infographic, left, ranks retailers that shoppers visit before going online for cheaper solutions.  Not surprisingly in light of my experience The Home Depot ranks #2 for men.

Retailers call this “showrooming” but as I learned, it isn’t just an issue of price that drives people online.  For me, more often it comes down to availability and customers service/staff knowledge.

That’s why I wasn’t surprised to see Target at #8 on the list overall.  Target is great for what they carry but there seems to be no rhyme or reason to what they carry and what they don’t even within a particular line of products.

I’m sure what buyers do to stock these stores is as much art as it is algorithm, but it seems people who do this for Target are either behind the times or in too much of a hurry to take time to distinguish between options among products.

It is frustrating to drive all over town in hopes of keeping folks employed and securing sales taxes to support local services only to have to come home to order online, usually receiving it the very next day.

Reverse Recycling Blues

My English Bulldog, Mugsy, not only warns me whenever someone comes to the door but also when the dryer or washer has finished and when my recycling or garbage carts are ready to be retrieved and stowed after pick up.

But the other day he didn’t warn me that my garbage cart had lost both wheels and the axel during the last pick up.


I tried but was unable to fix the cart myself, so I called Durham One Call for a replacement and suggested that they bring me a smaller size cart because I generate very little garbage and never coming close to filling the large cart given the effectiveness now of the large roll-out recycling carts.

I was surprised to learn that the company contracted to repair carts or drop off a replacement will only do so on the NEXT week’s pick up day regardless of when the damage is reported, so this would necessitate hauling the broken cart up the driveway, stowing it for a week and then dragging it back out to the curb a week later.

Or it could just junk up the bottom of the drive and the street for a week, no doubt irking my neighbors and violating city policy.

“This doesn’t make sense,” I told them on the phone, so I was given another number to call from which I was transferred to a person in the area involved with carts who said the replacement could be moved up a few days, however I could not have a smaller cart because they are only provided to town homes and the infirm.

Again, I muttered that this didn’t make sense because I knew the City was moving big into “reverse recycling” which has the recycling containers larger than the garbage containers, both in offices and curbside, so that folks will recycle even more and steer less and less toward landfills.

“Nope,” I was told.  If they gave me the smaller size, then all of my neighbors would want one and there wouldn’t be enough.  “But that sounds like the goal,” I muttered, adding that in transition the smaller containers could be phased in only as replacements for damaged carts to smooth out the expenses involved.

To no avail I rattled off a few other alternatives to manage inventory of the smaller carts such as limiting them to single person households or giving the option of paying a fee.

In a more terse tone, I was told I could attend a PAC meeting with City Council and complain.  When I responded that this sounded more like a management issue than a governance issue, I could be connected to “someone in management” then.

I explained that I knew it wasn’t her fault and asked if she would pass along the suggestion to revisit the policy  Frustrating as it might be, the response was that this particular person’s job only included arranging for repair or drop off and apparently not passing along suggestions for improving the process.

I chose not to pursue either suggested channel of complaint but others on my street have.  I hoped instead that upon further reflection or possibly a constructive confrontation, the staff involved would think it through on their own.

But this is a microcosm of why many citizens resent government.  It isn’t that they don’t need or appreciate the services provided.  It is just that so often the way those services are delivered seems so inflexible or simply doesn’t make any sense.

I know how many dedicated, talented and hard working people there are at every level of government and reading about such an isolated instance will burn them up.  Hopefully instead they are asserting themselves internally through the principles of crucial confrontation.

The problem is far from isolated and the changes that need to be made must originate internally and as much bottom-up as top-down.  Waiting for or encouraging electoral pressure is far too blunt a way to initiate meaningful change and alignment within organizational culture.

I’m happy to report that a slightly used but smaller garbage cart arrived on Friday!  Mugs and I are now official reverse recyclers.

Spencer Mittan Should Be Vice President

One major element of customer service seems to have vanished. Ever try recently to get a front line employee to pass along a suggestion?

No matter how polite or low-key, clear or humorous a request is made, it typically gets one of three responses:

• Oh yeah, like that’s going to happen.
• Or a vacant, helpless stare.
• Or reverse delegation “You can call this number.”

Customer service isn’t easy and I know it can be overwhelming and people can be difficult. But corporations, no matter the size, need to do a better job of making sure front line people have the means and feel empowered to quickly and easily pass along suggestions to higher ups from customers.

When I went into an AT&T store while traveling, on two different occasions, I had two polar opposite experiences. The first time, the guy was polite enough but didn’t even listen to the problem or see if he could fix it, he just dialed a number before I had finished and handed me the receiver.

When I suggested he file a suggestion, he preferred to argue with me.

The second time I went into the same store, a couple of days later, I encountered Spencer Mittan, who should be immediately promoted to a Vice President. He listened carefully, gave me an alternative solution, quickly took my phone and tested it several ways including one way the other gentleman had swore was impossible.

In the end, he gave me his card, wrote a number and an email on the back and told me to call him whenever I needed anything from AT&T. He also volunteered to report my problem up line.

I took full responsibility for what happened to the phone. I wasn’t trying to do anything but get information and assistance. But that my friends is how customer services is supposed to work.