Guy: Five. Every customer mistake is your mistake.
Guy: Welcome to Service Design Principles. I'm Guy Martin, joined by the author of the Service
Design Principles series of Books, founder of the Swiss Innovation Academy and Service Design
Practitioner, The Essential Daniele Catalanotto. Hi, Daniele.
Daniele: Hi, Guy. Pleasure to be with you today.
Guy: Same here. So each episode we're looking at one of the principles from your book, Service
Design Principles, one to 100. And today it's principle number five. Every customer mistake is
your mistake. I worked a lot in corporate training and education, and this feels related
to the curse of knowledge where I might fail to explain some things because I assume everyone
has the same background knowledge as me, so they may not understand the same jargon or
abbreviations I'm using, and I end up more confused than from when when I started. So is
that what this is about?
Daniele: Yeah. And it's also, you know, kind of this thing where
I feel sometimes as creators of services, business owners and this kind of stuff, you know,
we might be blocked by blaming others, you know, thinking, oh, they just don't get it. You know,
they are they are too stupid to go to to get it. Or they did this mistake, you know, and and not
thinking like, what can I do? And so it's kind of reversing the fact that you can't change
people. And so there is no value in the blame because the problem will just repeat. But if you
believe that, you say, oh, this problem happened because we didn't do something to avoid it. And
so it's kind of giving us back to the passivity, to change things, to make change happen. But
when we are in a blame position towards others, then we just say, Hey, it's their problem.
They're stupid. I can't I can't solve their their, their stupidity. But if we say, Oh, this
is on us, then oh, let me find ways to to help people to not get into that problem
Guy: Right. So it's a it's a mindset for saying, okay, I can't change the environment. I can't
change necessarily how the customer feels, but I can change what I'm doing about it
Daniele: yeah. And I have power on it. And, and if there is something that is happening, you
know, where sometimes it's also just recognizing which is a bit philosophical, but recognizing
that there are mistakes that you choose that they will happen because you say, okay, I
recognize that this is a mistake that we want to happen because at the end of the day,
it's not our responsibility there. But we are very clear on it that it's a mistake that is
happening and that we have decided that this is not our responsibility. So it's still our
responsibility to decide that we don't want to fix the problem.
Guy: Right. Making it conscious
Daniele: Yeah, exactly. And not just, oh, it's a problem. People do that. I say, okay, we we
really have decided that this is something that is happening and which is might be bad for
people, but we know we don't want to solve it for X and y reason and therefore we are in a
position of
being a bit more respectful. You know, also.
Guy: So do you have an example to hand of of something that sort of shows this in action?
Daniele: So one example that I would give is one very personal is,
you know, my books, they are sometimes a bit colorful in the in the language.
Guy: Yes, We'll find that out very soon.
Daniele: Exactly. which is, which is a thing that you know I learned English in on Netflix
and YouTube which might be something that has influenced that but and so therefore my language
was always that one. And what happened is that some people bought my books and then wrote me
back and said, but then yelling the language, it's very terrible. You say shit and fuck a few
times. It's I'm offended by it, you know, And, and, and at first I was like, But yeah, sure,
why is this a problem? You know? And then I was like, But this is just you being, you know, not
having imagined that there is other people in the world that have maybe another way of
expressing themselves. And then suddenly I realized, okay, but what can I do about it? You
know, And there's simple thing. I was like, okay, I need to be more clear on my website. Use this
kind of language much more. So that's even just on the website. When people arrive, you know,
they see shades I can and this kind of stuff so that they already kind of know this guy doesn't
speak in a very academic way. He speaks like a like a normal guy who had a drink with you. And
and so knowing that it's not like just oh, people are giving me are going through a mistake,
which is I bought this thinking it's going to be academic, but it is not. And you swear in it,
which is a mistake that happened and don't it's my mistake because I didn't communicate well
enough that this is not for them.
Guy: Right.
Daniele: And so that now I'm able to do a lot of work on that, which helps me to just attract the
right people and to avoid those who would do a mistake by buying my book.
Guy: Yeah. So, I mean, you could have reacted by saying, okay, well, I'm going to make an extra
effort not to swear anymore. But you decided you made that conscious decision to say, well, let's
use it as a filter. Let's. Let's filter out the people that that I can resonate with better. And
those that want to see something more academic than maybe they'll go somewhere else. And and
and I can have more fun doing my work.
Daniele: exactly. Exactly.
Guy: Well, shit, That sounds great!
Daniele: But yeah, it's it's taking responsibility. I think that's really the point
here. It's taking responsibility on what is happening and taking responsibility sometimes
means that you're fixing the mistake. Sometimes it means that you are avoiding that people fall
into mistake and sometimes it's agreeing that you will have to live with it because you have
decided to make it happen.
Guy: Thank you very much. We'll see you on the next one.