Designing a service isn’t rocket science. If you have the ability to see things from the end user or customers’ point of view and have a certain grasp on understanding the impact of processes you’ll certainly know what service improvements need to be made.

Why progress services? Because it improves business, customer retention, brand recognition and values, word-of-mouth advertising and happy staff and customers.

Yet, we still continue to experience poor or bad service levels no matter where we are. Or should I say experiences that just aren’t thought out, especially from the customer’s point of view.

I admit the UK is not the best place for service design and customer experience compared to most countries but when we experience services from large corporate companies we expect investment within services they produce, which leads me to supermarkets.

Last week I went armed with a shopping list and went to one of the main supermarket chains to do the family weekly shopping. It was early evening and not to busy so my mind was set on browsing as well as direct shopping. Nearing the end of my trip I had several items I could not find. 

To start with I retraced my steps to the areas where I thought the products would reside. Only to find that that they weren’t in these areas. Then I started to respond emotionally in negative way. What started out as a pleasant shopping experience was now turning into a chore and a pain.

I started to get frustrated and so decided to find a member of staff. But as soon as I spotted this rare breed on the shop floor they would walk away or move to an inaccessible area. The customer services desk is always near the entrance, and that was just miles away with many obstacles and turns, and that little station that faces the tills is never manned.

So there you have it. A disgruntled customer, with no way of finding help, an experience that went sour and an incomplete shopping list from a supermarket who couldn’t deliver.

Can service design help? Is there some form of technology that can help? I believe so, and one should always come up with ideas no matter how mad until something comes up viable.

The first thing to do is to discover the issue. This is easily achieved by having each till operator asking ‘Did you manage to buy everything you needed today?’ This is then recorded by the operator by simply pressing a yes or no button. Then should there be 8000 transactions that day and 40% didn’t find what they are looking for we can equate this as a problem and measure loss of sells.

Another is CCTV. I know in shopping malls today they use facial recognition software, so it’s not that hard to devise similar software that identifies erratic walking/shopping patterns e.g. the camera identifies that I am visiting aisles again and again or not shopping in the flow that the store has designed. The camera identifies this and the person, notifies someone who in turn notifies someone on the shop floor, that person then finds the customer and asks if they can assist.

One also knows that ever single product is in a computer database and that most merchandising is universal i.e. head office tells the local store where and how to display which product. If this is the case then why can’t we have ‘find-stations’ at the end of each aisle…

These devices are connected to this database and the interface can be really simple and user friendly. The user can either type in what they are looking for or speak the word and the system tells them where the product is. Touch screens and pictorial ‘you are here’ can make the experience even easier.

One could even design a ‘product-nav’. This device is wireless and acts like a satnav. You type in what you want and off it goes telling you were it is. Of course this is more expensive and can only reside/mounted on the trolley, and this wasn’t so successful when they tried to use this concept with calculators.

But having a technology and web design background I think one of the cheapest and easiest ways are barcodes and a website. In this example the customer creates their shopping list from the supermarkets website, which is retained and can be used again and again. The customer even gets the option to have the list emailed to them if they shop on regular days e.g. every Saturday. These lists can even be semantic and even respond with offers relating to the shopping list, pushing more sells and offers.

The system then organises the list in a logical walk flow and within the design of the store and where the products are located. The user then prints out a barcode, visits the store, scans the barcode and then a printed list is produced helping them shop efficiently and effectively. And what a chance to show a few special offers!

Why this way? This will calculate how customers plan shopping and whether they visit after using such an online service. Of course one could have the list printed from the website but if any local changes have been made without the websites knowledge the experience may falter. At least by visiting the store these could be put into a system and taken into consideration.

So what do you think? Should the experience be better? Can design make shopping easier and complete? I think so, and I haven’t even touched on waiting at the till to be served. I have other ideas for this.

Supermarkets in the UK

Here are just a few large supermarkets chains in the UK: Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Costco, Farmfoods, Iceland, Lidl, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Somerfield, Tesco, and Waitrose.

What is Service Design?

Service design has many aspects; from designing a service process to designing physical environments or product usability; from organising people to enhancing experience; each play a role in everyday life.

But for many organisations and businesses employing a service design professional means spending £1000s and involves the use of service design matrixes and multitude of research.

Get an outsiders point of view before you take this route and let us consult with you about service design or you may simply wish to have an evaluation. We’d love to help and to revise your service and design new ways of making you stand out from your competitors. Contact ADK Ltd.