Guy: Four. Always think about what happens before and after your service.
Guy: Welcome to the service design principles. I'm going out and joined by the author of the
Service Design Principles series of Books, founder of the Swiss Innovation Academy and
Service design practitioner, the effervescent Daniele Catalanotto.
Daniele: I love how each time you're able to find a new adjective.
Guy: I'm trying.
So every every episode we're looking at one of the principles from Daniele's book, a Service
Design Principles, one to 100. And today it's principle number four. Always think about what
happens before and after your service. So this feels like we're talking about context here.
Guy: Why is it important to zoom out a little bit when looking at designing a service?
it
Daniele: So often, you know, we we have this kind of ego thing when we're making a service,
which is we believe we are the solution to the world's problems, you know, and therefore we can
solve the big problem and we cannot do it. But then what we forget to remember is that we're
just one little part of what happens in the day of the person. And usually there is something
that happened before. There is something that happened after. And knowing that might help us
to just offer what people need and not all of what is already done before and after. So a good
example is I think easyJet does that quite well. easyJet, they understood that when people book a
flight, one of the next thing they do is book a car, you know? And so with the time they learned,
okay, so let's make it easy for people to get linked with the car company. It was a car rental
company directly within our website because we know that this is the next step. We don't just
do Geneva to Helsinki. We can now also help people to get the car there. And then. But
that's you can only know once you think that your service isn't the solution, but it's just
one part of what people go through.
Guy: And I guess it's it's not just the the convenience for the customer.
Guy: It's also a potential revenue source as well. So it could open up new new revenue
opportunities to do this.
Daniele: Yeah, the example of easyJet is really good for that, you know, because obviously they
will get they will get a percentage from each from each new rental that that is made, but also
it's a saving potential. So, for example, if you if you notice that most people
do one part of your service, you know, they use it, but they don't like the second part of your
service and they do it with another one. Then why keep that second part within your service?
Just remove it and say, Oh, it's okay. We're going to make our service much more easy because
we know that people prefer to do the rest with another provider.
Guy: Yeah. I think about, um, places where,
Guy: like, as you said, you're buying something from them, and they're also. They're offering
something else. But you never take advantage of that, but you keep offering it. So that's
actually it's it's like a waste. It's not very lean thinking, right? So you're you're putting a
lot of effort into doing this extra thing that's not providing any value back to you as a
business.
Daniele: Yeah,
Guy: Whereas if, as you said, you take it out and outsource it to the company that's doing
that really well, then then you can actually enhance the service to your customers by
providing a better part of the products, but you're not the one delivering it. You're just
sort of referencing it or referring to it right? .
Daniele: yeah. And you know, referencing another service is an act of love in some way. You know,
it's like if we go back and bring that back to two people, you know, it's when a friend, when,
when you go to a friend and he tells you, oh, you should speak to Robert. He's so great about
this. He's the expert. He will help you so much about that. I can help you on that bit. But let
me call him, because he's the world's foremost expert on coffee and he will tell you which
coffee machine to buy. And I can bring you to the store to buy it with you. I can do that, but
he will help you with the rest.
Guy: Yeah.
Daniele: It's like, Oh, now you don't feel that Your friend said, No, I don't want to help you
pick a coffee machine. What you're what you're hearing is like, this guy loves me so much that
he accepts his weaknesses and is even ready to send me to another friend and is basically then
happening to same with the service, you know, service which says which is all we we don't that
we don't do that well. But we've made a deal with another company that if you go to them with
our little cards they give you, they give you a discount. Hotels do that so often, little hotels
which don't have a restaurant, what they do, they go to the restaurants, which is next doors,
and they say, hey, each time, could we have a few coupons
Guy: Mm hmm.
Daniele: where, you know, if somebody comes in our hotel, we can send them to to you and they
get a they get a free drink and out with the meal that they get. So the hotel stays. The
hotel doesn't have to do. Think about buying more space to build a restaurant and having
waiters and all of this stuff, but they still can have that part of the experience can they
can be part of it.
Guy: Okay
Guy: . So one other thing that I was thinking with this, um, thinking about what happens
before your service, like, and you mentioned hotels, is that if you're arriving late at a
hotel, like it's 11:00 at night or something, the hotel, good ones that I've experienced, they
can make an assumption that maybe you've been travelling all day, you're very tired, you just
want to get to your room. And so they're thinking about what's happening before you've
arrived. So they'll do something to make it easy for you to to get to your room. So to fulfill
that transaction. So or it might be it's raining outside and so they've already got an umbrella
prepared for you. Or instead of making you stand at their desk, they say, Let's come over and sit
here. You must be legs, must be tired or something like this. Right? So this goes
directly to the principle, right? You're thinking about where people are coming from
before they hit you? . .
Daniele: Exactly. And you know, how much how much love do you feel when somebody looks at you
and says, Oh, you might have had a very difficult day, let's, let's just sit and take a
coffee. Yeah. And you don't know the person, but you know that she tries to put herself in your
shoes, you know, and then it's like, Oh, this is an act of empathy tonight, of of, you know, love
isn't maybe a big word, but, you know, it's a it's a it's a small act of love. And this makes
a big difference.
Guy: Yeah. You feel seen? You feel understood. .
Daniele: Yeah. And I think we can steal a lot from hotels for that because they're really good
at that kind of stuff. You know, when you come with a with the shouting kids in the hotel and
stuff and what you see the great receptionists do is they don't take care of you first. They
take care of the kids first because they know we're going to make the parents happy by, you
know, having one of the receptionists say, Oh, hello, do you want me to do you want the little
car, you know, and, and then they or do you want some crayons to, to do a little drawing and you
know, they get the attention of the kids so that you can do the admin stuff relaxed. And this is
awesome because they know you've been in 12 hours of a flight with a screaming guy, not so
great. And now they're helping you.
Guy: Perfect. Well, that that that covers that. Th principle very well. So thank you again. And
we'll see you at the next episode.
Daniele: You and I'm excited to hear more of your hotel stories.